Drinks that help you sleep better?

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shreypete

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So are there any? Coz I seem to have an eternal problem of sleeping (I go to bed at around 12 or 1 but fall asleep at around 2 or 3. Result: I end up waking up REALLY late and missing the lectures (not that I'm keen on attending the lectures in the first place, but I could still get a lot of study time.)
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Not something I've tried personally but friends of mine have and said they worked.

- Boil a few mint leaves 1/2 litre of water for about 10 min. Let it cool. Sieve the liquid and drink it before you go to sleep.

- Put 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon and 1 teaspoon of honey in a saucepan with a cup of water. Heat the liquid till it starts boiling. Filter the liquid using a fine sieve. Drink.
 
shreypete said:
So are there any? Coz I seem to have an eternal problem of sleeping (I go to bed at around 12 or 1 but fall asleep at around 2 or 3. Result: I end up waking up REALLY late and missing the lectures (not that I'm keen on attending the lectures in the first place, but I could still get a lot of study time.)
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I use tea made with Kava Kava near bed time. (This is not to start a discussion on CAM, of which I am highly skeptical. However, what ever works for you)
 
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I know of an AWESOME drink that can put you right to sleep...

...it's called "red wine" and man, does it work.
 
Water.

...which I use to help get the Unisom down.
 
AndyEmmDee said:
I know of an AWESOME drink that can put you right to sleep...

...it's called "red wine" and man, does it work.
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Not for everyone. Alcohol (of any kind) actually keeps me awake.

OP, I've never tried any drinks that help me sleep, but I do take over the counter sleep aids; they're non-habit forming, and different ones help for different things (i.e. falling asleep vs staying asleep).
 
"I use tea made with Kava Kava near bed time. (This is not to start a discussion on CAM, of which I am highly skeptical. However, what ever works for you"

I'm a fan of kava, but I have not had much luck using it as a sleep aide. Yes, it presumably binds to GABA receptors, but it also somehow increases your norepinepherine too. It works very synergistically with caffeine as a study aide, producing what I would call a relaxed focus.

supposedly valerian works on GABA alone. In my personal experience it does produce a little sleepiness with higher than recommended doses, but after a certain point taking more has no effect.

I take one benadryl to fall asleep sometimes.
 
Melatonin works pretty well.... other than that I think if you just keep waking up at the same time no matter if you got "good" sleep the night before or not your body will get use to it.
 
I've had problems falling asleep, esp last year, and still do sometimes. I don't have a drink recommendation, but I've found that how I spend my time 15 mins before trying to sleep can determine whether or not I'll fall asleep. For instance, if I've decided that I'm going to bed at midnight, and I study 100mph until 11:59 it's probably not gunna happen. But if I pick a point in the material that I'd like to get through, study until I get reasonably close to that point, and when I start getting sleepy go to bed. That helps me get in sleep mode more than anything.
 
reedman said:
"I use tea made with Kava Kava near bed time. (This is not to start a discussion on CAM, of which I am highly skeptical. However, what ever works for you"

I'm a fan of kava, but I have not had much luck using it as a sleep aide. Yes, it presumably binds to GABA receptors, but it also somehow increases your norepinepherine too. It works very synergistically with caffeine as a study aide, producing what I would call a relaxed focus.

supposedly valerian works on GABA alone. In my personal experience it does produce a little sleepiness with higher than recommended doses, but after a certain point taking more has no effect.

I take one benadryl to fall asleep sometimes.
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At the hour I usually consider bed time, the half life of diphenhydramine makes waking up miserable. Better for those who can devote more time to sleep than I do I guess.
 
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any "sleepy-time" tea with valerian root tends to help. melatonin is tricky because those supplements aren't regulated and who knows how much of the stuff is actually in the pills?

but it sounds like you have a circadian rhythm disorder if it's taking you that long to fall asleep. have you considered seeing a sleep dr?
 
Whatever happened to chamomile?
 
I tried melatonin a few times. Definitely gets you to sleep, very well. However, assuming it affected me how it affects others, you better plan on sleeping for 8 hours if you take it. The times I took it and tried to wake up prior to 8 hours of sleep, I woke up without a single memory of waking up to turn my alarm clock off every time and went back to sleep. I even went so far as to go to the shower and turn it on once then go back to bed and fall asleep without memory of the event. That's when I stopped taking it 😴 Just working on getting myself to sleep since then.
 
shreypete said:
So are there any? Coz I seem to have an eternal problem of sleeping (I go to bed at around 12 or 1 but fall asleep at around 2 or 3. Result: I end up waking up REALLY late and missing the lectures (not that I'm keen on attending the lectures in the first place, but I could still get a lot of study time.)
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Curious, how old are you?

If you are still under 21 maybe you are still growing?
 
milk
water

i usually eat before i sleep anyways. i think that helps too.
 
driedcaribou said:
Curious, how old are you?

If you are still under 21 maybe you are still growing?
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Yes, you're right. I think age has a lot to do with it. I'm just 19 (and in the 3rd year of med school right now).

I also realized that I don't have a consistent sleep schedule. One day I sleep at 12 but the next, I sleep at 2 and on weekends, usually at 3 or sometimes 4 in the morning. I think that's why my circadian rhythm clock can't figure out to put me to sleep 😳
 
haha do you mean capt morgan's plus dr pepper? that sounds nastacular!
 
turkey for dinner, easy bake chocolate chip cookies for dessert, and a big glass of warm milk to wash it all down

never fails.....
 
My sleep cycle is something totally out of Ripley's Believe It or Not! 😀

Just like day before yesterday i went to bed at 3pm, woke up at 11pm
then again went to bed at 5am n woke up at 9am
after that went to bed at 5 pm n woke up at 10pm
n now shall go to sleep at around 8am! ha ha! Beat that 😀

I suspect I've got have Non-24 hour sleep wake disorder 🙁

I think we should do RCTs with all the above mentioned options 😛
 
Sounds like you have a normal (for your age) delayed sleep response. Why not try getting into bed earlier, and turning all the lights off except one reading light, and just studying/reading for pleasure for an hour. As you feel yourself getting sleepier, turn off the lights and let yourself fall sleep.
 
I did go to bed at 8am today... but couldn't fall asleep. So got up, did a few things n had lunch n finally went to bed at 4:30pm 😕

sindadel said:
Sounds like you have a normal (for your age) delayed sleep response. Why not try getting into bed earlier, and turning all the lights off except one reading light, and just studying/reading for pleasure for an hour. As you feel yourself getting sleepier, turn off the lights and let yourself fall sleep.
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I actually came to the diagnosis of Non-24 hour sleep wake disorder after trying the above for few days. I found that every day I fell asleep around 1 to 2hrs later than the previous night n consequently woke up around 1 to 2 hrs later than the previous morning. Over that its like night in my room 24x7 cuz I always have the windows closed n curtains drawn, so that also contributed in eff-ing up my circadian rhythm 😳

I'll definitely try out what you said n probably a couple of drinks mentioned over here:laugh:.
 
knockoutMice said:
I did go to bed at 8am today... but couldn't fall asleep. So got up, did a few things n had lunch n finally went to bed at 4:30pm 😕



I actually came to the diagnosis of Non-24 hour sleep wake disorder after trying the above for few days. I found that every day I fell asleep around 1 to 2hrs later than the previous night n consequently woke up around 1 to 2 hrs later than the previous morning. Over that its like night in my room 24x7 cuz I always have the windows closed n curtains drawn, so that also contributed in eff-ing up my circadian rhythm 😳

I'll definitely try out what you said n probably a couple of drinks mentioned over here:laugh:.
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Interesting - well let us know how it goes. 🙂 It sucks when you are tired and can't fall asleep. I definitely do know people who creep forward in time by an hour a day, and then finally stay up for 36 hours every few weeks to reset their clocks. Have you tried that?
 
wel after tht i woke up at 12am
then went to bed at 5am n woke up at 8am
after that fell asleep around 5.30pm n woke up jst now thts ~1am...
(no more sleep commentary after this😛)


Right now I have a really hectic schedule... so am trying to stay away from experimenting. But when I get time (that'll be after about 4 mo) I am thinking of going to a sleep clinic (seriously). I need a permanent fix for this.


neurolddoc said:
http://my.clevelandclinic.org/disorders/sleep_disorders/hic_delayed_sleep_phase_syndrome.aspx
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Thanks neurolddoc for the link... after reading it I realised I used to have this exact thing during my 11th n 12th grade n even upto 3rd year... but now what I have, it exactly matches the descreiption of Non-24hr sleep wake syndrome (as written in harrison's)
 
shreypete said:
So are there any? Coz I seem to have an eternal problem of sleeping (I go to bed at around 12 or 1 but fall asleep at around 2 or 3. Result: I end up waking up REALLY late and missing the lectures (not that I'm keen on attending the lectures in the first place, but I could still get a lot of study time.)
Click to expand...
This was a problem for me my first year. I didn't want to use benzos and I don't really trust the newer hypnotics due to the side effect profiles (I much prefer giving trazodone to Ambien to my patients). And I no longer drink alcohol at all (which is a lousy hypnotic, BTW - it'll put you to sleep but it ruins the quality of your sleep and makes you more prone to early awakening, even if you don't have to pee... ).

On nights I couldn't get to sleep, 25mg of hydroxyzine (Vistaril, Atarax - an old, first generation anti-histamine that readily crosses the BB barrier) would put me to sleep nicely for 8 hours. If you're only sleeping for 6 or if you wake up groggy, titrate the dose down. It's non-addicting and very effective - and it's dirt cheap. Trazodone would be my next step up, but that's probably too sedating for school nights - you'd likely have a little sleep hangover.
 
Non-TradTulsa said:
This was a problem for me my first year. I didn't want to use benzos and I don't really trust the newer hypnotics due to the side effect profiles (I much prefer giving trazodone to Ambien to my patients). And I no longer drink alcohol at all (which is a lousy hypnotic, BTW - it'll put you to sleep but it ruins the quality of your sleep and makes you more prone to early awakening, even if you don't have to pee... ).

On nights I couldn't get to sleep, 25mg of hydroxyzine (Vistaril, Atarax - an old, first generation anti-histamine that readily crosses the BB barrier) would put me to sleep nicely for 8 hours. If you're only sleeping for 6 or if you wake up groggy, titrate the dose down. It's non-addicting and very effective - and it's dirt cheap. Trazodone would be my next step up, but that's probably too sedating for school nights - you'd likely have a little sleep hangover.
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First, Vistaril has a very long half life so it will be in your system in the morning. Even if you don't feel particularly drugged, it is still there doing things like interfering with new memory formation; not the best for a student with a 9 am class. Trazadone is also a very dirty drug for much the same reason. It does tend to be used extensively but frequently inappropriately.

While medications are the easy way out (both in the context of your patients and yourself), you should always pay attention to what the underlying cause of the insomnia is and take non-pharmacologic steps first.

The BzRA's (Ambien et. al.)are much cleaner drugs and have the advantage of short half lives and are out of the system quickly.

However, any of those medications are not appropriate if, like the OP, the symptoms point primarily to a sleep phase disorder.
 
Do you lift weights? I have a friend who is a bodybuilder. He takes a GABA supplement before he goes to bed. It's worked for him for about a year.

Though I guess if you don't lift it would be kind of useless...
 
TexasFight said:
Do you lift weights? I have a friend who is a bodybuilder. He takes a GABA supplement before he goes to bed. It's worked for him for about a year.

Though I guess if you don't lift it would be kind of useless...
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I thought GABA didn't cross the blood brain barrier much?
 
The first two years of med school I had trouble falling asleep, now I have trouble staying asleep. I have tried various soporific remedies...

Benadryl 50mg - 👍, puts you to sleep, usually feel a little groggy the next morning

Phenergan 12.5-25mg - 👍 will put you to sleep and keep you asleep for over 12 hours! great if you have a lot time and want to catch up on sleep, but you will feel like a zombie when you wake up

Valarine root capsules - made me a little drowsy, won't keep you asleep, they capsules smell horrible

Melatonin 3mg tablets - made me sleepy and more relaxed, didn't keep me asleep, but I fell back to sleep more easily

Kava Kava - tried to relieve anxiety before flying, made me relaxed 😛

Camomile tea - seep 3 tea bags in boiling water for 10 mins, has about the same affect as taking benadryl without the side effects

Self hypnosis/ deep breathing - 👍One of the doctors at my school taught us how to hypnotize ourselves with visualization and deep breathing, it takes practice but it put me to sleep and kept me asleep, felt refreshed the next day
 
I've also wanted to learn self-hypnosis/deep breathing. I just don't seem to get the hang of it. I've tried reading tons of site about how to do it but it just doesn't work.

I do have a problem falling asleep but I also mentioned that I do wake up fairly late. So yeah, I have a problem waking up early too.

I think I will start lifting weights and perhaps buy that Camomile tea (or just a glass of milk).
 
For a beautiful sleep do medication and drink lot of water a day.It will keep you cool and energetic.Medication will keep you fresh.
 
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Nikki2002 said:
it's delicious. the secret is to use very small amounts of dr. pepper and large amounts of captain morgan spiced rum.
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Dr. Pepper + captain morgan + melatonin + benadryl + a bit of mouth wash to get a little crazy...👍
 
TexasFight said:
Do you lift weights? I have a friend who is a bodybuilder. He takes a GABA supplement before he goes to bed. It's worked for him for about a year.

Though I guess if you don't lift it would be kind of useless...
Click to expand...

I take ZMA. Even if it is a mental thing, it really helps me fall asleep on the days with intense workouts, especially event days. It does give some crazy vivid dreams though.

As far as drinks, anything without caffeine that is comforting pretty much. I try to NOT drink much before bed because I don't like having to pee during the night.
 
I have trazadone (perscription) that I use if I need to get to sleep and can't (maybe once every 3 months)

Also, I have a humidifier that I put Lavender oil drops (available at a health store) in and run over night. It helps me feel better and the lavender relaxes me into sleeping.
 
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