Try L-tryptophan or pumpkin seeds or raw milk instead of sleeping pills

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Monday, April 02, 2012 8:10 am Email this article
Sleeping pills were associated with a 4.6 times greater risk of death over 2.5 years according to a recent study.

Instead of sleeping pills, you might try L-tryptophan or pumpkin seeds (which contain tryptophan), or (raw) milk instead of sleeping pills.

(See the Weston A. Price Foundation for why raw milk is better than pasteurized milk. See here or what the excellent presentation by Sally Fallon from the Weston A. Price Foundation talking about raw milk here.)

I've taken L-tryptophan for sleep for 30 years -- occasionally for the first 11 years, and just about every night for the last 19 years. (I have NOT tried pumpkin seeds.)

More is not better.

If I take too much, I will wake up after 3-4 hours.

I'd prefer to take a small dose (500 mg) and bedtime, and then if I wake up too early, take another small dose (250-500 mg).

If I eat chicken or turkey at night, I will NOT take the tryptophan at bedtime.

If I drink raw milk late at night, I will reduce the dose of tryptophan to 250 mg because milk contains tryptophan.

I have also found that taking larger doses of iodine for the past several years has reduce the amount of tryptophan I need.

I have very little experience with 5-HTP -- 5-hydroxy-L-tryptophan -- which is made in our bodies from L-tryptophan.

However, I have read that 5-HTP can cause stimulation several hours later, so be aware of this. L-tryptophan makes more sense to me than 5-HTP since this is what is found in our diet.

Subjects

Subjects: 10,000+ people taking sleeping pills vs 23,000+ not taking sleeping pills

The study followed 10,529 people given prescriptions for sleeping pills and compared them with 23,636 matched controls who had not been given a prescription for sleeping pills.

Follow-up Period

Average follow-up of 2.5 years

The subjects were followed for an average of 2.5 years.

REFERENCE

Kripke D, Langer R, Kline L. Hypnotics’ association with mortality or cancer: A matched cohort study. BMJ Open. 2012, 2(1):e000850.

AUTHOR’S CONTACT INFORMATION

Dr Daniel F Kripke
Scripps Clinic Viterbi Family Sleep Center
La Jolla, California, USA
.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

Other Articles

Other articles about sleeping pills

• Sleeping pills estimated to cause 320,000 to 507,000 excess deaths per year in US alone
• People taking sleeping pills were 4.6 times more likely to die over 2.5 years
• People taking 1 to 18 sleeping pills per year were 3.6 times more likely to die over 2.5 years
• People taking 18 to 132 sleeping pills per year were 4.4 times more likely to die over 2.5 years
• People taking more than 132 sleeping pills per year were 5.3 times more likely to die over 2.5 years
• Controlling for poor health did NOT explain the excess deaths associated with sleeping pills
• People taking more than 18 to 132 sleeping pills per were 20% more likely to get cancer in 2.5 years
• People taking more than 132 sleeping pills per year were 35% more likely to get cancer in 2.5 years
• Sleeping pills increase risk of depression, suicide, infections, hypertension, CVD, heart failure
• Try L-tryptophan or pumpkin seeds or raw milk instead of sleeping pills

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