Help with debilitating insomnia

[graciousb]

As a person with sleep issues right out of the gate (even as a baby), as someone who almost never gets naturally drowsy like most people, my experiences/experiments are as follows: Have tried all the classic things suggested, Melatonin triggered depression in me (also did so in a couple friends), Ambien didn't work at all, rx sedative type drugs work but concern about addiction makes me avoid them.

A few things that have helped: wearing blue light blocking glasses at night if I'm looking at a screen, reiki treatments by a gifted practitioner, especially focusing on the head area, and most effective for me, wearing an eyemask and noise cancelling in ear headphones, and most effective for me, listening to something like a podcast or youtube (screen turned away), that is only mildly interesting..the talking seems to distract my own chattering mind completely and allows me to drift off. I have never tried hypnosis for this issue but it might be effective too.

I seem to have a delayed circadian rhythm from what I've read, also seem to need a bit less sleep than most. I think it's almost impossible for others who haven't had this challenge to relate to it or believe it isn't easily resolvable.

[Bill Ryan]

Posted by graciousb (here)
Melatonin triggered depression in me (also did so in a couple friends)

Do please see my post #60 here — which was very interesting for me.

In summary here, that suggested that a tiny (0.2-0.3 mg) dose of melatonin was MORE effective as a sleep aid than a heavy (3 mg) dose.

With no side-effects, either. There's really not enough melatonin to cause any.

Here's a photo of what I take very occasionally — for me, and to my astonishment, this really works far better. I'd recommend anyone who's used melatonin but then turned away from it, to maybe give it a quick try.

The little slice I take off the 3 mg tablet is really pretty tiny. It works perfectly for me, when I feel I need it, with no side-effects at al.

[Sue (Ayt)]

One thing that lots of people forget to examine is the prescription meds that they are on. I have two loved ones who realized that is was their BP medication (metoprolol) that they were on that greatly contributed to their problem. Another one found it was the low-dose steroid prescription.

Medications that can affect sleep include:

Anti-arrhythmics (for heart rhythm problems)
Beta blockers (for high blood pressure)
Clonidine (for high blood pressure)
Corticosteroids (for inflammation or asthma)
Diuretics (for high blood pressure)
Cough, cold, and flu medications that contain alcohol
Headache and pain medications that contain caffeine
Nicotine replacement products
Sedating antihistamines (for colds and allergies)
SSRIs (for depression or anxiety)
Sympathomimetic stimulants (for attention deficit disorder)
Theophylline (for asthma)
Thyroid hormone (for hypothyroidism)

How Medications May Affect Sleep

[Sue (Ayt)]

Posted by Bill Ryan (here)

Posted by graciousb (here)
Melatonin triggered depression in me (also did so in a couple friends)

Do please see my post #60 here — which was very interesting for me.

In summary here, that suggested that a tiny (0.2-0.3 mg) dose of melatonin was MORE effective as a sleep aid than a heavy (3 mg) dose.

With no side-effects, either. There's really not enough melatonin to cause any.

Here's a photo of what I take very occasionally — for me, and to my astonishment, this really works far better. I'd recommend anyone who's used melatonin but then turned away from it, to maybe give it a quick try.

The little slice I take off the 3 mg tablet is really pretty tiny. It works perfectly for me, when I feel I need it, with no side-effects at al.

Maybe a bit off topic, but I read this research study on melatonin that I found interesting:

Abstract
Within recent years, many investigators have implicated the pineal gland and melatonin in the processes of both aging and age-related diseases. These theories stem from the importance of melatonin in a number of biological functions and the fact that melatonin production in the organism is gradually lost throughout life, such that in very old individuals of any species the circadian melatonin rhythm is bearly discernible. In most species, from algae to humans, where it has been investigated, melatonin has been shown to exhibit a strong circadian rhythm in production and secretion, with high levels of the indole always being associated with the dark period of the light:dark cycle. One theory states that when the melatonin rhythm deteriorates during aging, other circadian rhythms are likewise weakened and rhythms become dysynchronized. This dysynchronization is believed to contribute significantly to aging and to render animals more susceptible to age-related diseases. Another theory assumes that the waning melatonin cycle provides an important switch for genetically programmed aging at the cellular level; furthermore, because all cells in the organism are exposed to the same gradually dampening melatonin signal throughout life, all cells age more or less at the same rate. In this theory, it is presumed to be the duration of the nocturnally elevated melatonin (which, like the amplitude, is reduced during aging), which, when coupled to a time-gating signal, is consequential in determining the rate of aging.
<snip>
In the few studies where animals have been supplemented with exogenous melatonin throughout life, life span has been increased up to 25%. Besides its protection of the brain, melatonin has been shown to prevent damage by oxidants to DNA in other organs. Again, protecting DNA is particularly important because there are only two copies in each diploid cell, and structurally impaired DNA would not properly transcribe, leading to metabolic inefficiency and possibility to death of the cell. Thus, for a number of reasons, maintaining a robust melatonin rhythm by exogenously administering the indole may prove to have a variety of beneficial effects, which collectively could serve to prolong life, postpone aging, and reduce the chances of age-related diseases.

The pineal gland and melatonin in relation to aging: A summary of the theories and of the data

[Cara]

Posted by Ayt (here)
Maybe a bit off topic, but I read this research study on melatonin that I found interesting:

Abstract
Within recent years, many investigators have implicated the pineal gland and melatonin in the processes of both aging and age-related diseases. These theories stem from the importance of melatonin in a number of biological functions and the fact that melatonin production in the organism is gradually lost throughout life, such that in very old individuals of any species the circadian melatonin rhythm is bearly discernible. In most species, from algae to humans, where it has been investigated, melatonin has been shown to exhibit a strong circadian rhythm in production and secretion, with high levels of the indole always being associated with the dark period of the light:dark cycle. One theory states that when the melatonin rhythm deteriorates during aging, other circadian rhythms are likewise weakened and rhythms become dysynchronized. This dysynchronization is believed to contribute significantly to aging and to render animals more susceptible to age-related diseases. Another theory assumes that the waning melatonin cycle provides an important switch for genetically programmed aging at the cellular level; furthermore, because all cells in the organism are exposed to the same gradually dampening melatonin signal throughout life, all cells age more or less at the same rate. In this theory, it is presumed to be the duration of the nocturnally elevated melatonin (which, like the amplitude, is reduced during aging), which, when coupled to a time-gating signal, is consequential in determining the rate of aging.
<snip>
In the few studies where animals have been supplemented with exogenous melatonin throughout life, life span has been increased up to 25%. Besides its protection of the brain, melatonin has been shown to prevent damage by oxidants to DNA in other organs. Again, protecting DNA is particularly important because there are only two copies in each diploid cell, and structurally impaired DNA would not properly transcribe, leading to metabolic inefficiency and possibility to death of the cell. Thus, for a number of reasons, maintaining a robust melatonin rhythm by exogenously administering the indole may prove to have a variety of beneficial effects, which collectively could serve to prolong life, postpone aging, and reduce the chances of age-related diseases.

The pineal gland and melatonin in relation to aging: A summary of the theories and of the data

Thanks for sharing this interesting study Ayt.

Here are the concluding remarks from the study:

CONCLUDING REMARKS
Besides aging, there are many diseases that have as their basis, at least in part, free radical damage. Many of these involve the central nervous system because of the high vulnerability of this organ to oxidative attack. Melatonin seems to be somewhat preferentially taken up by cells in the nervous system (Menendez-Pelaez et al., 1993) and the stimulatory effect of the indole on the antioxidant enzyme glutathione peroxidase is particularly well manifested in the brain. These facts imply that melatonin may afford special protection to the brain from the very damaging actions of oxygen-based radicals. It is also obvious, however, that melatonin's protective actions are not restricted to the central nervous system because in the experiments that used the highly toxic carcinogen, safrole, hepatic DNA was potently protected by melatonin (Tan et al., 1993b, 1994). Thus, melatonin likely provides protection against oxidative attack in every cell in the organism. This is certainly consistent with the notion that the indole readily diffuses into every cell and into every subcellular compartment.

Aging is a complicated process and cannot be attributable to a single factor, e.g., oxidative damage. Preliminary studies have shown that melatonin does delay aging and postpone senescence (Maestroni et al., 1989; Pierpaoli and Regelson, 1994). Whether, in fact, melatonin will be a true antiaging hormone in all species awaits investigation, although early results are promising in this regard. Heretofore, it was generally conceded that the circadian melatonin rhythm as well as its circannual variations (due to seasonal fluctuations in light:dark ratio) provide time-of-day and time-of-year information, respectively, to the organism (Reiter, 1993). Considering the drop in melatonin with age, it is possible that this important metabolic hormone also provides time-of-life information; thus, the amplitude of the nocturnal melatonin peak and/or the duration of nocturnally elevated melatonin may be indicative of the biological age of the organism.

~~~

Related:

I read an interesting study on different substances that can help with radiation. Melatonin was one of the substances mentioned:

...Saada et al. evaluated the effects of omega-3 fatty acids in rats’ brain and found that this substance may reduce the oxidative stress produced by the whole-body gamma irradiation, study that suggests the protective effects of omega-3 fatty acids on the ROS that are produced in the brain, before and during the exposure to radiation (134).

The oxidative stress in rat lens is enhanced by the exposure to gamma-radiation and the antioxidant capacity can be increased by the administration of melatonin, as Taysi et al. established in their study (135). Melatonin can be a good protector against cataract that develops in pilots.
...
The antioxidant supplementation can aid in increasing the protection against the cosmic radiation in persons that travel by plane at high altitudes, but the type and the dose of the antioxidants must be adjusted according to age, sex, time spent at high altitudes and conditions related to the variations of the magnetosphere intensity and solar activity. A healthy diet helps in the immunity processes and the oral administration of antioxidants before and during the travel by plane reduces the cosmic radiation-induced oxidative stress. The exposed tegument can be protected with topical treatment containing Green tea extract and the melatonin administration can prevent the cataract development. The further studies on antioxidants will complete the information required for a better protection against cosmic radiation-induced oxidative stress.

...

[Sources]
...
134. Saada HN, Said UZ, Mahdy EME, Elmezayen HE, Shedid SM. Fish oil omega-3 fatty acids reduce the severity of radiation-induced oxidative stress in the rat brain. Int J Rad Biol 2014; 90: 1179-1183.

135. Taysi S, Memisogullari R, Koc M, et al. Melatonin reduces oxidative stress in the rat lens due to radiation-induced oxidative injury. Int J Radiat Biol 2008; 84: 803-808.
...

From: http://www.jpp.krakow.pl/journal/arc....2018.4.03.pdf

[rgray222]

I was listening to NPR a few months ago about insomnia. They were interviewing two doctors who were supposed to be the leading experts on this topic. At the end of the programme, they asked them if they would only give one or two tips to the listeners for a better night sleep what would it be.

1. Go to bed around the same time every night. They said this was probably the most important thing people could do.
2. Do not engage with any electronic stuff for about an hour before getting into bed. No phone, TV no internet etc.

This topic is near and dear to me as I have had insomnia most of my life. I have taken this to heart especially getting to bed around the same time every night and it has made a tremendous difference. It has not solved the problem but it has reduced the sleepless nights by 80%+.

[Bill Ryan]

Here's an EXCELLENT short, detailed presentation about insomnia by Dr Roger Seheult from MedCram.

In previous episodes, he's been reporting on the coronavirus situation. In his two previous episodes (#16 and #17), he's explained exactly how good sleep does 5x as much as ANYTHING else as a simple-self-support tool to boost your immune defenses against any virus of any kind.

In this new episode #18, he branches into the topic of insomnia in general. Highly recommended. That section starts at 6:28, and lasts for an information-packed 8 minutes.

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=vE4pBkslqS4

At the end, he references his free Insomnia Course, available at at the MedCram website here:

• https://medcram.com/courses/insomnia-explained-clearly

I've not yet watched that, but I'd be very confident it's as information-packed as all his other videos.

[onawah]

The Importance of Vitamin D and B5 for Optimal Sleep
by Dr. Joseph Mercola
March 01, 2020
https://articles.mercola.com/sites/a..._rid=820954470

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=Rq9e1zKZvQw

"STORY AT-A-GLANCE
Vitamin D deficiency has become epidemic in many parts of the world as we’ve been taught to avoid the sun. Lower vitamin D levels have produced two unexpected consequences: poor sleep and a dangerous change in the intestinal microbiome
Vitamin D is needed to produce acetylcholine, a neurotransmitter that helps you get into the deeper, healing phases of sleep, and controls your normal paralysis during deep sleep
Certain B vitamins also play an important role in sleep. For example, B5 — pantothenic acid — makes coenzyme A, which you use to make acetylcholine
If you’re healthy you have four types of gut bacteria living inside you. Those bacteria need your vitamin D to grow properly, and in return they make eight B vitamins that you need. Without enough vitamin D the healthy bacteria are replaced by others that don’t require vitamin D but are unable to make the B vitamins that you need to sleep normally
Ideally, you need to normalize your gut microbiome so that your gut bacteria make all the B vitamins your body and brain need
To normalize your gut microbiome, maintain a vitamin D level over 40 ng/mL and take B50 or B100 (all eight B’s at 100 mg each) for three months

In this interview, Dr. Stasha Gominak,1 a neurologist and sleep coach, explains the curious synergy between vitamin D deficiency, a changed microbiome and poor sleep.

I met Gominak at the American College for the Advancement in Medicine’s annual meeting in 2019 in Nashville. Her lecture was about ways to improve your sleep. I thought I was aware of most of them, but the connection between vitamin D and sleep surprised me.

Gominak’s research suggests lack of vitamin D causes impairment in your brain stem’s ability to produce normal sleep. So far, she’s treated more than 7,000 patients with her innovative “sleep repair” approach. She’s also published scientific papers on her theories.

Vitamin D Deficiency Linked to Sleep Disorders
Gominak had no interest in vitamin D, initially. She was fascinated by sleep, and was trying to figure out why so many young and otherwise healthy patients were having such trouble sleeping. Many also had sleep apnea. Over time, it became clear that most of them didn’t have enough rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, yet there was no medical hypothesis to explain why.

“I did a lot of sleep studies in teenagers and kids, the great majority of them relatively healthy people,” Gominak says. “They didn’t have terrible sleep apnea, but they all had much less deep sleep than normal, and it’s deep sleep that allows us to heal and feel rested.

They’re complaining of being tired. They have epilepsy. They have daily headache. They have things that are linked to our ability to repair our brain every night.’

Once finding that they had no deep sleep, I wanted to fix their sleep AND their neurologic problem. Unfortunately, I was pretty much stuck with using what we had at the time: continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) devices for those who had apnea and sleeping pills for those with insomnia.

That was very unsatisfying for myself and the patients. Then, pretty much by accident, I found that one of my young headache patients who was extremely tired and had absolutely no deep sleep in her sleep study … had a B12 deficiency.

I began to check B12 levels in all the patients who had abnormal sleep. Eventually I measured vitamin D levels also. Over a period of time, it became clear that everybody’s vitamin D was low. That, by itself, was not enough to get excited about, but what was exciting was that there were numerous articles showing vitamin D receptors in the brain stem areas that control our ability to flip in and out of the phases of sleep.

The part of the brain called the brainstem contains our sleep clock and the cells that paralyze us so we can heal. These areas are covered with vitamin D receptors. That was published in the 1980s, but no one paid attention.”

Vitamin D has also been shown to modulate hibernation in animals, Gominak notes, yet vitamin D is not recognized for its impact on human sleep.

Adding to the work of Walter Stumpf, the scientist who published the original articles on vitamin D’s impact on hibernation, sleep and metabolism, Gominak performed a two-year study, concluding that sleep disorders of many kinds, not just sleep apnea, are linked to vitamin D deficiency and can be improved by careful supplementation. She explains that we track sleep at home by measuring paralysis in sleep:

“What we’re using now to measure sleep with sleep trackers is, ‘When are we paralyzed?’ Because the only time we get paralyzed is when we’re in deep sleep, slow-wave sleep or REM sleep.

The most important part of using vitamin D is vitamin D and other components come together to make acetylcholine. Acetylcholine is the neurotransmitter that allows us to get paralyzed correctly.”Using a Fitness Tracker to Track Your Sleep Cycle
Today, many of her patients will use fitness trackers that track sleep, such as Fitbit or the Oura ring, both of which can measure slow-wave deep sleep, which is one of the sleep phases during which your body is paralyzed.

“As far as I can tell, the movement measurements used in most of those tracking devices are pretty accurate,” she says. That said, I discourage the use of Fitbit for two primary reasons.

First of all, it emits a green light, which can interfere with your sleep quality. Second, Fitbit was recently bought by Google, which is siphoning your personal health and fitness data from these devices for their own gain. I think the Oura ring is a superior device overall, and it won’t steal your personal data.

B Vitamins and Sleep
Vitamin D and B12 aren’t the only nutrients capable of influencing your sleep, however. Toward the end of the two-year study Gominak led, in which vitamin D and B12 were used, most patients began getting worse again. Their sleep started deteriorating, and they were experiencing more pain.

A patient gave her a book detailing the use of vitamin B5 (pantothenic acid) for rheumatoid arthritis pain. “I was not very interested in vitamins,” Gominak admits, but she eventually read the book. What finally caught her interest was the fact that B5 supplementation helped improve rheumatic patients’ sleep.

Research has shown that when B5 is blocked, patients will develop four distinct symptoms within two weeks: burning in the hands and feet, an odd puppet-like gait, gastrointestinal issues and insomnia. However, as Gominak and dozens of her patients discovered, too much can also cause problems.

When taking 400 milligrams (mg) of pantothenic acid and one daily capsule of B100 (a B supplement that contains all eight B vitamins), pain scores and sleep disturbances skyrocketed. Many complained of feeling “revved” up and unable to fall asleep again.

“I realized that I had just made everything about my sleep worse, taking the recommended dose of pantothenic acid,” Gominak says, “so I stopped the 400 mg [of B5] and [took] just B100, which has 100 mg pantothenic acid.”

Overnight, she noticed a distinct change. Her pain disappeared and her sleep improved. Patients that made the same switch reported similar results. All of this suggests there’s a lot we don’t know about the proper dosage of many vitamins. What’s more, further research led her to form the hypothesis that B vitamins really should be produced in your gut, by intestinal bacteria.

“If you think about animals that lie in the ground for four or six months, like bears, clearly … they’re not eating every day, [yet] they need a source of B [vitamins] every day. That implies the microbiome [is] an important … source of Bs …

Before the 1980s, there was very good science about the B vitamins … It turns out there are body stores of B’s. There are body sources of B6, B5, thiamin and vitamin C.

I was struggling to explain why we got better then worse again. Maybe when giving vitamin D, I made their sleep better and helped them make more repairs. But as they made more repairs, they used up their stores of the B vitamins.”

The All-Important Role of Gut Bacteria
Part of the problem, Gominak surmised, was that, for some reason, her patients’ gut bacteria were not properly making B vitamins, resulting in a deficiency. Merely adding vitamin D doesn’t fix that. “I had assumed vitamin D was a growth factor for the bacteria, and when I gave it, they would come back,” she said, “but they didn’t.”

As explained by Gominak, there are four species of intestinal bacteria that make the eight B vitamins, and they appear to work symbiotically, feeding each other these B vitamins back and forth. When they work optimally, you’re getting all the B vitamins your body needs, and when you have just the right dose, your sleep will be optimized as well.

Unfortunately, while we now know that a blood level of vitamin D between 60 nanograms per milliliter (ng/mL) and 80 ng/mL is ideal, we still do not know what an ideal level of B5 is. Blood measurements also appear to be rather inaccurate, as they do not reflect your stores.

“There’s also something extremely peculiar and interesting about B5,” Gominak says. “We now have a huge amount of knowledge about the absorption of B5. There is a pump, [which] pumps in alpha lipoic acid, biotin and pantothenic acid from the gut. The exact same pump is used to pump B5 into the cerebrospinal fluid.

The interesting part about that [when] it goes into the head, it becomes coenzyme A, which then helps to make acetylcholine. One of the things that was mysterious to me was, ‘Why would my patients need 100 mg when ... every publication says 400 mg is the right dose of pantothenic acid?’

Clearly, I and my clients are in a different place. Now, that would suggest that having vitamin D around in the brain somehow changes what happens [to the B5 vitamin].”

The Importance of Acetylcholine
As explained by Gominak, in the adrenal, B5 makes cortisol. In the brain, it makes acetylcholine — first by being incorporated into coenzyme A, which is the donor for the acetyl group that makes ‘’acetyl’’ choline. When the enzyme choline acetyl transferase is added to the mix, you get acetylcholine, and this is where vitamin D comes in.

There are vitamin D receptors in the reticular nucleus of the thalamus and vitamin D is related to the reticular activation — the sleep-wake portion of your brain. When vitamin D enters the nucleus, it expresses choline acetyl transferase. In other words, vitamin D is one of three components that must come together to make acetylcholine.

You will also need the raw material, choline, to produce sufficient amounts of acetylcholine. Choline is typically obtained from animal foods. The highest concentration is in egg yolks, which is one of the reasons I eat five eggs a day. It is important to obtain the eggs from high-quality organically raised chickens. I raise my own chickens but if you don’t, get them from someone locally who does.

Acetylcholine has many important functions. For starters, your parasympathetic nervous system runs on it, and many publications have shown that people with sleep disorders, or who are otherwise ill, have excessive sympathetic tone, which in turn results in elevated epinephrine and norepinephrine, which are indicative of stress.

According to Gominak, having an elevated sympathetic tone may actually be the result of an acetylcholine deficiency. What’s more, acetylcholine is instrumental in maintaining alertness during the day and allowing you to fall asleep and transition through the various sleep stages at night. It’s also part of what allows your body to be paralyzed during deep sleep. Yet no one ever takes acetylcholine into account when investigating sleep disturbances.

“It turns out that we don’t have any drugs for acetylcholine. There aren’t any, except nicotine,” she says. “Acetylcholine has nicotinic receptors or muscarinic receptors [and] there are a lot of connections between the acetylcholine nicotinic receptors and neurologic illness.”

Attention deficit disorder (ADD) and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) have become epidemic in the past decade, and research shows that acetylcholine nicotinic receptors in the frontal lobes are responsible for directing our attention and focus during the day.

Then, at night, a “switch” flips and we fall asleep. Interestingly, this switch into paralyzed sleep involves the same chemical that allows us to remain awake and focused, namely acetylcholine. According to Gominak, once your vitamin D and B levels normalize, your brain is finally able to start repairing damage that has been incurred during years of poor sleep.

As a result of increased repairs, patients will often find themselves sleeping longer than eight hours, and remain in deep REM sleep longer than normal, as this is the phase during which cellular repair and regeneration is done.

Without deep sleep, your body simply cannot perform the needed cellular repair to maintain health, which is part of why sleep dysfunction can have such wide-ranging health effects.

What Constitutes a Healthy Microbiome?
Interestingly, Gominak discovered that as you sleep more, you need more B vitamins. Which brings us back to the microbiome in your gut. Gominak cites one 2015 paper that postulates that having a healthy microbiome is all about having a microbiome that produces the eight B vitamins.

To optimize your gut microbiome, Gominak recommends having a vitamin D level above 40 ng/mL, and taking a B50 or B100 supplement for three months. This will help your microbiome “grow back” so that it’s producing the ideal amount of B vitamins on its own.

“If you never let your D fall below 40, you’ll never lose them again. That’s my belief,” she says. What’s more, normalizing your microbiome will also allow your body to protect itself against foreign invaders by producing natural antibiotics. Gominak explains:

“One of the really important concepts of having a normal microbiome is, it is not just in your small intestine and your colon. I actually smell different since my microbiome came back. It covers all parts in your body. The literature is really strong to make the argument that we are actually like the Charles Schultz character ‘’Pig-Pen’’.

We walk around in this cloud of bacteria, viruses and fungi that cover us — in our nose, in our mouth, in our skin, in our hair, all over us — and that those organisms are the ones that protect us from infections. They make chemicals that kill their competitors. They keep the clostridium difficile under control in our body.

One of the things that I’ve been able to see happen is my clients can still take antibiotics. They actually will reconstitute their microbiome normally as long as they keep their [vitamin] D over 40 ng/mL, they will grow back. I personally believe the appendix is designed the way it is to be a little library of all the bacteria.

It’s not that I don’t believe that antibiotics change what’s going on in there. They absolutely do. However, I don’t think we have to be as afraid of them. There are two things that are being proposed now to improve the microbiome:

One is probiotics. I personally have used them … I think they’re kind of worthless. If they would work, you would eat them for one month, and then you’d be self-sustaining for the rest of your life.

[The second is] about feeding your bacteria … Once you have a normal foursome [the four types of bacteria that produce the eight B vitamins], what we’re really doing is feeding the bacteria.

We feed the bacteria, and then the bacteria feed us. That’s not the way we’ve been looking at it. I would say all the literature that’s talking about the effect diet has on what lives inside us is absolutely pivotal. It’s not like, ‘You just take these vitamins and everything gets fixed.’ It’s not that simple by a long shot.”

The Case for Organic Food
With respect to your diet, it’s important to eat organic for two primary reasons. One is that most of the antibiotics are not given to humans. They’re given to animals, and the use of antibiotics in food production is a primary driver of antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

Most nonorganic food is also contaminated with glyphosate, which can decimate your gut bacteria and impact your mitochondrial function. There’s emerging evidence that mitochondrial function is really the core of health and chronic degenerative disease.

Mitochondria are primitive bacteria inside your cells that are affected by antibiotics, and glyphosate has antibiotic activity too. While there are many strategies you can use to upregulate mitochondrial biogenesis, it’s important to minimize the damage to begin with.

An interesting paper2 published online January 16, 2020 in The Journal of Steroid Biochemistry and Molecular Biology also sheds light on how vitamin D and melatonin work synergistically to protect mitochondrial health and ensure proper function. As noted in this paper:

“The biosynthetic pathways of vitamin D and melatonin are inversely related relative to sun exposure. A deficiency of these molecules has been associated with the pathogenesis of cardiovascular diseases, including arterial hypertension, neurodegenerative diseases, sleep disorders, kidney diseases, cancer, psychiatric disorders, bone diseases, metabolic syndrome, and diabetes, among others.

During aging, the intake and cutaneous synthesis of vitamin D, as well as the endogenous synthesis of melatonin are remarkably depleted, therefore, producing a state characterized by an increase of oxidative stress, inflammation, and mitochondrial dysfunction.

Both molecules are involved in the homeostatic functioning of the mitochondria. Given the presence of specific receptors in the organelle, the antagonism of the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system (RAAS), the decrease of reactive species of oxygen (ROS), in conjunction with modifications in autophagy and apoptosis, anti-inflammatory properties inter alia, mitochondria emerge as the final common target for melatonin and vitamin D.”

Optimize Your Sleep to Improve Your Health
Let’s be clear: We’re not saying vitamin D and B supplements are magic bullets that will fix any sleep problem you may have. Your sleep hygiene is dependent on several other basic factors as well, such as limiting blue light exposure at night and making sure you get sunlight exposure during the brightest part of the day.

That said, vitamin D and pantothenic acid insufficiency can play significant roles if you’re still having trouble sleeping after addressing more foundational factors.

“The stuff that I have on my site are things that were overlooked … There are hundreds of sites that will tell you about circadian rhythms, taking away the electromagnetic forces in your bedroom and the blue light.

It’s not that what I have is the be all, end all. It’s that it’s a really important little piece that you need to set in there. I also happen to think that it connects the epidemics of sleep disorders to the weight gain and the IBS.”

In her practice, Gominak has seen patients recover from a variety of problems, from gastrointestinal problems to anemia, once their gut microbiome was normalized with the help of vitamin D and the temporary use of B vitamins.

Again, keep in mind that once your gut microbiome has been restored, taking high doses of B vitamins can backfire and trigger insomnia, as your body is now making the appropriate amount by itself. At that point, the excess ends up having an amphetamine-like effect that keeps you awake.

“I personally think that getting the microbiome back in most people who are pretty sick is [step] one. And then they need to have some supplementation, not huge doses, but some supplementation for a year or two after that. And then keep an open mind about the fact that eventually, you’ll get to a place where you don’t need to supplement most things, unless you have a particular genetic weakness.”

More Information
To learn more, see Gominak’s website, drgominak.com. Under “Quick Start Basics,” you’ll find the general outline of her RightSleep protocol. Also on the homepage you can purchase a workbook that helps you to work through her protocol during the course of a year.

“The website is dedicated to the why,” she says. “I’m very invested in the why. I saw these things happen to my patients. They can’t be making it up. They don’t know each other. They don’t even have the same disease, yet they all tell me the same thing.

That means the basic truth is always what the patient says about their body. And then it’s my job to see if I can find a scientific explanation for that, in animals and other humans.

I have lots of written material. I have free videos ... I have a workbook you can buy. I also offer one-on-one sessions … I think many people who are not really very sick and just want to add this to their health regimen can do it easily with the workbook. That’s the intention anyway.

I also have to comment that once you get better from this D-microbiome point of view, what we all want is to be healthy and have long lives. Sleep is one of the four basic pillars: Sleep, diet, exercise and spirituality.

You can’t really short any of those and be a happy, fully healthy, content person. I don’t spend a lot of time talking about the other parts, but they’re very important as well.”A growing body of evidence shows that vitamin D plays a crucial role in disease prevention and maintaining optimal health. There are about 30,000 genes in your body, and vitamin D affects nearly 3,000 of them, as well as vitamin D receptors located throughout your body.

Vitamin D May Help Protect Against Cancer and Other Diseases
According to one large-scale study, having optimal vitamin D levels can slash your risk of cancer and can help prevent at least 16 different types of cancer, including pancreatic, lung, ovarian, prostate and skin cancers.

Vitamin D from sun exposure also radically decreases your risk of autoimmune diseases like multiple sclerosis (MS) and Type 1 diabetes. Sun exposure also helps prevent osteoporosis, which is a significant concern for women in particular.

Magnesium Is Important for Heart Health
Magnesium is involved in the regulation of blood sugar and insulin sensitivity, which is important for the prevention of many chronic diseases, including Type 2 diabetes and heart disease and dementia. It also supports your brain and heart health via other mechanisms.

It supports healthy heart function by relaxing your blood vessels and normalizing blood pressure, for example. Magnesium also has anti-inflammatory activity, support your endothelial function, and the function of your muscles and nerves, including the action of your heart muscle.

Low magnesium has been linked to a higher risk for hypertension, cardiovascular disease, arrhythmias, stroke and sudden cardiac death. According to one scientific review, which included studies dating as far back as 1937, low magnesium actually appears to be the greatest predictor of heart disease, and other recent research shows even subclinical magnesium deficiency can compromise your cardiovascular health.

Omega-3 Fats Are Crucial to Your Well-Being
Meanwhile, recent research suggests high doses (4 grams) of the omega-3 fats EPA and DHA may help improve healing after a heart attack. Other benefits of omega-3 fats include prevention of lupus and Parkinson’s disease, decreased anxiety, healthier and stronger bones, as well as fighting fats in the body.

However, you can’t tell by looking in a mirror if you are deficient in vitamin D, magnesium or omega-3s. The only real way to know if you are deficient in these nutrients is to get tested.

How to Test Your Levels
I’m really pleased GrassrootsHealth Nutrient Research Institute has expanded its research projects to include a range of different tests, seeing how deficiency may be needlessly affecting the health of so many. Like its Vitamin D*action Project, the Magnesium*PLUS Focus Project will allow us all to take action on known science with a consensus of experts without waiting for institutional lethargy.

The Vitamin D*action Project has truly demonstrated the value measurement can have on public health, and there’s no doubt in my mind that the Magnesium*PLUS Focus Project will have the same impact. As in earlier projects, once the study of a community is completed, all that information can be used to push for public health recommendations that will benefit everyone."
Sources and References
1 DrGominak.com
2 The Journal of Steroid Biochemistry and Molecular Biology May 2020; 199: 105595

[TomKat]

I've only read the first 2 pages of this thread, so maybe some have already said some of this. But here's my 2 cents. I'll also note that none of these tips have come from experts, it's stuff I've picked up myself or word of mouth over the years.

I and most of the people I know (the types likely to read this forum), need a cold room to sleep in. I have a thermometer on the wall and don't even try to sleep until I've got the temp down to 15.5 Celsius/60 Fahrenheit -- I sleep under a sheet and comforter. If I can't get the temp that low, then it's sheet-only or on top of the covers. If I do happen to get to sleep without that requirement, I wake up roasting a few hours later. I also run a white noise maker to drown out street sounds. Also, I always read before closing my eyes, and don't close my eyes until I've yawned twice. If I wake up in the middle of the night, I don't resist the insomnia, I read for an hour then go back to sleep.

Ideally I get only 6-1/2 hours of sleep -- if I go over that, I'll only need 4 or 5 the next night. If I have a night of insomnia, I find I can alleviate almost all the symptoms if I get up an hour later than normal, even though I got 3 hours total.

The final tip is: every Sunday night I take an Ibuprofen PM, because my sleep schedule gets off a little on weekends. I've tried Benadryl, but it makes me too groggy the next day, even though they supposedly have the same sleep ingredient.

[Bill Ryan]

Bumping this valuable thread with a PDF from the supplements company Vitacost that came to my email inbox.

It may or may not be of any value, but (a) it's a way of reminding folks of this thread, and (b) it's possible that something in there might be of help to those with chronic sleeping problems.

• The Ultimate Guide to Healthy Sleep
  https://avalonlibrary.net/ebooks/Vit...hy%20Sleep.pdf

[TomKat]

For me, nothing works better than a daily dropper under the tongue of full-spectrum CBD oil from a good brand. Most locally produced brands are good, but mail order, not so much. I don't know if it's the calming effect or the lowered blood pressure effect or what, but it works. But I must admit, I occasionally take an Ibuprofen PM or two on Sunday night to get my circadian rhythm back for the weekday.