Sleep Remedies I Tried
Even before I was able to finally get things in balance with my hormones, I had started going through a decent sized list of products in my struggle to fall asleep every night. I even met with a doctor of integrative medicine who specializes in sleep health and tried both herbal and prescription aids. After about 9 months last year, I punted on the whole idea of taking something to sleep better and focused on the things which I think have helped me the most: “homework” suggestions from my therapist, daily meditation, and modifying my daily routines to reduce the high octane mentality I’ve had my whole life. Here’s a rundown of the natural and prescription aids I tried:
Melatonin
This did nothing for me. I stayed with it for close to 2 months since a friend of mine who feels it’s helped him greatly told me it took a few weeks for him to start feeling the benefit.
Antihistamines
Depending on the brand I took, it sometimes knocked me out pretty good. But, it was not effective 100% of the time, and the following day I had that crappy hangover feeling you can get from a lot of sleep aids.
Cannabis
Unreliable. Even the blends higher in CBD vs THC would affect me differently from day to day. I got the most benefit from weed when I used it to combat nausea.
Hemp CBD Oil
Not effective for sleep. I did sometimes feel a calming effect when I took it, but it wasn’t strong enough I suppose to make it easier to fall asleep.
Phenibut
This is a derivative of GABA which is a naturally occurring neurotransmitter. Simply put, GABA decreases activity in your nervous system and helps to promote calming waves in the brain. While this was not effective enough for use as a sleep aid, I did feel a benefit in reducing my overall anxiety level throughout the day. I would have stuck with it if the FDA had not put a ban on this being sold without a prescription.
Valerian Root
This knocked me out. Seriously, I bought some from Amazon and went straight for the highest dosage recommended on the bottle. If it wasn’t for the side-effects the following day, this would have been my magic bullet for sleep. Unfortunately, even when I reduced the number of capsules, the following day I felt jittery and like I had a mild hangover. When I met with the doctor who specializes in sleep medicine, he suggested I discontinue using it if it was giving me those side-effects.
Pure Encapsulations Best Rest Formula
This contains multiple plant-based ingredients; one of which is valerian root. This was unreliable, but when I felt it work, it was great. It gave me no side effects like I got from 100% valerian root. I stuck with this one for a while but ultimately got fed up with it being unreliable.
Protocol from an M.D. of sleep medicine
This M.D. gave me 2 options, try using natural supplements or take Ambien for 2-4 weeks to retrain my brain for the sleep pattern I wanted. I’ve read some scary shit about Ambien, so I first opted for the natural protocol which was:
Continue taking Phenibut 1 hour before bed
Passionflower vine extract at bedtime
Organic chamomile tea, 1 cup at bedtime.
I stuck to the natural protocol for about 3 weeks and felt zero improvement. If anything, it made me more anxious at bedtime. I went back for the prescription of Ambien. I experimented with it for a few nights and will never go near that stuff again. It’s scary how quickly it put me out, but as strong as it was, I was actually awake just a few hours later. The side-effects made me feel worse than when I would go a whole night without sleeping. It made me nauseous, anxious, weak and jittery. I felt like a junkie. I tried taking just half a pill then a quarter of a pill, but when I reduced the amount enough to minimize the side-effects, it was no longer strong enough to put me to sleep.
Acupuncture
I didn’t get any benefit for sleep. I have used acupuncture for other things in my life for which I found it effective but not for sleep.