As with many other aspects of our health, the right vitamins play a key role in good sleep habits. Unfortunately, many consumers fail to find the right vitamins when shopping on their own in the confusing vitamin aisles or online marketplaces. There is a new breed of personalized vitamin companies that will help consumers navigate the vitamin space. These companies perform an online personalized vitamin assessment to determine your individual needs. Let’s explore how this technology can relate to selection of sleep supplements.
Vitamin deficiencies in certain areas can range from subtle effects on sleep to profound disturbances. There may be an insidious onset over many years or a dramatic sign that seems to show up all of sudden. Either way, it is important to consider the following nutrients and how supplementing them may help your struggles with sleep.
We all know iron is important for energy. However, few people realize that being iron deficient not only makes you feel tired, but can actually make you more likely to have a condition called Restless Leg Syndrome. People with this condition have constant movement and twitching sensations in their legs just when they are trying to fall asleep.
Many of us have unrecognized iron deficiency that does not come up in typical blood counts. Low iron stores can be repleted with the proper vitamins to address this. Correcting iron deficiency can also help make restless legs disappear and stop sabotaging your sleep.
This is known as the essential sleep vitamin. Actually it’s a hormone that our brains typically manufacture to tell our bodies when to sleep. When our natural sleep rhythms get disturbed (such as via jet lag or an altered schedule of staying up too late) melatonin can be used to get us back on track.
Taking this natural supplement, typically 1–5 mg (make sure to get a reputable brand to ensure quality and purity) about thirty minutes before bed, helps to naturally reset your body’s clock so you essentially relearn when bedtime should be.
Magnesium is essential to making all of our cells function properly. Its role in sleep is likely dual. It may help with the actual mechanism by which our brain relaxes to fall asleep (by stimulating GABA receptors). It is also essential for helping with muscle cramps that are a common cause of a poor night’s sleep.
Correcting magnesium deficiency helps your body with the natural process of falling asleep and at the same time can rid you of those painful muscle cramps. Magnesium is an electrolyte we can’t live without and certainly can’t sleep (well) without.
People who are deficient in vitamin B12 (common among vegetarians or vegans, or those regularly taking medications for acid reflux) often experience what is called neuropathy. These are sensations of tingling or burning pain in the feet or hands. The symptoms of B12 deficiency are typically worse at night and are quick to ruin a night’s sleep. B12 deficiency can also interfere with memory and cognition.
Correcting a B12 deficiency can help get rid of these annoying symptoms and leave you free to rest. The more we learn about this important vitamin, the more we love it. We find it plays a role in many facets of our health, sleep included. We know that without enough vitamin D, many of us experience muscle aches and fatigue. Of course, both of these things can relate to sleep—muscle aches limiting our ability to sleep and fatigue causing us to want more sleep. More and more research suggests that there is a strong correlation between lack of sleep and insufficient amounts of vitamin D. This is an easy one to correct with the proper dose of a supplement.
This herb may be your best friend if you are not sleeping well because of menopausal symptoms. Hot flashes are a huge disrupter of sleep (whether you are conscious of them or not). For this reason, many women find that with menopause come daytime fatigue, weight gain, irritability, and other hallmarks of sleep deprivation. Black cohosh is an herb commonly touted for helping reduce hot-flash frequency and symptoms. For some it is supremely helpful, for others not so much. It may come in handy in your quest for better, less interrupted sleep.
There is no need to sort through these options on your own, figure out a vitamin cocktail, and hope that you are taking an evidence-based approach. Rather, you should work with a personalized vitamin company to put you through an assessment and prescribe the right blend of vitamins for your profile. It is an easy and simple way to find a vitamin routine that will work for sleep improvement.
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