Natural Sleep Medicines

I have had trouble getting off to sleep for years, and used to take sleeping tablets. Towards the end of my pregnancy i could deal with it ok as i was not working and could sleep during the day. Now since having DS its really taking its toll on me. It takes up to 2hrs for me to fall asleep at night and no sooner than i drift in to a deep sleep DS wakes for a feed, then its another hour or so before i go back to sleep, and he is so active during the day now and im so exhausted by the time bed time comes around, but still cant go straight to sleep.

I only want natural stuff as i hate the drugged out, hangover side effects from sleeping pills. Im dopey enough with out that Lol.

I have tried herbal teas, baths, relaxation techniques- Meditation, breathing, sleepy music, mind CDs etc and I have tried one product (liquid) from "the goodlife" health food store, which helped to relax me but didnt help with actually falling asleep!

I have babbled a bit:redface:

Can any one reccommend Natural therapies, medicines that have worked for you?
I would be willing to try almost anything.

TIA:)

I went through a period of time where my inability to sleep was purely and simply down to a problem with brain chemistry. I was suffering from chronic fatigue syndrome at the time and some really expensive and extensive tests showed that I was deficient in omega 3 fatty acids in particular and a few different amino acids. Once we supplemented those, I got better and the sleep problem improved. The company that did those tests has unfortunately dropped off the face of the earth now.

The reason I'm telling you this - at the time my doctor explained that your body turns omega 3 fats into serotonin. If you lack serotonin you become depresses. But the body also turns serotonin into melatonin which is the brain chemical that tells your body it's time to sleep.

My brain chemistry has mostly fixed itself now - but I do remember times that I'd be extremely tired and just lie in bed completely unable to sleep because my brain didn't have the right chemicals to make it happen. Apart from the fish oil supplements, I used homeopathic melatonin tablets which helped somewhat. I also found SAMe supplements to be good, and for a while both helped with the slightly depressed feeling I had.

I don't know if any of this will help or whether it was just specific to my particular brain chemistry problem at the time. Apart from that, I found valerian to be good, but there was another ingredient in the herbal sleepy formulas that worked better (unfortunately I can't remember what it was right now!). When it comes to aromatherapy I found marjoram oil to be the most effective at inducing sleep.

BW

Just a quick thing i remember from neuroscience at uni.

Melatonin supplements do help with sleep and the day/night cycles, but they have failed to be deemed safe by the TGA in Australia. You can get them in America and over the net, but i would be careful about taking them. This was 3 years ago i learnt this, so it might have changed since, but i would check it out.

Natural sunlight is very important for regulating Melatonin etc (hence why they say for jetlag to go out during the day in the country you are in), so do try to get plenty of natural sunlight during the day.

But I would say that BW gave some great advice in regards to chemical inbalances and Serotonin levels. Infact, one of the big signs of depression is sleep disturbances (although there are many different hypothesis on depression vis-a-ve- serotonin or doppamine interactions).

I would be talking to my GP, if its not a relaxation issue, it might signal something else there. Do you take multivitamins? That might help.

You are doing a great job, its so hard being a mummy full stop, let alone when you have problems sleeping... I can get to sleep at night but for a while found it hard to fall back asleep after a feed in the night, and then my whole day was out because i was so exhausted. It's really hard

I wasn't completely aware of that, Yael. Thank you. This was longer than three years ago.

I was aware that tryptophan supplements were in the same state - available and legal in the US but not here.

What I took, however, was a homeopathic substance. I'm not entirely sure how homeopathy works, but the stuff I took did have a TGA number on it.

BW

I use the rescue remedy sleep blend - it works for me & for my ADD husband

Wow I didn't know that about melatonin. I used the homeopathy Melatonin too. Do we know why the other one was banned?

My Insomnia came from my body not learning how to make it's own hormones. (thanks to the pill) Eventually I stoped creating melatonin and stopped sleeping. I went ot see a natropath and a homeopath as i didn't want to take sleeping tablets.

Doesn't really help all that much, but TIA your not alone.

Thanks ladies for your help. I am going to the doctors on friday to discuss this with him. I am running on empty at the moment so have figured its time to do something. Thanks again:)

have you tried kava? it's only recently back on the market...

what can i say... lovely :)

I use the Brauers Insomnia Relief from the chemist. It is basically bach flowers I think, and is natural. It works for me, but not for my dh, so you would need to just give it a go. You just spray it under your tongue before you go to bed and let it get absorbed into your system

Melatonin is available from some practitioners, depends who you visit. *link removed*
I have no idea if this is a good brand, but it's not a practitioner product, so I can't comment on it's efficacy.

However...............There's a wonderful US website,
LEF Search - Welcome To The Life Extension Foundation Buyers Club Inc
they sell it, but you need to be careful. Importing this may cause problems.
5-HTP IS available in Australia - but only in QLD. You can buy it directly from the manufacturer - or if you have a good and reliable practitioner they can dispense it for you.

OTherwise, try these amazing herbs
kava
passion flower
valerian

let me know if you need more help.
Vicky

Maybe the circumstances are different but the outcome was same. Whenever everyone in my house would slowly retire into their beds I stayed there laying in my bed with eyes wide open. The sleep was becoming an alien to me. Knowing the disadvantages of the sleeping pills I could never gather courage to take their aid. But I needed something to resolve this problem and it was then when I came to know about Yoga. I practiced it for a period of 1 month and the results started to show within a couple of weeks. Since then sleepless nights have become alien to me. Can you find anything more natural than this?

Hi guys, I am so glad I have found this thread.

When I had DD last September I started to suffer insomnia from the moment she was born (very torturous for a new mum, I know tears-of-Joy). I just could not shut down my brain. I also developed the baby blues really badly which never went away and although my ability to sleep slowly improved I was diagnosed with PND when DD was 3 months old.

I am currently on effexor which balances the seratonin levels in the brain and I have found it fantastic, however I am weening off this soon as I want to start TTC #2 in September.

So, to get to the point, i came to this forum looking for possible natural remedies that could 1 - help me sleep better when bub #2 is born and 2 - hewlp keep PND at bay.

Butterfly warrier, What you said about omega 3 is very interresting. it seems like it might help with both PND and sleeping issues? I do not eat fish so perhaps I shoudl start buying a suppliment. The Blackmores preg vitamins I use during pregnancy do have some omega 3's but perhaps I need more? Does anyone know the maximum dose of omega 3 you can have whilst pregnant and breastfeeding?

tears-of-Joy , sorry to invade your thread :)

Charli'smumma, I'm currently on 3g of fish oil per day. The lady I consult for acupuncture tells me that this is safe while going through IVF (and therefore while TTC and pregnant). I vaguely recall that she said that the maximum level is much higher than that. I've only fairly recently increased my dosage again, and even though I'm on medication for my anxiety/depression, I am noticing an improvement and will probably look into reducing the dosage of my anxiety medication soon.

BW