I am very interested in sleep quality. At one time in my life I had sleep apnea. When I finally got a good night’s sleep with a CPAP machine I was totally amazed at the difference it made.
That was a long time ago but the lesson was learnt and I very much try to have good sleep quality. However I am a bit of a worrier and that can keep me awake.
I’ve experimented with a lot of different approaches. My usual sleep stack includes valerian, magnesium and glycine and 1.5-3 mg of Melatonin (not every night as it seems to fall in effectiveness so I cycle it).
I have taken GABA before bedtime from time to time and found it helps me with the 4 am awakening without morning sluggishness.
However I just looked on Amazon UK and it seems to be unavailable. The UK authorities seem to have periods where they clamp down on various substances, e.g. melatonin, GABA, DHEA, which makes it more difficult to get hold of them.
This book came up in my search:
GABA and Sleep: Molecular, Functional and Clinical Aspects Hardcover – Illustrated, 30 Sept. 2010
by Jaime M. Monti (Editor).
Unfortunately its £135, and the Kindle edition is even more expensive! It’s also old, but the contents look interesting.
I can hunt down these products but I am always slightly wary about purchasing from India and suchlike, plus the time to arrive and the guessing game as it if it will be held up or charged in customs is…not appreciated by me.
Thanks Curious. Taurine is readily available in the UK. I’ve run out at the moment but I will get some more and give it a try: I usually took it during daytime, not knowing about the GABA agonism.
I think that is a very good idea! Years ago I was given an in-home sleep apnea test. A tech came to my house and set up a fairly complicated machine. Fortunately I didn’t have sleep apnea.
I think an audio recorder such as the one I have on my smartphone would work just as well.
In any case it would end any argument as to whether you snore or not.
An audio recording isn’t definitive: you need a sleep clinic diagnosis for that. I’ve been to sleep clinics, but nowadays I think they generally send you home with a portable gizmo wired up, so you can sleep in your normal environment, which is much easier and provides better results.
Please try this option first! It’s far less invasive. It was experimental when I had it, IIRC I was the fifth patient in the UK to undergo treatment (several decades ago).
I wasn’t obese: I am a slim guy, but something in my neck configuration made me snore like a runaway train. CPAP worked but is very cumbersome (and a passion killer).
NOTE: I had two rounds of the microwave treatment, which was done under full anaesthetic as it was so new (nowadays I think they only give you a local). I was back at work the next day, it was so non-troublesome.
It didn’t work 100% so I then had one round of laser treatment which was supposed to be incredibly painful afterwards(one woman on a forum described it as worse than childbirth).
I opted for it and was given four different types of painkillers.
***I had already had several speed healing results on soft tissues with megadoses of arginine and Vitamin C, for example for ingrowing toenails, so I opted for my own method. Obviously these were visible injuries which I could see heal, but there’s no reason why it wouldn’t be the same for internal tissues.
I opted for this protocol and was pain-free in about three days. The surgeon almost fell off his chair when I told him.
There’s been no recurrence of the snoring: I just recorded myself a coupla months ago when asleep and zilch.
So I would look to RF ablation first, then possibly laser. This would be much less invasive and the microwave is incredibly non-painful…I can’t recall even taking any painkillers afterwards…at most aspirin or ibuprofen.
It was on the NHS, so totally free. But the machine is just a sort of souped -up medical microwave, so I am guessing can’t be that expensive now, even for private medical care.
