Melatonin benefits us by helping promote a healthy circadian rhythm. However, it does not help much with sleep onset. Highly delayed sleep onset is one of the more common issues that stands in the way of good sleep, and so for most people, Melatonin will not help much with achieving better sleep. This holds especially true if they aren’t using an optimized Melatonin dosage. Fortunately, you dont have to rely solely on Melatonin. There is a plethora of other supplements that may help speed up sleep onset (reducing sleep latency), while supporting overall sleep quality. This allows us to get out of bed feeling refreshed on a consistent basis.
First one we recommend, of course, is our Red Kratom Strain:
Bentuangie and Red Horn. But taking a little more than normal helps to activate the nervousness-relieving and relaxing benefits of kratom. As you may known, with kratom, a little goes a long way and helps promote that feel-good energy we love about kratom. When you take more of kratom, you tend to get sleepy/relaxed.
Other natural supplements to consider are:
Oleamide
Oleamide is a fascinating supplement you can buy in a bulk powder on Nootropics Depot. Oleamide is actually quite similar to another product called Palmitoylethanolamide. Both of these compounds are categorized as fatty acid amides and both Oleamide and Palmitoylethanolamide occur naturally in the body. In our bodies, both of these fatty acid amides interact with our endogenous cannabinoid system. Oleamide, in particular, has significant effects on our cannabinoid system, and it appears that many of the Oleamide benefits related to sleep appear to be produced through Oleamide’s effects on the endocannabinoid system. This was demonstrated by a simple experiment which administered the cannabinoid antagonist SR 141716 alongside an Oleamide supplement. In this experiment, it was found that Oleamide’s effects on sleep were promptly blocked by co-administration of the cannabinoid antagonist SR 141716. This would suggest that the bulk of Oleamide’s effects on sleep are produced through the endocannabinoid system. In fact, it has been shown that Oleamide increases the levels of anandamide which is one of our bodies own cannabinoids, and also appears to be the most potent of the bunch.
It is interesting to note that Oleamide naturally builds up in our cerebrospinal fluid during sleep deprivation and that large amounts of Oleamide in our cerebrospinal fluid may make falling asleep a lot more likely. It also appears that right before we fall asleep, Oleamide levels become elevated. This tells us that Oleamide naturally plays a large role in our sleep cycle.
Sensoril Ashwagandha
Sensoril is an extract of Ashwagandha and has very prominent relaxing effects that we have found can make getting to bed a whole lot easier. In addition to its relaxing effects, Sensoril Ashwagandha also has a potent stress-regulating effect which can be highly beneficial when it comes to sleep as our sleep cycles are highly impacted by increased stress. Increased stress levels tend to quite reliably reduce the amount of slow wave sleep, reduce the amount of REM sleep, increase the amount of awakenings during the night and appears to decrease overall sleep efficiency. Based on this, it appears that stress is highly detrimental on our overall sleep quality. What’s worse, is that sleep is an important regulator of our natural stress response and we can get a negative feedback loop where stress can repeatedly decrease sleep quality. This then increases stress response which then further degrades sleep quality. Based on this, it is very important to get stress under control if we want to maintain healthy sleep quality. If you want to learn more about how Sensoril Ashwagandha benefits your stress levels, we would recommend reading our in depth blog on Ashwagandha.
Magnesium Glycinate
Subjective effects have shown that this large dose of Glycine leads to better cognitive function the following morning. This effect has been attributed to Glycine enhancing overall sleep quality. The amount you are getting from a dose of a Magnesium Glycinate supplement is likely not able to produce these effects. However, there is the possibility that due to its Glycine content, Magnesium Glycinate will be the best Magnesium for sleep. Anecdotally, Magnesium Glycinate feels much more relaxing and appears to enhance sleep more than other forms of Magnesium. In fact, while doing research for Magnesium, they found that a commonly searched-for phrase is “Magnesium glycinate sleep,” which indicated to us that Magnesium Glycinate is already quite a well-established form of Magnesium for sleep!
Lemon Balm Extract for Sleep
Lemon Balm Extract is widely known for its calming effects. Melatonin is not always the best sleep supplement, as it does not have relaxing effects even though using Melatonin for sleep is very popular. Once most people fall asleep, they will usually stay asleep. However, getting to sleep appears to be one of the more challenging aspects of sleep. In theory, the more relaxed we are the easier it will be to fall asleep, and this is attributed to relaxation-causing decreased sleep latency. So, how does Lemon Balm Extract follow this thread? “By inhibiting GABA transaminase, GABA levels will increase which will lead to more GABAergic activity in the brain. As discussed earlier, this will help calm us down before sleep and will decrease sleep latency while also increase slow-wave sleep and reducing nighttime awakenings…”
Gotu Kola Extract for Sleep
Gotu Kolu Extract made the list due to a lot of people around the office reporting that they had great results with taking it before sleep. Furthermore, it also appears to have some significant effects on enhancing memory and overall cognitive function. These are just a few Gotu Kola uses.
