one of the symptoms of B12 deficiency is insomnia. While I’ve developed many mindfulness skills to manage this I still long for the luxury of being able to just have a decent night’s sleep
I know this is unrelated to B12, however I’d really appreciate any advice on a good melatonin supplement. There are so many available and it’s impossible to see beyond all the advertised hype and know which brand actually works.
thabks
Hi,
I hope you find a way to improve your sleep. My sleep patterns improved greatly once I got enough B12...I need far more than NHS in UK will give me.
Do you think you're getting enough B12?
I also found that taking a magnesium supplement improved my sleep.
I also tried eating foods that contain trytophan eg chicken, turkey, tofu, eggs, fish, milk, cheese and oats. Tryptophan is an amino acid which I've read can help improve sleep quality.
happy to say that I’m doing all the above. I’m taking an extra magnesium supplement before bed too.
I self inject every 2nd day
No particular brand recommendations but keeping to lower doses (400mcg or less) is best if you plan to use Melatonin for a while. Dosages over this range can upset the bodys normal melatonin response and are not advisable long term.
No supplement worked to cure my insomnia but rather the coaching program from Daniel at the sleep coach school. m.youtube.com/channel/UC_td...
very useful information and advice Technoid. Many thanks.
Hi, my sleep got normal again after starting to take Calmvalera tablets from Hevert. My sleep really improved a lot in just few days after starting to take 3 tablets per day.
Hope you get better.
I actually ordered Calmvalera some time ago in response to your post and now it has finally arrived. Great herbs in it. I just started yesterday taking 3 a day but will increase if no noticeable changes occur.
Have currently been awake for hours with throbbing burning feet and I’m feel pissed off and discouraged because it feels as if I have done absolutely nothing to redress this.
My symptoms are now as bad as they were before I even started the B12 injections.
Hope I get the great results from Calmvalera as you’re enjoying.
Hi DeenieBeenia
I have suffered terrible insomnia since I started B12 treatment. So I fully sympathise because it is horrible 🤗
Once I started self-injecting I changed to injecting in the evening and I found I sleep better as a result. Often when I self inject I become very tired afterwards and then I get an energy boost about 8 hours later. So I try to time it so that my tiredness coincides with night time - doesn't always work out but more often than not it does.
I find that watching Today in Parliament sends me to sleep too 😂
I hope you find your solution.
thanks for this suggestion that I’ll definitely try because up till now I always inject in the mornings.
And yes I’ll try and find some mind numbing pointless program to watch that’ll knock me out too 😂😂
The consultant told me to inject in the morning and when I asked if it was ok to do it in the evening he asked why? I explained I felt very tired after an injection so he said try it!
Feedback from this forum suggests that some people buzz after an injection and some feel tired. I think it depends on where you are on your B12 fuel gauge. I know my B12 tank is low and symptoms begin to appear when I am due a B12 jab so I suspect for me low tank = tired response as my body immediately uses B12 to heal.
I would be interested to hear other interpretations which are likely to be based on much more extensive experience!
Sleep well. 🤞
Do you take a vitamin D supplement?
Low vitamin D often goes with B12d and the symptoms are very similar but with crippling insomnia.
If you can (not on anticoagulants) it's best to take D3 with K2.
hello Denise
Yes I’ve been taking a B supplement complex now for several months. Also folic acid. Recommended by my Dutch GP/ gynecologist
But I’ll check about D3 and K2
Generally I prefer to absorb these vitamins naturally from food - the poor liver has enough supplements to be getting on with as it is.
Thanks for your help
It's worth looking into as it might make all the difference, especially in winter when we get less opportunity for synthesising our own D3 from sunlight.My liver was badly damaged in the past by a virus and it doesn't worry at all about my D3 + K2 supplement so hopefully it will be the same for you.
If you need it, you need it and will get a positive response after a week or so. If not, then not, so it's easy to tell.
All the best! 😃
Sorry you're having such terrible insomnia DeenieBeenie. I can't even offer any advice just empathy. I suffer from that terribly myself. Really I don't remember a time in my life that I ever slept well. Even as a child.
I got 3 hours and 4 minutes sleep last night. I should be going back to sleep right now but here I am. It's only 5:30 am. I was up at 4:00. Nothing helps me sleep. I take a PM tablet to help me get to sleep, but staying asleep is a different story.
I listen to sleep sounds. I also wear ear plugs. For some reason even the slightest bit of noise keeps me awake. If I wear my earplugs I can fall asleep. I do worry about getting fluid in my ears. I seem to be susceptible to that. I do wear the plugs a lot. But they really do help me.
I also have to put all of my animals out of my bedroom. They used to sleep with me on the bed but I started putting them out. For a while they used to scratch at the door and so that was really bad. But the ear plugs helped and eventually they stopped doing that. Now I feel like I've given myself the space to relax and go to sleep. Not having a cat laying on my feet or poking me in the face while I'm sleeping helps a lot. Good luck. I hope you get some rest. 🦋
hello dear EllaNore
I also used to allow my cat sleep next to me cause I knew he only had a short while left to live. But yes an animal in the bed is hugely disruptive to our sleep.
Because I’ve had insomnia on and off since puberty at 16, I’m an old girl now well experienced in ways to quieten my mind and surrender into whatever’s going on. So insomnia doesn’t frighten me anymore as it used to because now I know I’ll always have energy to get through the following day. This means that it’s causing me a lot less stress than before.
A huge coping skill I’ve developed is to simply be present with the sensations in my body using my breath to soothe and quieten my nervous system and my mind. I’ve also developed ways to melt beyond all the resistance to pain or discomfort. But it’s taken literally decades to get here!!
When I was 50 the menopause arrived and with it, 3 years of intermittent chronic sleeplessness. At the very worst I’m talking about weeks of no sleep at all! Caused among other things by a lifetime of suppressed fear in my heart
I had to focus my mind into stillness again and again to reach down into this huge fear - it felt like I was locked out of my own body. It was the awful sensations of this deeply buried fear that was actually keeping me in high alert mode and wide awake.
Now thank God the fear is gone and I can just allow any sensations be as they are without all my colossal layers of resistance.
Whew. Didn’t think my response would be so looong! 🤗😂
DeenieBeenie, you are such a kind and gentle soul. You have an amazingly gentle voice and I learned a lot from you. You are one of the reasons I can sleep better and that I can let go of things. Life is different with each of us, but one thing we all experience is hard times and sad times. Finding a way to calm those memories and thoughts that spin in one's head (especially when deprived of B12) when lying there trying to fall asleep was a gift I actually got from you. I am grateful for this forum and the people I have met here. This experience has changed my life. I would have been so lost without HU. I am not as scared of my condition and the pain it caused over the decades while going undiagnosed, medically gaslighted, and scared for so long, is subsiding with the a lot of hard work with counseling and self help books etc. Thank you for your part in that.
I sleep more relaxed but i still don't seem to be able to stay asleep long. I still only average about 5 hours a night. I also used to only get 2 or 3 hours. That has gotten better with enough B12.
Hugs to you DeenieBeenie 🦋
Awww what a truly lovely warm heartfelt reply dear EllaNore. I'm SO happy I've helped you and that you now have more relaxed sleep. Keep up your own priceless hard work with counselling and self help books. There's so many great webinars and videos out there for us all too.
Big hug to you too 😘🤗
🦋💙🦋 lots of great resources out there.
Insomnia was/is a problem for me. I am getting 5 to 6 hours of sleep a night now. Previously I was lucky to get a couple of hours of sleep each night. I want to try to increase my sleep time to 7 hours a night so I just started sessions with a sleep specialist. I will have to do a sleep study soon. One of the things the specialist told me was that melatonin really isn't good as a nightly sleep supplement. It should be used when you want to alter your usual sleep onset time (when you are traveling to a different time zone, etc.). She also told me she thinks part of my problem is that I have started to associate my bed as a place to lie awake and worry about not sleeping. During the next couple of sessions she will help me change that mindset (supposedly). I do tend to ruminate while lying in bed. I hope she can help me.
Some things that have helped me reach 5 or 6 hours of sleep each night are; calcium/magnesium supplements, black out shades on the bedroom windows, ear plugs, a ginger supplement taken right before getting into bed, and making sure my iron levels are good. Apparently iron deficiency can cause insomnia.
wow really useful advice about melatonin. Yes she’s absolutely right about power of negative association - as I said earlier as soon as I stopped worrying about lying awake after a nighttime visit to the loo, sleep returned so much more easily. I think I just learned to trust that I’d be ok the next day no matter how few hours sleep I had.
Yes I take a calcium magnesium supplement too. But recon I should invest in blackout blinds.
🙏
Hmm. I though overwhelming fatigue was a very common symptom of B12 deficiency! Does that not mean we should sleep more?
Melatonin responds to light levels and light colour - so daylight and daylight coloured lights stimulate us and low light levels tend to make us sleep. I binned the melatonin and bought some daylight lamps to use during the day that I switch off an hour before bed and on again when I want to wake.
oh I so wish I had the luxury of simply deciding to sleep for longer!!
Yes light especially from TVs and phones is so bad for the pineal gland that really needs hours of diminishing “light” before natural melatonin kicks in.
I’ll have to become much more disciplined around my phone as a really bad bedtime companion 😂
Hi,
I occasionally have a non dairy milk drink with a pinch of nutmeg in it before bedtime.
I actually used a 5-HTP supplement which is tryptophan. It converts to serotonin, which is transformed into melatonin by the pineal gland (apparently).
I stopped used it after a while because I don't think it really helped me. But it could be worth trying - apparently we need good serotonion levels to have good melatonin levels.
As I say, I used it for a couple of months and it helped but then when I stopped using it I think I slept better. So it's a careful balance.
Hope that might help. CBD oil also helped with 'getting off' to sleep too. It is very hard with b12 deficiency. But you will get back to your old sleeping self in good time, I've no doubt. So keep solidering on!
Dear Hidden,
How are u getting on? I am struggling with sleep too and wondered if anything has worked for you?
Many thanks
Restless Legs Whilst Sleeping
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