It clearly does affect different people in different ways.
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Chamomile tea with 4-5 g of Glycine mixed in. However, I’ve never had problems sleeping. I just conk out. Especially Fridayszzzzzzzzz…
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I took it for few days some years ago for sleep and while it did nothing in these few days I was taking it, it just gave me immediate ED.
Why did you stop mirtazapine? Did you take it for insomnia or depression? Low dose mirtazapine is quite good for sleep if you are tolerating it well. I wasn’t. Gave be a strange feeling of disassociation during the day. But have a friend who takes it for years and she is tolerating it really well.
I switched to quentapine in really low dose (6,25 mg) and after few days of “hangover” and “drowsiness” in the morning I really could sleep the whole night 8+ hours, but it did not improve much deep and REM sleep. I was taking it for a year or so. My insomnia was induced by anxiety and when the cause resolved so did my insomnia.
From OTC supplements tryptophan or just chamomile tea with milk gives me a better sleep. Once I was trying some milk peptides, forgot the name, but they were amazing for sleep quality. But it is not a cure for insomnia.
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I stopped mirt for a variety of reasons. It does things to my hormones and bodily functions that have always been a negative. Much higher cholesterol and blood sugar results, weight gain, and other negatives such as it being anticholinergic. And the key here is that I am not depressive any longer, and probably have not been for years. So my thinking is that taking a medication with this many “health hostage negotiations” problems, whose main purpose is depression alleviation, seems over-kill.
If insomnia is all I really need to have fixed, I am looking for something with less health impact that handles that. Or hopefully transition to minimal drug or supplement intervention entirely.
By the way, I used GABA and 5-htp last night and while I slept better I feel groggy. I will dial down the dose and hopefully no other side-effects like ED…yikes.
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What are vagus nerve devices? Can you give me an example?
Perhaps one like this?
Others I see on Amazon use electrical stimulation with mediocre reviews.
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Yes and this one
https://www.parasym.co/parasym-tvns-heart-rate-variability.html
Some discussed here and below
Another the one you mentioned here
And here and a few messages down
See more here, including about grounded sheets, etc
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I love the half-life calculator that was previously posted on another thread.
The main problem with the calculator as I see it is, that we don’t actually know the absorbed dose, as is frequently the case with rapamycin. But, it can give us some pertinent information so that we can adjust our doses.
This is something you probably should use to calculate the doses and frequency of various supplements that you are taking.
Here is an example using anti-histamines as sleep aids, Don’t
Regardless of the other possible negatives for taking antihistamines as a sleep aid, are their relatively long half-lives as related to your sleep cycle. This is why you continue to feel drowsy even after a good night’s sleep if you take any of the common antihistamine-based sleep aids.
Notice that melatonin even taken in a massive 100 mg dose is almost completely gone in 8 hours. Melatonin, itself does not cause sleepiness per se, it merely adjusts your circadian rhythm. (Not talking about melatonin’s other possible benefits)
Half Life Calculator (“Company”) https://half-life-calculator.com
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Always get the best night’s sleep when physically very tired.
That happens for me when I do a one hour zone 2 in the morning, weight training early afternoon and an hour of table tennis early evening.
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You are really active! Zone 2 training for 1 hour? It’s great. What helps even more is to be young. Young ppl can easily sleep for 10 hours and never have problems falling asleep. So the best supplement is to stay young and never age.
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Yes, I try to do 1 hour of zone 2 three times a week.
I do it on a stationary bike and listen to podcasts whilst doing it.
I then tack on to the end 3-5 minutes of HIIT.
Another thing I find with help inducing sleepiness is to get into bed and read a book at the same time as having a lamp that simulates sunset, diminishing in brightness. (It also simulates sunrise in the morning).
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This helps me also. If come to sound that the most impactful way for for me doing this is via an audiobook, while ensuring the room is in complete darkness
And best results are aiding the brains feeling sunset happened it is now night the 90 min or so before by dimming lights and using blue light blocking glasses
(better with the larger, bulky (but cheap) “construction protection ones” that cover the eyes more completely than newer ones that look more likely normal glasses and where more likes “leaks” in around the top, bottom and sides).
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What’s your HIIT protocol and do you do each of the three times a week of the zone 2 base, or less frequently?
For me these types of days definitely help me fall asleep well. But I’m not sure whether my net rest upon waking up is optimal - subjectively and also that key sleep releveant metrics - eg HRV over the night was lower than average and HR higher.
Could perhaps be overdoing it for reaching an optimal rest/recovery/“rejuvenation” impact?
Possibly true. Unknown if it’s optimal.
It was just my suggestion answering the original question about getting a good nights sleep.
We will only know if it’s good for rejuvenation or too excessive for that if I live to over 120 
Sleep is important though.
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I’ve successfully managed my severe insomnia with the following regimen:
- Chamomile tea (particularly the Sleep+ brand)
- Kava tea (I prefer the Yogi brand. Despite opinions that tea doesn’t contain enough kava to be effective, I find it works well and enjoy the taste.)
- A small dose of melatonin
I make a hot tea blend with chamomile and kava, adding honey for sweetness, and it helps me fall asleep within an hour.
Additionally, a high-quality mechanical white noise machine has been incredibly beneficial. Using it exclusively for sleep has conditioned me to associate its sound with sleeping, which might be a form of hypnosis.
For an antihistamine sleep aid, I recommend doxylamine (found in Unisom) rather than diphenhydramine, based on its effectiveness. However, I use it sparingly to avoid building up a tolerance.
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I think antihistamines are really bad for sleep. I started biohacking to improve sleep and have made good progress. Diphenhydramine has not been good, however. I think this is the wrong target.
I am currently working on increasing the length of my natural sleep that i get before using melatonin to extend it. I think mitochondrial quality in the pineal drives this.
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I’ve used gaba when I’ve wakened and had trouble getting back to sleep. Found it effective and quick.
Trazadone 50mg after I brush my teeth at night has been a game changer for me and a couple of close friends. Getting sleep is no longer a major concern. As Matthew Walker and others say, it doesn’t mess with your sleep architecture. There are no morning remnants. Ditch everything else.
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Can others on these boards speak to this? Would like more than N=1 when trying something that messes with your brain (so to speak), plus is it one of the things that can make people dependent on it? @desertshores and all have you ever tried Trazadone?
thanks,
GABA does seem to work but I am searching for the right dose for me. My first try was too much and I was really groggy the day after. Now much less and it is working better but still need to fine-tune.
Something I now realize is that it is likely one of my other relatively new supplements is causing some of my problems. So I am going to shut down virtually everything but sleep supplements for awhile and see what happens. I do not believe it is Rapa that is causing this by the way. Just took some yesterday AM and slept very well last night.