Alright sleep fans; today we’ll follow up with the second installment of the 3 part blog series on sleep. In the previous post we discussed the melatonin production pathway, and why we become deficient in some of the nutrients involved in producing melatonin. For those of you that did not read the last post, I made the case that melatonin is a necessary trigger for normal sleep to occur, and described how our product is designed to kick-start the process of melatonin production—especially when sleep hygiene is less than ideal. I also talked about how our sleep remedy helps get things going in the right direction and best supports the full melatonin production cycle to help you get the best sleep possible.
Nonetheless, while melatonin—and the subsequent down stream effects—is necessary, it is not sufficient. To understand why, we have to do a little more geeky science talk. So, rub your eyes, sit up, splash water on your face, or whatever you need to do to ready yourself for a little neuroscience.
We have talked about how our bodies have a built in clock that helps us adjust our circadian rhythms to match the day’s length. We have also discussed that the SCN (supra-chiasmatic nucleus) is a big player in using external light to adjust our biological clock—by stimulating the pineal gland to secrete a hormone called melatonin. Melatonin leads to a host of other effects, which aren’t important to delve into right now.
However, falling asleep isn’t as simple as having enough melatonin. The SCN does several other things that help with the onset of sleep. One of these actions is to stimulate a region of the brain (known as the Ventro-Lateral Preoptic Nucleus = VLPO) to produce another neurotransmitter known as GABA (gamma-amino buyteric acid). Like melatonin, GABA has multiple functions. One function is to lower the resting membrane potential of neurons in our neocortex.
Okay, I know I just vomited a bunch of neuroscience gobbly-gook, but stay with me. Our “neo” cortex (new brain) is the convoluted mass that we think of when we see a picture of the brain. It is the part of our brain that sets us apart from other primates—especially the front part called the “frontal cortex”. I don’t need to go into a neuroanatomy lesson for our purposes. We only need to know that the neocortex is where most sensory and motor information is processed—meaning that it tells us about our world: temperature, touch, pain, movement, sounds, communication, etc., and it allows us to actively engage the world—by controlling movement, speech, etc.
Now, because the neocortex is telling us about the world around us, the more stuff going on around us (stimuli) the more active and energy consuming our neocortex is. That means that we have lots of neurons firing (something we’ll discuss in the next post), and it also means that the neurons are in a state that makes it easy for them to fire.
When GABA increases for sleep purposes, it changes the ions that can get into nerve cells. When these ions change the overall charge of the neuron decreases. This decrease is called “lower action potential”, which means what it sounds like: the neurons are less likely to act (or fire). Because of the GABA, it takes more energy to get one neuron to communicate to the neurons it is connected to, thereby decreasing the overall “action” of individual neurons, and groups of neurons.
This is the exact reason we have put GABA derivative in our sleep supplement. We spent a lot of time researching the best way to get GABA into the brain. There are only a few options, and we chose phGABA as our favored method for helping people get enough GABA in their brains to help them slow down, quit worrying and ruminating, and get some restful, restorative, and high quality sleep.
Breathe! Relax! We’re finished with the pseudo-science – I promise! Your SCN and the effects of GABA on the neocortex is all the groundwork we’ll need to complete our discussion on what else is interfering with how we are wired to sleep.
It goes like this: last week I described how putting light into your eyes (especially blue light)—after sundown—prevents the SCN from telling the pineal gland to secrete melatonin, and that melatonin decreases adrenal hormones (stress hormones). This week I am describing how external stimuli (sound, conversation, activity, movement, etc.) prevents the SCN from triggering part of your brain to produce GABA—and therefore makes your brain more awake.
When our neocortex’s action potential is decreased, it makes our brains less sensitive to the “wake promoting” neurotransmitters that we talked about last week, and therefore we are not as aware of our environment—we are taking in LESS stimuli.
But here is the rub; when we REALLY stimulate our brains, we can override the effects of GABA. If you’ve ever been super tired all day at work—dead set on going straight home to sleep—and then somebody talked you into going to happy hour, and after a little bit of conversation, and checking out potential mates, you felt wide awake—then you have experienced this. The same is true when you feel great after the late-day workout that you had to force yourself to do.
This principle is why simply blocking blue light isn’t sufficient to trigger sleep. Ancestrally, we would have very likely fought off the urge to sleep—using this mechanism—if we were being hunted by something or somebody. We also would use this mechanism to fight off the desire to sleep when we were starving—leading us to travel further to find food, or hunt novel prey etc. (more on this next week). In order for us to prevent external stimuli from interfering with our sleep, we need to purposefully decrease stimulation. To the extent that decreasing stimuli isn’t possible, the best solution is to leverage supplements, to help you “supplement” your brain in this effort. There is “ideal” and there is “practical”. We realize not everyone can build their lives around sleep.
By that, I not only mean sleeping in a cool, dark, quiet room, but also; stopping work at least an hour before bed, not exercising late at night, decreasing noise, vibration, conversation, and stress long before bedtime. It is actually better to go to sleep an hour later—if you’ve unintentionally worked or have been highly active right up til’ bedtime. Just as you would not step out of bed and immediately start lifting heavy weights, nor should you have a busy, excited brain right up until the moment you climb into bed.
In addition to reducing light saturation—what we talked about last week—try these interventions to improve your sleep:
- Make a list of everything that keeps running through your head an hour before bed.
- Make a pact with yourself that you will be best able to deal with that list AFTER a good night’s sleep—so you won’t let it into your head after lights out.
- Stop ALL work (employment work, paying bills, emails, research on the net etc.) at least one hour before your bedtime.
- Finish your work out at least 2 hours before bed—and if you are doing intense workouts, at least 3 hours before bed (the earlier the better).
- If you live in a loud environment, put in some ear plugs or wear noise cancelling headphones an hour before bed.
- If you sleep in a loud environment; don’t. If you must, wear earplugs.
- Minimize all activity, emotional or intense conversations, pain, extremes in temperature, and stress a few hours before bed.
Try any or all of these simple steps, and see how it improves your sleep. If you find yourself stimulating your brain awake—through worry or planning—concentrate on your breath, or systematically relaxing each muscle in your body. This is also a great time to leverage our sleep remedy to give you that extra edge and the best change at having a great sleep.
With light saturation and external stimulation under control, along with a nice little wind down hot tea of our sleep remedy, you will be well on your way to a better quality and quantity of sleep.
If you just can’t settle down, or your life-style prohibits you from following the advice above, give our sleep supplement a try. You can read more about it here.
Your science is great but I have yet to find a remedy for menopausal sleeplessness. It is frustrating to read about how important sleep is when my post-hormonal body doesn’t cooperate. Taking melatonin does zilch.
Kim-
This is not just melatonin…
Not really in relation to what’s being said above, but, I used to wake in the middle of the night, with my mind racing even if I didn’t have a problem bothering me. I’ve recently found that it is from cold. Simply getting an extra blanket or a t-shirt is all it takes to send me to sleep. I’ve always thought it was my mind that needed settling when in fact I was unaware that I wasn’t warm enough for sleep. Try it.
Interesting. My issue was the exact opposite – I had to get colder to sleep. If I can be in a room in the low 60s with a light fleece I sleep great.
Interesting blogs, thanks. Many of my clients with sleeping issues have no problem falling asleep but wake up (several times) during the night. Is this related to the issues you discuss or is something else at play here? I should add they don’t drink alcohol. Also, does age play a role? I see increased sleeping problems in my older clients. Do we need less sleep as we get older?
Roel-
Yes, the sleep maintenance piece is more GABA centric, but clearly they all interweave. The question on sleep and age is important to distinguish between westernized vs non-westernized folks. This seems to be yet another feature of our modern world. Inflammation? Stress? Photo exposure? Likely all of the above, and more.
Hi, Robb!
Will the sleep cocktail help sleep maintenance when one is plagued by hot flashes every few hours during sleep? I’m 59 yrs. and I’ve put on some fat in my thighs and belly over the past year after diminishing it through ancestral eating for the past 4 years. Definitely no bueno!
Many thanks for yours or the Doc’s input!
It SHOULD. I’d be very interested to hear your results.
I also have sleep maintenance insomnia post menopause and have tried EVERYTHING including now the Sleep Cocktail. Not one thing works for me. I always wake up at least once a night. The Sleep Cocktail and many other remedies often result in waking less often and/or easier to fall back asleep. But nothing works for me completely or reliably.
Might be a good thing to see a functional medicine doctor about, that way you could have hormones and a number of things checked out and see where your problems may lie.
Any plans on shipping to Canada at some point?
SOON!
Just ordered the cocktail and stoked to try it out. I’m 32 and have had sleeping problems all my life.
Robb, curious about the vitamin D. I’ve read that it is “inversely related to melatonin” and therefore shouldn’t be taken at night. I’m confident you and the Doc know your sh*t, so I was wondering if you could comment on why the no-vitamin-d-at-night idea is wrong.
The “short, shifty, not really an answer” answer is the product seems to work “really well.” We did some digging on this and it’s interesting in that usually we see sunlight and subsequent secosteroid production during the day and actual vit-d synthesis hitting at night. But the reality is Vit-d is “always” there (assuming we do not have rickets) and the amount in the product is pretty damn small. Not much of an air-tight answer for ya, but that’s what I’ve got!
I have dysautonomia and probably adrenal fatigue/subclinical hypercortisolism. I have no issues falling asleep but will wake up a few times each night. I can usually fall back asleep but will reawaken in 1.5-3 hours.
I have been taking melatonin and GABA for months. They don’t seem to be enough to be nearly enough for me.
To me it seems like sleep’s more complicated (at least for corner cases like mine) and at least involves cortisol and serotonin.
My cortisol, although normal in general, seems to be too high sometimes. I lower it with phosphatidylserine. I take tryptophan or St Johns wort to raise serotonin (5HTP didn’t seem to useful).
Currently I am trying to come up with some sort of magic balance of all the supplements where I take them at the right times and without raising/lowering cortisol/serotonin too high.
My general understanding is that serotonin is converted into melatonin and that somehow high cortisol mucks with this process.
Do you know how I can time/dose my supplementation regime to help me sleep? Do you have any other ideas that might help? Lack of sleep keeps me perpetually sick and any advice you have would be greatly appreciated.
Justin, one thing I’ve recently found is that I was way undereating carbs as I generally keep VLC.
Eating a cup of white rice before bed really made a difference and I can now sleep through the night without waking up at all. YMMV, of course, but give it a try, maybe it will work.
What about reading or playing games in your cell phone/ipad just before sleeping?
Many people i know, including myself at times, find these activities a great way to unwind before sleep
Probably not the best idea, as the screens on phones and tablets emit a lot of blue light. If you were going to do it you could wear the amber blue light blocking glasses, use programs/apps that reduce blue light on the screen (like f.lux, Twilight, etc.).
If you wanted to read, I would use something like an e-ink ereader.
I am 73 and tried the sleep cocktail but still woke up at 3:00 am. Can find nothing natural that works for me.
Hi, how about shipping the sleep cocktail to Europe? Thanks for the great work!
The Sleep Cocktail is great! But there’s lots of scary info available about phGABA. How much is in the sleep cocktail and should there be any concern about dependency?
Jen-
it’s a “very small” dose, sub physiologic. Dependency appears to occur at orders of magnitude higher dosage.
Amazing series of articles here Robb- I knew that melatonin and GABA were both vital to sleep, but this really lays out the distinction between them- melatonin for falling asleep and GABA for sleeping long and well.
Question about the supplement- phGABA is the same thing as phenibut right?
Correct!
What are your thoughts about phGABA/phenibut addiction, tolerance, and withdrawal? I’ve encountered many horror stories of patients needing increasing doses over time (weeks/months) to feel half-way normal and then going through an awful withdrawal process.
Hey man, nice article. I’m going to try some of these things and see how they go.
Also, you spelled quiet as quite. One of those crafty ones that gets past the spell check. Thought I’d point it out.
GOT IT!! thanks!
I am 22 yo and have ideopathic hypersomnia and the neurologists don’t know what causes it…I sleep 10-16 hr/day and am so sleep drunk I cannot function. They first said it was sleep apnea but cpap did not help. I have tried all the suggestions for restorative sleep. I am desperate for my life back! Any suggestions?