The End of Melatonin (these work better)

Summary

This video script explores five alternatives to melatonin for better sleep: magnesium, which may help with sleep onset and duration; passion flower, linked to increased sleep time and relaxation; glycine, promoting faster sleep onset and deeper sleep patterns; chamomile, offering a calming effect; and theanine, which can counteract caffeine's wakefulness and improve sleep efficiency. The script emphasizes the importance of dosage and individual testing for optimal results.

Takeaways

• 🌙 Magnesium can significantly improve sleep quality and reduce sleep latency, with studies suggesting up to 1000mg three times daily can be beneficial.
• 🔬 Magnesium aids in melatonin production and reduces hyperexcitability by blocking the NMDA receptor, promoting relaxation and easier sleep.
• 💧 Maintaining proper electrolyte balance throughout the day can enhance magnesium retention, improving sleep quality.
• 🌿 Passion flower, when taken as a supplement, can increase total sleep time and has a sedative effect by attaching to GABA receptors.
• 🍵 Chamomile, particularly in supplement form, can provide a tranquilizer-like effect and promote relaxation by binding to GABA A receptors.
• 🥚 Glycine, an amino acid, can help reduce sleep latency and increase deep sleep patterns when taken before bed.
• 🌱 Theanine can improve sleep efficiency and counteract the stimulating effects of caffeine, especially when taken at higher doses.
• 🍵 Electrolyte supplements like those from Element, containing sodium, potassium, and magnesium, can help replenish what's lost during the day and aid sleep.
• 🧠 The combination of magnesium and passion flower can be particularly effective for sleep, as they work through different mechanisms to reduce excitability and promote relaxation.
• 📈 Dosing is crucial for the effectiveness of sleep aids; personal experimentation may be necessary to find the optimal dosage for individual needs.

Q & A

What is the main topic of the transcript?

The main topic of the transcript is discussing alternatives to melatonin for improving sleep, focusing on the benefits and mechanisms of various supplements and natural remedies.

What is the first alternative to melatonin mentioned in the transcript?

The first alternative to melatonin mentioned is magnesium, which has been shown to improve sleep latency and overall sleep time.

What is the significance of the study published in BMC Complementary Medicine and Therapies regarding magnesium?

The study published in BMC Complementary Medicine and Therapies is significant because it suggests that taking up to 1000 milligrams of magnesium three times a day can significantly improve sleep onset latency and total sleep time compared to a placebo.

How does magnesium help with sleep according to the transcript?

Magnesium helps with sleep by being required for melatonin production and by blocking the NMDA receptor, which reduces hyperactive glutamatergic neurotransmission and leads to a more relaxed and calm state.

What is the role of electrolytes in relation to magnesium and sleep as discussed in the transcript?

Electrolytes, particularly sodium, potassium, and magnesium, play a critical role in sleep. The transcript suggests that maintaining proper levels of these electrolytes throughout the day can help retain magnesium better, thus improving sleep.

What is passion flower and how does it affect sleep as per the transcript?

Passion flower is a natural remedy that can be consumed as a tea or supplement. It affects sleep by attaching to GABA A and GABA B receptors, which helps induce relaxation and a sedative effect.

What is the recommended dosage of passion flower for sleep improvement mentioned in the transcript?

The transcript mentions a study where participants took passion flower for about two weeks, but it does not specify the exact dosage. However, it suggests that the supplement form of chamomile, which is similar, is more potent.

How does glycine contribute to sleep as discussed in the transcript?

Glycine contributes to sleep by reducing core body temperature and increasing peripheral vasodilation, which aids in relaxation and melatonin production. It also helps in getting into slow wave sleep patterns faster and with fewer awakenings.

What is the recommended dosage of glycine for sleep improvement according to the transcript?

The transcript suggests a dosage of at least 2 grams of glycine to see an effect, up to four or five grams, as long as it does not cause digestive issues.

How does chamomile affect sleep and what form is recommended for better results?

Chamomile affects sleep by binding specifically to GABA A receptors, which provides a sedating effect. The transcript recommends taking chamomile in supplement form for better results.

What is theanine and how can it counteract the effects of caffeine on sleep?

Theanine is an amino acid that can improve sleep and sleep efficiency. It can counteract the stimulating effects of caffeine, especially when taken at higher dosages, helping to improve sleep quality even after caffeine consumption.

What is the suggested dosage of theanine for someone who has consumed caffeine, as per the transcript?

The transcript suggests trying a dosage of around 400 milligrams of theanine, especially if caffeine has been consumed earlier in the day.

Outlines

00:00

💤 Enhancing Sleep with Magnesium

The first paragraph introduces magnesium as an alternative to melatonin for better sleep. It discusses a study published in BMC Complementary Medicine and Therapeutics, which found that taking up to 1000 milligrams of magnesium three times a day significantly improved sleep latency, allowing subjects to fall asleep 17 minutes faster. Magnesium is also highlighted as a necessary component for melatonin production and its ability to block the NMDA receptor, reducing hyperactive glutamatergic neurotransmission and promoting relaxation. The speaker recommends trying a slower-acting form of magnesium, such as magnesium malate, and emphasizes the importance of balancing electrolytes like sodium, potassium, and magnesium throughout the day. A product recommendation for electrolytes called 'element' is provided, which contains the necessary balance of these minerals.

05:02

🌿 Exploring the Benefits of Passion Flower and Chamomile

Paragraph two delves into the effects of passion flower and chamomile on sleep. A study mentioned in the text shows that passion flower can increase total sleep time by 23 minutes compared to a placebo. The mechanism behind this is explained through its interaction with GABA receptors, which promotes relaxation and a sedative effect. Chamomile is introduced as another sleep aid, with a study suggesting its effectiveness when taken in supplement form. Chamomile is noted for its binding to GABA A receptors, which induces a state of sedation without causing excessive tiredness. The speaker shares a personal anecdote about the strong impact of chamomile, suggesting it as a potent option for those seeking relaxation before sleep.

10:02

🍵 Theanine: A Natural Sleep Aid and Caffeine Counter

The final paragraph focuses on theanine, particularly its effects on sleep and its ability to counteract the stimulating effects of caffeine. A study cited in the text indicates that children with ADHD who were given 400 milligrams of theanine experienced increased sleep and improved sleep efficiency without adverse effects. The speaker shares personal experience with theanine, suggesting that higher doses may be beneficial. Another study discussed involves rats given caffeine and theanine, showing that theanine can improve sleep and reduce wakefulness associated with caffeine. The speaker recommends starting with 400 milligrams of theanine, especially for those who consume caffeine, and mentions theacrine, a compound that combines caffeine and theanine for a more potent effect. The paragraph concludes with a reminder to subscribe to the channel for more content.

Keywords

💡Melatonin

Melatonin is a hormone that the body naturally produces to regulate sleep-wake cycles. In the context of the video, melatonin is mentioned as a common supplement people take to aid sleep. However, the script suggests that there might be safer and more effective alternatives to melatonin for improving sleep quality.

💡Magnesium

Magnesium is a mineral that plays a crucial role in many biological processes, including sleep regulation. The video discusses a study indicating that higher doses of magnesium (up to 1000 mg three times a day) can significantly improve sleep onset latency and overall sleep time. Magnesium is also highlighted for its role in melatonin production and its ability to block the NMDA receptor, which can reduce hyperexcitability and help with relaxation.

💡Sleep latency

Sleep latency refers to the time it takes to fall asleep. The video mentions a study showing that magnesium supplementation can reduce sleep latency by 17 minutes compared to a placebo, suggesting that it can help individuals fall asleep faster.

💡NMDA receptor

The NMDA receptor is a type of glutamate receptor in the brain that plays a role in memory and learning but can also contribute to hyperexcitability when overactive. The video explains how magnesium can block the NMDA receptor, reducing this hyperexcitability and promoting relaxation and sleep.

💡Passion flower

Passion flower is a plant whose extracts are used as a herbal remedy, particularly for anxiety and sleep disorders. The video cites a study showing that passion flower can increase total sleep time and is suggested to work by attaching to GABA receptors, promoting relaxation and a sedative effect.

💡Glycine

Glycine is an amino acid that functions as a neurotransmitter. The video discusses how glycine, when taken before bed, can help individuals fall asleep faster, enter slow-wave sleep patterns more quickly, and have fewer awakenings, thus improving sleep quality.

💡Chamomile

Chamomile is a herb known for its calming effects and is often consumed as a tea to promote relaxation and sleep. The video suggests that chamomile, particularly in supplement form, can have a tranquilizing effect by binding to GABA-A receptors, which can help with stress reduction and sleep.

💡Theanine

Theanine is an amino acid found in tea leaves that is known for its calming effects. The video discusses how theanine can increase total sleep and sleep efficiency, and interestingly, can counteract the stimulating effects of caffeine, making it a potential aid for those who consume caffeine and have difficulty sleeping.

💡GABA

Gamma-Aminobutyric acid (GABA) is a neurotransmitter that inhibits excitability and is thus involved in reducing anxiety and promoting sleep. The video explains how passion flower and chamomile can influence GABA receptors, leading to a more relaxed state and better sleep.

💡Electrolytes

Electrolytes are minerals that carry an electric charge and are essential for various bodily functions, including maintaining fluid balance and nerve function. The video mentions that maintaining proper levels of sodium, potassium, and magnesium throughout the day can help with sleep, as these electrolytes can influence how well the body retains magnesium, which is crucial for sleep.

Highlights

Magnesium can be taken in higher doses than commonly believed for better sleep.

A study published in BMC Complementary Medicine and Therapies showed significant improvements in sleep with magnesium supplementation.

Magnesium can help reduce sleep latency by 17 minutes, allowing faster sleep onset.

Magnesium indirectly aids sleep by blocking the NMDA receptor, reducing hyperexcitability.

Magnesium is required for melatonin production.

Proper magnesium dosage is crucial for effectiveness and individual results may vary.

Electrolyte balance, including sodium and potassium, can affect magnesium retention.

Passion flower can increase total sleep time and has a sedative effect.

Glycine, an amino acid, can improve sleep quality and reduce awakenings.

Glycine helps to increase slow wave sleep patterns, which is restorative.

Chamomile, especially in supplement form, can have a tranquilizer-like effect and绑定 GABA A for relaxation.

Theanine can increase sleep efficiency and counteract the effects of caffeine.

Theanine at a higher dose can improve sleep without adverse effects.

Theanine can be particularly beneficial when taken in combination with caffeine.

Theanine can help improve sleep quality and reduce wakefulness caused by caffeine.

Theanine should be taken later in the day or towards the evening for best results if caffeine was consumed earlier.

Transcripts

everyone is so quick to take melatonin

when it comes to sleep I've got five

alternatives for you across different

categories that might help you sleep

better and candidly safer than melatonin

okay first off good old magnesium but

before you skip over this section

there's some interesting news that

suggests that you could probably take

more magnesium than you have been taking

there's an interesting study that was

published in BMC complimentary medicine

Therapeutics took a look at three

different randomized control trials with

over 150 participants now what they did

in this particular study is they gave

subjects up to one full gram 1,000

milligrams of magnesium up to three

times per day okay so with this they

compared to Placebo and they found there

were huge improvements not just in sleep

but more importantly their sleep latency

17-minute Improvement in their sleep

onset latency which means over Placebo

they fell asleep 17 minutes faster

showing that magnesium has a very

powerful short-term effect helping you

relax and fall asleep but there was a 16

minute total increase in their sleep

time which isn't statistically

significant but in the grand scheme of

things that's over a quarter of an hour

of actual quality sleep so then we look

at another paper to understand the

mechanisms here there was a study that

was published in nutrients now what we

do know about magnesium is that

magnesium is required for melatonin

production in the first place that's

great but we also know that there's

another component okay magnesium

indirectly helps sleep and it does so by

blocking what is called the nmda

receptor how this impacts sleep is

pretty fascinating most of us have what

is called hyperactive glutamatergic

neurotransmission it means that we're so

stressed and so wired that we have so

much glutamate pumping all the time that

we are in a constant state of sort of

excitability okay when you block the

nmda receptor with magnesium you sort of

reduce this pre synaptic like glutamate

response what that means is you're not

producing as much glutamate unless is

actually binding so you literally feel

more relaxed and calm this prevents that

hyper excitability and I want you to

think of it like this let's say you get

up at 2 a.m. because you have to pee and

then you lay back in bed and you're like

jolted awake and you can't fall back

asleep this is a perfect example of

hyper excitability right so if your

brain was sort of tuned down a little

bit more you might still feel those like

thoughts racing through your head that's

at a different level but it's not going

to get things wired up and get you fired

up to where you know that feeling it's

like the same feeling you get when

you're driving down the road and all of

a sudden you you pass a cop that you

didn't see before right and you just get

that jolt of adrenaline you're like whoa

oh shoot hope I don't get caught for

speeding right that happens when these

thoughts pop in your head and it like

jolts you awake with adrenaline imagine

if that was DED a little bit so that can

make a huge difference now before I get

into the next one it's important to note

that your daily sort of levels of

magnesium play a critical role and

although taking magnesium at like 600 or

800 milligram is hugely effective by the

way I used to take like 400 to 500 and I

started noticing that I had better sleep

Improvement if I creeped that up to like

800 milligrams I'm a bigger dude so that

makes sense so you need to play with the

dose a little bit but go for something

like a DI magnesium melate or something

that's a little bit slower acting so it

doesn't make you have to run to the

bathroom in the middle of the night but

the other piece to pay attention to is

like your sodium your potassium and your

magnesium levels throughout the course

of the day so I find if I take

electrolytes throughout the day my

sodium levels are high enough that I

retain the Magnesium better I put a link

down below for the electrolytes that I

recommend they're called element they

have 1,000 milligram sodium 200

milligrams potassium and 60 milligrams

of magnesium so at least as far as

depleting what I deplete when I work out

or when I'm walking around or sweating

this fills that void so that link down

below gets you a free variety pack with

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their mango chili their lemon habanero

all delicious flavors they even have a

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flavors CU you get a free variety pack

when you use my link down below for any

purchase so that link is drink LM n.com

Thomas it's in the top line of the

description they are a sponsor on this

channel and I appreciate the heck out of

them for letting us create this content

and be able to continue to do so so

check them out next up is an interesting

one that I usually consume in a tea form

but you can consume it in supplement as

well I'm talking about passion flour and

there was a study that was published in

clinical psychopharmacology that

conducted a randomized control trial

okay it was 110 participants and took a

look at passion flower versus placebo

now in this particular case they were

taking it for about 2 weeks they found

there was a 23 minute total increase in

their sleep compared to Placebo now

again we're talking almost a half an

hour like if you're only getting 6 hours

like we're talking a good chunk of your

total sleep but we have to look at a

study published in sleep science to

understand the mechanism interestingly

enough passion flow attaches to Gaba a

and Gaba B which helps you feel more

relaxed right helps you sort of has a

sedative effect now interestingly enough

when you look at magnesium magnesium

sort of blocks glutamate from binding

right so magnesium sort of helps cut the

excitability so to speak whereas passion

flower sort of physically relaxes you

more so it's although both are kind of

getting to the same end result it's like

magnesium blocks the excitability

whereas passion flower influences the

relaxation so they can work in tandem

together because magnesium is blocking

the glutamatergic response or release

and passion flower is influencing Gaba

getting us to the same place but via

slightly different routes so there are

great combination together number three

is one that's really interesting that

people don't often take enough of once

again the dose makes the poison but the

dose also makes the result and this is

glycine the simple cheap amino acid now

people take magnesium glycinate because

it's magnesium bound to glycine that

shows how effective the stuff is but if

you're taking magnesium bound to glycine

the amount of glycine you're getting is

negligible although still impactful but

the literature that I've been looking at

suggests quite a bit more there was a

study published in sleep and biological

rhythms it took a look at Placebo versus

3 G of glycine 1 hour before bed and

that's what's cool about glycine is it

is something that you take shortly

before bed for a powerful effect what

they found with this is that subjects

not only fell asleep faster but they

ended up getting into the slow wve sleep

patterns faster and they had less

Awakenings so let's say for example you

only can sleep like five or 6 hours

arguably if you got into slow wave sleep

patterns faster you'd get more out of

that short amount of sleep I'm not

saying saying that the stage one stage

two sleep is a necessary evil because

it's very important but a lot of times

it's dragged on too much like if you

ever look at your sleep metrics and your

sleep watch or whatever tells you you're

not getting enough rem or you're not

getting deep sleep you're probably not

getting into the slow wave rhythms that

you actually need you're spending a lot

of time in the light sleep phase which

is restorative for certain things and

memory consolidation but not what we

really need to get that full pattern and

there was a study that was published in

neuropsychop Pharmacology that helped us

kind of understand the mechanisms here

it found that glycine reduces the core

body temperature and increases

peripheral vasod dilation so you're

expanding sort of the blood flow to the

extremities allowing the core to cool

which is actually a huge part of

melatonin production and overall

relaxation so so far we have magnesium

passion flour and glycine realistically

which could all be taken together I

would recommend at minimum 2 gram of

glycine to really get in effect all the

way up to four or five as long as you're

not getting any kind of digestive issues

from it number four is one that's very

interesting it has a specific category

okay and that's chamomile okay and there

was a study that took a look at

chamomile in supplement form which I

would recommend if you're going to take

chamomile take it in supplement form

it's much more potent it almost has an

effect that's almost sort of

tranquilizer like and it binds

specifically to Gaba a not to Gaba B now

what this means is that you're still

functioning like if you bind a Gaba a

and Gaba B you're just going to get dead

dog tired and if you bind a gab at a you

feel sedated so this is a really good

option for people that are just super

stressed that maybe want to wind down a

little bit of chamomile a few hours

before bed is almost going to give you

this ability to just Netflix and chill

and just kind of relax right and then

when it's time to go to bed then it can

just happen I almost can't even take

chamomile because I feel sort of drunk

from it it really has that much of an

impact especially if you take it in a

capsule form but if that's what you're

after you may want to give it a shot cuz

a heck of a lot better than alcohol

finally one of my personal favorites I'm

talking about theanine in this case but

theanine people don't take enough once

again there was a study that was looking

at children with ADHD it was a

fascinating paper because they gave kids

400 milligram of theine whereas the

recommended dose is usually about 200 on

the high end they found that this

increased their total sleep but it also

increased their sleep efficiency

percentage like how efficient and

productive their sleep was with absolute

abolutely zero adverse effects at this

higher dose so I took this to heart and

I stopped taking 200 and I started

taking 400 and 600 and I started

noticing that wow the benefits for me

start at 400 now me as an online just

YouTube guy I can't tell you the exact

amount to take but I can tell you you

need to test it out on yourself here's a

really interesting paper though if you

drink caffeine you might find that

theanine could be your best friend so

they gave rats 7.5 mg per kilogram of

body weight okay then they put them on

either Placebo or they gave them

caffeine plus anywhere from 22.5 to 150

Mig of theanine what they found with

this was very interesting they found

that at all dosages theing had a

powerful impact on sleep it definitely

improved sleep and their ability to

relax what was really interesting is at

the 75 to 150 range it sort of countered

the effects of caffeine

so much so that it improved their sleep

and it decreased the wakefulness that

would happen with caffeine remember this

caffeine is a pretty long halflife

overall like it stays in your system for

quite a bit so even if you stop drinking

it at noon there's still caffeine in

your system at night which is absolutely

impacting your sleep so theanine has the

ability to combat this it can counter

the effects of caffeine and we're seeing

that in order for this to really take a

noticeable effect it has to be at a

higher amount now obviously these mice

or rats were small so what I would

recommend is try creeping up more like

400 milligrams especially if you've had

caffeine and in fact there's even

compounds called theacrine which bind

caffeine and theanine together for this

reason but you're better off to have a

more potent effect of theanine by taking

it later in the day or towards the

evening if you had caffeine in the

morning so as always keep it locked in

here on my channel we see you tomorrow