Amy’s Sleep Helpers List

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Amy’s Sleep Helpers List

Being a high-wired person, I basically have to wrestle myself to sleep. Nights are easier if I’ve done a lot of physical exertion.
But just going to sleep is not enough. You’ve got to achieve deep sleep and REM sleep. Alcohol messes with that, and for me so does CBD. If you have an Apple Watch or similar device, it has a built-in sleep monitor. But a sleep app like AutoSleep makes the data much easier to read. With these, I’ve been able to hone what works best for healthy sleep.
This is a list of relatively quick fixes I’ve made up for my insomniac pals.

MUSIC

A lot of sleep music is pablum, just a step above white noise. Take it a big step deeper with science.
Brain Wave Music 
Binaural beat music has a tone embedded in it that is slightly different in each ear. The brain is compelled to even those tones out. This syncs up brainwaves and generally leads to calmness. After a while, it gets Pavlovian; I rarely get through more than a few minutes now.
Plenty of it free or nearly so around. Look for terms like binaural beats and Hemi-Sync associated with calming or sleep. The titles often have hz (hertz) in them. Look for in the 400s or lower. Theta waves are calming, delta waves will knock you right out, so I use theta to ease me into sleepiness and delta to put me to sleep.
Heart-Settling Music 
Developed to put babies to sleep. But not lullabies. Heart-centered instrumental music based on a heartbeat rhythm works more on the body than the brain, but is very effective. My favorite is Pulse: Music for Exploration by Rusted Root’s Jim Donovan.  

SLEEP STORIES

I’m not a big fan of guided meditations for sleep like the Calm app is famed for. Weird and controlling. My mind can race while listening to music or white noise. Sleep stories give your busy brain just enough to distract you. I am a convert to Calm’s sleep stories, though other apps and podcasts offer them, sometimes for free with an upfront ad.
I prefer sleep stories that relate a trip to nature, rather than fiction or poetry. At Calm, Erik Braa (my fave!), Chike Okonkwo, Alan Sklar, and Timothy White have deep, rich voices that take you to remote and exotic locales. Ben Cura, David Duclos, and Ramon Tikaram have soft, sexy, European voices and often go to quiet, cosmopolitan places. Jerome Flynn prefers ocean environments.
But there are stars at Calm. Stephen Fry tells of the lavender fields of France. Laura Dern and Matthew McConaughey relate childhood adventures of wonder. Cillian Murphy’s train trip through Ireland is rich in nature and literature. Harry Styles does his story entirely in prose.

SUPPLEMENTS

Herbs, Amino Acids, and Melatonin: 

Soooo many herbal blends for sleep. It gets confusing. This general guide may help. Look for botanicals mixed with amino acids and maybe some melatonin.

Gummies and drops take 15 minutes or so, but you’ll need to take them before nighttime teeth brushing because of the sweeteners.
Botanical capsules are best as concentrated liquids in thick gel caps like Gaia Herbs to get past the stomach and be released in the intestines. Give capsules 30 to 40 minutes to take effect, so pop a few and have some herbal tea.
Melatonin is a hormone triggered by darkness and made by the brain to regulate sleep. Take only occasionally, keep to 5 mg or less. Can be hard to wake up from. Take when in a dark room for best effect, then listen to music or sleep stories, or read. 

Light, easy, relaxing— set you up for sleep

  • California poppy
  • GABA
  • L-Theanine — amino acid that enhances brain chemicals like dopamine, GABA, and serotonin
  • lemon balm
  • passionflower
  • skullcap – calms nerves
  • vervain – calms nerves
  • 5-htp — naturally occurring amino acid that is a precursor to serotonin

Heavy, soporific — certainly put you to sleep, but can be hard to wake in the morning 

  • kava kava – hypnotic, works on body, caution with heart and liver issues, bitter
  • L-Tryptophan — an essential amino acid that the body uses to create melatonin and serotonin
  • valerian — herbal valium, smells awful

Recommended Brands

  • Resteva Sleep Extra Strength by Results RNA.
    • My fave. Love it because unlike most other chewies, drops, and such that are easy to take while in bed, Resteva is like water — no sugar, sticky, no taste. Being sublingual, goes to work in under 15 minutes
  • Sleep Tonight Drops by Enzymatic Therapy
    • Drop like a rock within 10 to 20 min. Botanicals added allow melatonin dose to be lowered.
  • Sleep or Stress gummies by Oly
    • Sleep is a botanical gummy with herbs, L-theanine, and just a touch of melatonin, much like the drops above. Botanicals-only Stress is terrific earlier in the evening while mellowing out. 
  • Sleep lozange by Olly
    • Sublingual 5 mg melatonin buffered by lemon balm. Goes to work very fast. 
  • Emergen-zzzz Nighttime Sleep Aid with Melatonin by Emergen-C 
    • A fizzy drink with magnesium that goes to work fast.  
Minerals: 
Magnesium is famed for relaxation. But wow, it sure can give you the trots. Try magnesium glycinate, malate, or maybe taurate. Take blended with some calcium or potassium for best effect. But for a quick hit, go for magnesium carbonate; my face is Calm with L-theanine. Powders, which usually have little to no taste, make it easy to adjust your dose. Begin with a smaller dose and work up.
The sure way to do magnesium is in a bath soak since it gets to tight muscles and tension. Epsom salts are magnesium. Take it to a deeper level with bath salts that include Dead Sea salts, which have the added punch of lithium.

TEAS

Yeah, chamomile’s OK, but it takes more than that to lull me to sleep. See the light herbs in the above list for more ideads and cautions.
  • Lady Cora’s Evening Tea by Republic of Tea
    • Foolproof. Seriously, if it can loosen up Lady Cora, it’ll do you. Lemon balm (mellow nervine), linden flower, orange blossoms, chamomile, lavender flower, skullcap (powerful nervine), passion flower (another powerful nervine) and just a touch of valerian root (what valium is based on).
  • Vervain or verbena
    • The best vervain (powerful nervine) comes from Europe, where it’s just called vervain. Ultra mellow but slightly odd taste.
  • Linden flower
    • Sweet, mild taste, makes happiness.

Amy Martin is the author of Wild Dallas-Fort Worth: Explore the Amazing Nature of North Texas (https://moonlady.com/amy-martin-selected-to-write-wild-dallas-fort-worth-explore-the-amazing-nature-of-north-texas/), to be released by Timber Press in 2022. She is the North Texas Wild columnist at GreenSourceDFW (https://greensourcedfw.org/) and author of Itchy Business: How to Treat the Poison Ivy and Poison Oak Rash (http://itchy.biz/). She was the senior comedy, magic and cirque critic for TheaterJones, The Aging Hippie columnist for Senior Voice, and the Taoist panel member of the Texas Faith blog of The Dallas Morning News. A journalist for over 40 years, she wrote for Dallas Observer, Dallas Times Herald, Dallas Morning News, Senior Voice, and D magazine, and was contributing editor and columnist for Garbage magazine. She was known by many in North Texas as the Moonlady for her alternative newservice of 15 years, Moonlady News, and served as creator/producer/promoter of the acclaimed Winter and Summer SolstiCelebrations for 20 years.

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