5-HTP

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Anyone here taking the supplement 5-HTP for sleep disorders? I'm interested in it's potential benefits to help with chronic insomnia by people who've used it; recently gave up on Valerian which had no effect except to give me vivid, gory dreams. I used to sell 5-HTP as part of some old work experience - and it certainly was popular - but the placebo effect is by default a sneaky thing.

In the past year I've tried GABA, 5-HTP, and CoQ10 (I was just about to start a thread on CoQ10).

GABA did seem to reduce anxiety -- quite noticeable at first, and now perhaps less so, although that may be just because it's generally working and has led to an overall improvement. I think it improved sleep somewhat also.

5-HTP was very unpleasant. I only tried it for three days, and I can't describe the effect, but it was very unpleasant. Some kind of strange mental agitation and panicky feeling -- don't know how to describe it, but I threw that bottle in the trash after three days and don't have any interest in trying it again.

I think this shows we all differ in a handful of variables, and things that have a dramatic positive effect on one have a negative effect on another. Trial and error seems to be the only way to go.

I acquired 5-HTP as well as an alertness nootropic in the end. Taken both for about a week - alertness in the morning and 5-HTP around 11pm.
Already I've noticed my tendency to crash at 4pm (low blood sugar?) has disappeared, which I think is because I'm metabolising Alpha GPC and CoQ10 from the alertness supplement, this is excellent due to my studies often requiring a great deal of screen reading; often my concentration flags when staring at a computer for too long. More importantly, I've also been getting sleepier at the right times.
Now I have a new problem: discovering what supplement is doing what. In any case better sleep cycles were the penultimate goal.
Been doing some further reading into 5-HTP. It really does sound people are reacting to it as though they'd been starting with a new SSRI. I'm wary of staying too long on 5-HTP now due to it's rather unfortunate effect on the liver. No nightmares/irritability yet, though.

I tried 5HTP out for depression & OCD treatment. It made me more moody but so did St.John's Wart. Different people respond differently to those & other supplements thou so noone knows how it will affect you till you try it.