That Elusive Sleep
 

I probably started having sleep issues at about 61 which hit with Fibro syndrome. That was in mid 1999. I worked hard at getting sleep issues fixed. With the help of a friend, we came up with this combo:

7:30PM
3/4mg Melatonin (1mg Soure Naturals, break to get 3/4mg)
500mg Inositol and or 500mg Gaba
Learning what works best for your body.
I've learned to work with these 2 "calmers" so use thru the
day too.

10:30-11PM
500mg Inositol and usually 1 Calms Forte' (homeopathic)

All the above can be adjusted for the person.

This combo gives me 8-10 hrs pretty good sleep.


I've never taken pharma sleep drugs and worked long and hard to get the above combo that works for me.

If I cannot get back to sleep after bathroom run at 3AM or so, I take another Inositol or Calms and this puts me back to sleep good. Lately, I don't need help during middle of night.

Besides Fibro "stuff", OA lives in me bodywide, and a mess from hip replacement in 2010. Left me with nerve damage, IT band damage, shorter leg....good grief.....

Oh, and 2 Advil at 11PM, so no pain during the night.

Good for you Caroline, less side effects. A routine is the secret and personally I also put on a mindfullness relaxation tape (MP3) on with lights etc off. Lasts about 20 minutes but find it takes my mind off most things.

Good luck with that.

Normally I don’t have too much trouble sleeping, but I have occasionally taken inositol. I’ve found that the combination of choline & inositol seems to work better for me than just inositol. I like the capsules from Twinlab that have 250 mg of each, and taking one late at night usually works well for me.

I too have used the combo caps but right now just inositol. I'm so THANKFUL how great I'm sleeping as my wake up hours are too rugged. My above routine WORKS.

Hi Caroline, so glad you developed a sleep routine that is effective for you. I see that you use only a small dose of melatonin taken very early in the p.m. Did you try larger doses of melatonin, and if so, did they not work very well for you?

Melatonin and I don’t get along very well together. It is a matter of dosage. Small doses are not very effective for me, but larger doses keep me awake once I have gotten up during the night. Taking choline & inositol is a much better alternative for me.

Caroline, I used to have problems with insomnia.

I have found that learning and applying what is called sleep hygiene is very effective. Essentially sleep hygiene means developing good habits in preparation for sleeping well.

There some ideas about it here; http://healthysleep.med.harvard.edu/...vercoming/tips .

Sleep hygiene works for me with no need for prescription or OTC medication.

Yes, a good Geology textbook is a good way to kick off to sleep! LOL Just reading all the strange names of minerals and rocks seems to glaze me over.

I also read quiet type books before bed. The Mists of Avalon took me several weeks to get thru this way! A little each night.;)
I visit WetCanvas forum and read the watercolor forum each night. It seems to put my right brain to sleep quickly (1/2 hr). I use my phone in bed so I don't have to walk around to get to the bedroom.
People from all over the world share their art work and tricks of the trade and that is handy information for me to have as well.

I found Melatonin was raising my blood sugars...so I stopped it.
I take two Arthritis formula Acetaminophens from Walgreen's for my pain issues. They last a long time and enable sleep.
Sometimes I need aspirin--so it would be AlkaSeltzer at night those days, but I do this sparingly.

NO TV in our bedroom.

I hadn’t heard before that melatonin could raise blood sugar. Normally I watch for such an effect when I try out a new supplement, and so far the only problem I’ve had is with krill oil which I now use only occasionally.

The website naturalsleep.org has some interesting articles on various issues related to sleep. Here is a link on side effects of melatonin:

http://www.naturalsleep.org/side-eff...onin/#more-169

From reading various forums over the years, I've seen several people who get elevated morning glucose readings with melatonin. But not everyone reports this.

There is this article however:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25197811

The low dose Melatonin does NOT raise glucose in my system, on the contrary. I've never taken anything larger than 1mg over years back when I tried melatonin back before I came up with my combo.

This combo first came to me from a friend who had a bottle of LifeExtension "sleep formula" formulated by Dr. Braverman....don't know if LEF still has it or not. It had not been working for her, she deals with CFS, so brought the bottle to my house and I tried it and it worked for me, then I embelished on it. I do sleep but know my cortisol is low in morning, I'm having my coffee right now to get me going.

We know our population keeps going on some kind of caffeine and it's not a really bad thing overall, as I see it. I drink 2 cups of organic java daily.

Talking to a longtime old friend yesterday, we lost contact for a while, and she called me and I felt so badly for her that she does not sleep very good at all. She is 89 and I'd like to "teach" her my sleep formula, but she would not "hear" me.. So I have to let go and know everyone does what they do or don't do.

Even thou we are friend for like 50 yrs, we are very opposite thinking, years ago I got her to start with grape seed extract, her husband at the time, poo'd poo'd it, and she stopped so. We know when to let go.

I certainly do not have all the answers, but I have some good ones. C

In the article linked by mrsD, the dosage of melatonin given to the women was 5 mg. This is significantly higher than the doses of 500 mcg and 1 mg that I had used before, which is possibly why I didn’t notice this type of effect on my blood sugar. It is quite clear that melatonin did have a negative effect on the test subjects:

“The effect of melatonin on the insulin response to the OGTT depended on the time of day (P < 0.05). In the morning, melatonin decreased glucose tolerance primarily by decreasing insulin release, while in the evening, by decreasing insulin sensitivity.”

In my original post, I mention I start at 7:30PM or so to "ready" my body for sleep and I learned about this technique somewhere in my travels, but this works for me. I never had sleep issues prior to the FM issue trauma at age 61.

hi water willow,
would you please give an example of the tapes you use. there are so many out there. thanks, Diandra

My sleep continues to be good following what I've posted on what I DO. I've also been taking Iosol Iodine for years..mostly because I've read so much about iodine deficiency in the U.S. and also breast health. I KNOW it helps my body.

Many report more energy overall, and I've read some report they get better sleep too. Maybe that's another good reason I sleep good, taking Iosol so long too.

I just read a bunch of reviews on iherb on Iosol and some report better sleep and of course the added energy. I've talked about iodine dosing enough here at NT. Lots of research out there. C

This morning I woke at 5AM and was fearful that I could not go back to sleep. So instead of an inositol capsule, I took a Calms Forte' tab and slept until almost 8:30AM and could have slept longer but forced myself to start getting up. Was dreaming again too. I hope that others are trying some of these with success. A person on another group is talking about the **** of ambien and wants off it, but her doc keeps pushing it...grrrrrr Many are advising her to get off it on her own, slowly etc...I think she says she is taking it over 3 yrs and still having tough sleep.

I've been doing this sleep remedy for a long while now and concentrating on 1/2mg melatonin. But came to the realization I may need less as my dreams can be pretty wild and can elevate my blood pressure. So lately I cut off 1/4mg piece from the 1mg tab and my dreams are less but I still sleep good. Everything else is the same. Some nights I take a gaba 500mg with my 7:30PM start time to get body ready for sleep.

Others have mentioned this about melatonin and dreams.

Since I posted this I've added 500mg or a little less Tryptophan and 50mg B6 which I take about 10:30PM and these two get me right back to sleep after bathroom trips during the night. I've been able to eliminate the Calms Forte and down to 1/2mg melatonin since I've also added HGH Homeopathic Gel which my daughter has brought to my life. The first thing people report is SLEEP. I average about 9 yrs sleep nightly...good quality sleep.

Oh right now have cut out the Gaba since using the HGH.

Just I think I've seen Everything about Grape Seed Extract, I still find more....here is one of sleep issues:

How Grape Seed Extract Usage Helps Sleep - Care Foundation

I've posted in various forums here on the HGH homeopathic gel I've been using now 7 months and the FIRST thing MOST are reporting is improved DEEPER sleep and dreams dreams dreams. True in my life for sure.

I have this info posted in Alzheimers, Chronic Pain, MS and some other areas on the HGH harmless transdermal gel which is microdosed thru our skin.

I still take some of my original sleep combo but the "gel" WOW what a change.

Since I posted this, I go to sleep later, 11;15 PM so I start the process about 9:30PM..

And find I don't need the Gaba any longer.

Take only 1 ibuprofen, 1 Tylenol at about 11:15PM since the HGH is working so well.

Melatonin is 1/2 to 1mg now with the Inositol.

Go to sleep at 11:15PM, wake up at 8-30AM and then do 30-40 minutes of my stretches and Tapping routine.

It's all good sleep and stretching too.

For those who are really STUCK and don't want to work with all the above that I posted and use, look into homeopathics for Sleep Issues. One of my sleep aids I have been using for years with my sleep stuff is Calms Forte' and it's homeopathic.

8 Homeopathic remedies to help with insomnia | The School of Homeopathy's Latest News

I've given this info to so many and all one has to do is to TRY what may work in their bodies.

I have found that what is called sleep hygiene is very effective with no need for drugs (homeopathic or otherwise).

Sleep hygiene - Better Health Channel.

I don't know what you consider sleep hygiene, but all I know not long after menopause and getting the Fibro diagnosis, and I was 50something did all my sleep go south. So I had to get to work to come up with what I take.

And if you need no help to sleep, that's good ...