Over the years I’ve tried many different vitamins for sleep and anxiety. Some worked, some didn’t.

I find it interesting that anxiety and poor sleep go hand in hand.

You never really find somebody who has anxiety but also sleeps amazing. Conversely you never really find people who sleep great but have crippling anxiety.

I wonder why that is?

No sleep “experts” really know why but I have my suspicions. Here are some of my suspicions…

Chemical Imbalance

Speaking purely on a physical level  there’s not just a chemical imbalance happening in your body but possibly many other factors too. Hormones that are not properly balanced can be a major cause of anxiety and insomnia. Hormones need enzymes to work. Without enzymes, hormones cannot be created or mobilized. Enzymes require minerals to function. Most people are mineral deficient and as a result their biochemical makeup is off.

Gut Brain Connection

We know there’s a gut/brain connection that happens via the vagus nerve and cerebral spinal fluid and directly impacts mood.

The food you eat could be causing depression and anxiety? Of course.

Microbiome

The other interesting factor could be the lack of beneficial bacteria in  your gut which also affects mood and tempermant. Bacteria in our gut is how we turn food into nutrients and it’s also how we create light inside our gut.

Interesting that we have photoreceptor cells that detect light inside our intestine. Why would we need that if we’re not beings of light?

But I digress…

It’s been said that the average human digestive tract is supposed to have 1,000 different species of organisms living inside of us. These organisms help us biologically transmute food into the nutrients we need. The average modern American now has less than 200 different species. That means we’ve lost 80% of the beneficial organisms in our microbiome.

No wonder why depression, anxiety, food allergies and sleep have been impacted.

Genetic Mutations

Genetic mutations can play a role in how your body functions. We all have a gene called Catechol-O-methyltransferase or COMT for short. This gene does so many things but one of the things it does is allow the body to produce methionine, which is what’s responsible for letting go of thought.

I go into more detail in my article titled 6 Supplements To Fall Asleep Fast & Turn Your Mind Off.

It’s important to note that genetic mutations could play a role in your inability to turn off your mind enough to fall asleep. You can get tested for genetic mutations here and here.

The 4 Best Vitamins For Sleep

There are so many vitamins, minerals, herbs and other natural substances (like homeopathy, essential oils, spagyric, ormus based substances and more that can be extremely beneficial for sleep. I’ll do my best to create a simple list of my favorite vitamins for sleep.

Melatonin

The first is a hormone we all know about which is melatonin. What I think is important to realize is that melatonin is a hormone not a vitamin (although you can purchase it like a supplement). Melatonin is a very complex molecule and worth a lifetime of study.

I generally don’t recommend somebody take exogenous melatonin without first living in a way where you create it endogenously first. Taking an exogenous supplement is just that, it’s supplementing what you’re already doing endogenously.

How do you make melatonin endogenously?

• Be outside more
• Avoid reading glasses, sunglasses and contact lenses when outdoors
• Watch the sunrise
• Ground to the earth on natural soil (grass, dirt, sand etc.) with no shoes on
• Block all blue light from devices from hitting your eyes with special glasses or software
• Invest in circadian lighting at night that does not deplete endogenous melatonin stores
• Consume melatonin rich foods

Then after you’re already doing all of that, then I’d recommend taking melatonin supplements. What I’d like to stress is that you can take melatonin incorrectly which will make you believe it doesn’t work.

For me, doing all of the above while adding in melatonin has been a game changer for my sleep. I now sleep like a baby every night and it feels so good.

The reason why melatonin works for me is because I’m already living a nature based circadian lifestyle and melatonin simply supports the way I’m already living. I’m up to 50mg of melatonin per night and my plan is to work my way up to 500mg per night.

At this point I don’t take melatonin for sleep, I take it for all the other benefits which are ongoing. Melatonin is worth a lifetime of study. Just ask Russel Reiter. 🙂

Magnesium

Your body has roughly 9,000 enzymes and magnesium is required for 3,751 of those 9,000 enzymes to function. Many people incorrectly state that it helps 300 bodily functions, which is incorrect by a factor of more than 10.

Magnesium is know as the relaxation mineral. It is possible to take too much magnesium and if you do, you’ll notice that your have runny stools or diarrhea. As a result of losing too many vitamins, minerals and electrolytes when you have diarrhea, it’s possible to have Magnesium Induced Deficiency Syndrome. This means, your body is losing other nutrients as a result of constantly sitting on the toilet with the runs.

The recommended amount of magnesium is typically 500mg per day. I like to break it up during lunch and dinner.

There are other ways of getting magnesium into your daily routine like…

• Transdermal (magnesium baths, foot baths and direct skin applications)
• Magnesium IV
• Magnesium shots
• Magnesium rich foods
• Magnesium added to water

I like to do as many as I can since it’s necessary for so many biological functions.

Magnesium is a powerful mineral to take during the day and at night leading up to bedtime.

GABA

GABA is known as Gamma-aminobutyric acid is a unique neurotransmitter created in your brain. It, much like magnesium has the ability to calm your nervous system down. What it seems to be doing is reducing what they call neuronal excitability. It takes the margins off the extreme ends of stressful thoughts you may have when falling asleep.

By binding to GABA receptors is helps the neurons in the brain reduce excitability. As a side note, if you wonder what could be causing this excitability in your brain, look no further than monosodium glutamate as a primary cause.

Perhaps you will not need GABA if you avoid foods high in MSG. MSG is a known excitotoxin.

I like to hover around the 300mg per night mark 2 hours before bed.

Glycine

Glycine is an amino acid and a neurotransmitter that seems to help with sleep by binding to glycine receptors on our brain stem and spinal chord. Weird right?

It helps to lower core body temperature which is one of the most important factors in getting to deeper phases of sleep.  If you get enough deep sleep cycles in your night, that’s when you’ll wake up feeling refreshed and rejuvenated.

The 3 Best Vitamins For Anxiety

As with the best vitamins for sleep, the same is true for anxiety. I wrote an article here about supplements to turn off your brain that you may find helpful. It goes into more details about the COMT genetic mutations.

For anxiety you’ll also want to balance all of your minerals so you have the building blocks to turn on key enzymes that help regulate stress. Reducing stressful situations, people and events out of your life is something you’ll need to think about. Quitting smoking, avoiding stimulatory foods like caffeine, sugar and excitotoxins like MSG would also be high on my list.

Are these the best vitamins for sleep and anxiety? Depends what you mean by best. Personally I’ve found them to be my top “go to” supplements for sleep.

L-theanine

L-theanine is an amino acid oddly enough found in tea leaves that help your body promote relaxation by increasing neurotransmitters like you guessed it, GABA. L-theanine also increases other neurotransmitters like serotonin and dopamine.

The other interesting aspect of L-theanine I found is that it helps reduce your body’s physiological responses to stress like regulating heart rate and blood pressure.

I like to take it about 1 hour before bed.

Here are excerpts from 3 studies on L-theanine you might find interesting.

“Participants who received adjunctive L-theanine showed significant improvements in stress-related symptoms, including anxiety, compared to the placebo group.” – Study

“Supplementation with L-Theanine and vitamin B6 was significantly more effective than psychoeducation in reducing tics and co-occurring disorders, as measured by neuropsychological findings.” – Study

“For stress-related symptoms, Self-rating Depression Scale, State-Trait Anxiety Inventory-trait, and Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) scores decreased after L-theanine administration (p = 0.019, 0.006, and 0.013, respectively).” – Study

Niacinamide

Niacinamide aka nicotinamide, is a form of vitamin B3 by indirectly influencing many neurological pathways in your brain. I call niacinamide a “Swiss army knife of vitamins”.  One of the things is does is enhance the body’s production of the feel good hormone called serotonin which are directly involved in regulating mood.

It also enhances GABA receptors which can be extremely calming to the nervous system.

But I think they key is that it helps restore mitochondrial function in neuronal cells. It does this by helping electrons cross the outer mitochondrial membrane from complex 1 to complex 4 cytochrome c-oxidase.

In laymen’s terms, it gives energy to brain cells which is needed to deal with stress response.

“Our results could lay the groundwork for future developing a urine-based diagnostic method for patients with depression and anxiety disorders.” – Study 

“In a dyadic contest between anxiety-matched animals, microinfusion of specific mitochondrial complex I or II inhibitors into the nucleus accumbens reduced social rank…Conversely, intraaccumbal infusion of nicotinamide, an amide form of vitamin B3 known to enhance brain energy metabolism, prevented the development of a subordinate status in high-anxious individuals.” – Study

“Benzodiazepines and niacinamide act on GABA receptors, promoting relaxation and reducing anxiety symptoms.” – Study

Inositol

According to our wonderful friends over at WebMD,

Inositol is a sugar alcohol found in foods such as cereals, corn, meat, citrus fruits, and legumes. As medicine, inositol has most often been used by adults in doses of 1-4 grams by mouth daily. It’s often taken together with 200-400 mcg of folic acid daily.

Inositol seems to play a key part in the cell signaling of brain cells which helps regulate physiological actions from stress. It also affects how serotonin functions which in itself regulates stress response.

“Our results suggest that inositol may be beneficial for depressed patients, especially those with PMDD.” – Study

“Nutrient supplementation and the integration of complementary medicine as adjuncts to traditional lifestyle-based therapies in PCOS could therefore provide additional benefits to these women.” – Study

“Inositol has shown promise in reducing anxiety symptoms, particularly in conditions like obsessive-compulsive disorder and panic disorder.” – Study

Other factors to consider

When somebody is dealing with anxiety, they’re typically unable to handle thoughts about future events. Depression usually involves not being able to handle thoughts about past events. This is not always the case but more than average anxiety is caused by untrue thoughts projected about possible future events.

Something you may want to consider for anxiety is according to Dr. John W Tintera (who wrote the book Hypoadrenocorticism) a large part of associated symptoms will go away if you fix underlying issues with your adrenal glands.

If you have high blood pressure, higher than average mid day fatigue, a lack of drive and low testosterone (for men and women)  you most definitely have adrenal issues that can be corrected with proper diet and supplementation. Many times, according to Dr. Tintera anxiety simply goes away after restoring proper adrenal function.

In order to test for this, you’ll need a 24 hour urine test to find out how your adrenal glands are functioning at all different times of the day.

Conclusion

Something I’d like you to think about is that at one point in your life, you slept amazing and had no anxiety. This is the default state of health. What I want you to think about is, did you have a traumatic event that happened to you that cause anxiety?

Did you engage in a lifestyle change (like I did working swing shift) that affected your sleep? Taking the best vitamins for sleep and anxiety is a good step in the right direction (better to avoid drugs and medications) but supplements are also a crutch.

If you live a circadian lifestyle that’s tightly connected to nature, doing the things you love while eating right and taking care of yourself, you shouldn’t need any vitamins for sleep or anxiety.

Your default God given state is one of radiant health. Use your insomnia or anxiety as an opportunity for spiritual and physical growth.

Return to nature.

Questions

1. What vitamins for sleep and anxiety do you currently take?
2. Do also take medications?
3. Do they work?
4. How long have you been on medications?
5. What’s your sleep like? Do you fall asleep easily?