Natural Remedies for Insomnia: A Comprehensive Guide

You're right!!! Quite by accident, I discovered papaya helps me get back to sleep when I wake up in the middle of the night. My grocery store had a sale on papayas and I decided to buy a couple. I had first tasted papaya when I went to Vietnam a few years ago and I liked them. I ate a small papaya before going to bed and slept through the night. That was incredible. I didn't have a papaya the next night and when I woke up in the middle of the night I had trouble getting back to sleep like I usually do. The next night I had a papaya before bed and once again slept through the night. These things are like a magic sleeping potion.

Thyme is great for stress and anxiety, which contribute to insomnia. Can be taken internally and externally, do research first before taking internally or if your on medications. Mix some thyme oil with a carrier because its a HOT oil and a mucous membrane irritant, mix with almond or jojoba or a good quality carrier oil and rub on chest and neck and shoulders before going to bed. Can be brewed into a tea with the dried herb and used in cooking.

Niacin is an 'approved treatment' for "elevated cholesterol".

Unfortunately, "elevated cholesterol" is absolutely *NOT* an actual health threat. It is a 'made-up' problem to sell (mostly) worthless drugs. In reality, "elevated cholesterol" is a symptom just as cardiovascular disease is a symptom.

Most don't know but many so-called "health" problems are really dietary & nutritional issues. The real cause of "elevated cholesterol" AND cardiovascular disease is over consumption of carbohydrates &/or carbohydrate sensitivity. The proof is diabetes (also too many carbs + sensitivty) is considered to 'cause' cardiovascular disease!
To 'solve' the "elevated cholesterol" issue just cut carbs. Personally, I lost over 100lb, lowered blood glucose, resolved high blood pressure, & helped other 'health issues' on a low carb/keto diet. I found out about this from Dr. William Davis' "Wheat Belly" books. He lost his mother to cardiovascular disease so he set out to discover why the "standard protocols" didn't work. Dr. Eric Berg said we need only FIVE grams of carbs per day & our livers can make the 5gm from fat or protein.

The 'medical establishment' is controlled by the drug/pharmaceutical industry to profit from illness & injury.

If 'doctors' want to 'help' people do they have to charge so much? I don't think so.
Have a GREAT day, Neighbor!

St Johns Wort is good for anxiety and depression, also a calmative. I found it helps with restless sleep when taken on an empty stomach. However be cautious when taking it because, similar to grapefruit, it will interact with other medications and supplements.

Cannabis tea seems to work for getting back to sleep. I heard indica strain is better for relaxing than sativa. Put like 1/2 grams of dried herb into 8oz boiling water let steep and cover to infuse for as long as you can. Keep in mind this can have side effects such as racing thoughts, anxiety, dry mouth and increased heart rate, keep this in mind as everybody is different, so use caution if you're on any medications.

High vitamin D can lead to terrible insomnia and, secondary to that, exacerbate all your symptoms.

Fantastic! I usually use bones for broth that are given to me by a friend. They raise one hog and one steer every year for personal consumption and cannot use all the bones so give me a good bit of them. He also hunts, so I get turkey and venison bones as well. All natural, so I feel comfortable using them for my bone broth. Unfortunately, I have no good source for chicken bones. Even though I keep chickens, I rarely butcher them. But, this past weekend, I butchered a particularly vicious cock and he's been invited to dinner tonight. I will put those bones into my stewpot and cook them down. I am looking forward to seeing if this works for me as well. BTW, I don't think there's anything magical about bone broth, but I do feel it contains something we need in a form usable to us. Sure wish I knew what that was but, meh, as long as it works and we know how to get it, I'm good with that. Thanks for the hint.

Bone Broth for Insomnia

I've posted before regarding insomnia cures, but I have a new one I'd like to share. My sleep has improved dramatically since I started taking calcium/magnesium supplements at night and increasing the amount of potassium I consume each day. I accidentally discovered another tool to add to my arsenal of sleeping enhancements, bone broth. I've been trying to lose weight and have been increasing the amount of water and other low calorie liquids I consume during the day. I decided to try bone broth since it's low calorie and I like chicken soup. I drank a cup of warmed up chicken bone broth one afternoon and shortly thereafter fell asleep on the couch. I felt like I'd been drugged but I didn't think it was caused by the bone broth. A couple of days later I drank a cup after dinner because I was still hungry, once again I fell asleep. Now I was intrigued so I started drinking a cup about a half an hour before bed. Man, I fall asleep almost instantly and have slept through the night several times (which rarely happens since I've gotten older.) I don't know if this will work for everyone but it couldn't hurt to give it a try.

I know this is an old post, but a calcified pineal gland will contribute to sleep problems, and lemon water will help decalcify pineal gland.

Vitamin B complex for insomnia and stress

Take B complex vitamins to help with insomnia. Sleep disturbances can be the result of B vitamin deficiency. B vitamins are really good for stress relief, too. I take a quality brand from Genestra that has all the B vitamins and find I sleep better when I take it during the day.

When I stop taking the B vitamins the sleep problems seems to return, hope this helps.

I went through a terrible period of insomnia that lasted over 2 years. During that time I was taking Vitamin D3 and Vitamin K2 which I had taken for many years for other medical conditions. I tried numerous additional vitamins and supplements in addition to the two I've mentioned above to help with the insomnia but nothing helped. I wasn't falling asleep until between 5am and 8am most nights and then would wake again after a few hours. I felt mentally and physically broken.

Nine months ago I started taking Zinc Picolinate 30 mg one a day and Vitamin B Complex capsules 82 mg one a day. From the very first day, my sleeping went back to normal and has stayed normal to this day. I just make sure I take them religiously, usually early evening.

Hope this might be of some help to you.

For decades with water I have taken a slightly rounded iced teaspoon of soy lecithin powder late afternoons or before bed for sleep. I also add a 1200 mg liquid soy lecithin softgel just for variety, although it is not necessary for results.

Lecithin has lots of phosphatidylcholine which relaxes the nervous system.

Eating chocolate can for two nights keeps me from getting back to sleep in the night, but chocolate flavonols are good for the brain.

I buy lecithin powder by the pound at BulkFoods, but they have been out of stock for months. Nuts.com has it, though.

What does it mean taking melatonin without blocking blue light causes retina damage?

Tracy: I used to have sleeping issues. I cured myself and now am regularly soundly asleep within minutes after taking a third of a teaspoon of GABA powder. It is tasteless. I am 78 years old and have among other issues, prostate issues. When I awaken every 2,3 or 4 hours to go to the bathroom, I just take another dose. Of the many people I have turned on to GABA, I've heard many rave reviews and no failures. The same goes for the people turned on to it from those my friends and family forwarded the remedy. I take high doses of melatonin and other herbs for health reasons, but the GABA works like a charm by itself. My son btw takes it in a capsule, and it works as well for him - his comment the first night he tried it the the next morning was - it is intense -LOL. Try it - I think it will change your life, maybe dramatically.

Look for Dr. Eric Berg channel at youtube. Then search his channel for Cortisol. He has many videos on lowering Cortisol.

I agree, when melatonin works, it works great. It just doesn't work consistently. I recently bought some gummies w/ melatonin (total 3 mg/ dose) and have started using apigenin as well. The first few days of these 2 items, I slept like a log. Then it stopped working and I was up and down all night again. So I added another apigenin and slept again. After the 2nd night of this higher dose, I see my face is breaking out. Not whitehead pimples, but red bumps that soon scab over. It looks like I have rosacea. So, what to do? I'd rather sleep than worry about my skin, so hope it gets better over time. This insomnia is terrible and NOTHING I have ever used works very long.

On the positive side, for insomnia, I can always rely on Melatonin, or its precursors (5-HTP and or L-Tryptophan), for one day, and one day only, on day 1.

However, on the negative side, when, on day 2, I attempt to use the same supplement at the same dose, I have insomnia on day 2. Then when, on day 3, I double my initial dose, then it works for me again, but only on day 3. It does not work for me on day 4. On day 4 I have insomnia again. Then when, on day 5, I quadruple my initial dose, then it works for me again, but only on day 5. On day 6, I have insomnia again, because my quadrupled initial dose is not high enough for me on day 6. Now, this kind of inconsistent and erratic performance motivates me to dump my supply of Melatonin, 5-HTP and L-Tryptophan, and start taking something else (for insomnia). Because, as to Melatonin and or its precursors, it is a tremendous challenge for me to try to determine what the proper dose should be for me.

All in all, based on the many books that have been written about Melatonin, I find it amazing how overrated and overpraised Melatonin is, when in reality Melatonin and its precursors perform unreliably and inconsistently.

I like the idea of an essential oil!

I often have bad side effects to pills (mostly prescription ones), so I'm a bit leery about taking the 5-htp, as the reactions to it reported by others are mixed.

Thank you!

Hi TrudyG and all others suffering from insomnia,

First, taking a nightly capsule of organic borage oil, regular dose, an hour before bed got me deeply asleep, deeply dreaming, and very calm/confident-feeling the next day. It does take about 3 weeks for most people to have results, although I seem to recall it was more like 10 days for me. After a while I ran out and forgot to take it, only remembered while reading here.

Next, I got an inversion table. You can set it so that you start with a relatively low angle of inversion, by tying the strap underneath--say, 20-30 degrees for at least 10 minutes. That feels like plenty to me. If your heart is lower than your feet by 17 degrees, apparently the lymph glands release and clear. Other benefits I've noticed: practically no asthma, NO INSOMNIA, back pain decreased and overall well-being increased. Not to mention, better circulation.

However I am forgetful so the latest thing I take is borax. This is actually covered in depth at http://educate-yourself.org/cn/boraxconspiracy03jul12.shtml.

In my case, I was looking for help with my out-of-control restless legs syndrome, which, on the first day, diminished almost to nothing (now my Requip prescription of. 25 mg is more than sufficient, where before even 1mg spaced throughout the day barely controlled it. ).

Now I take the borax right before sleep, and I sleep deeply and w/o interruption for 8plus hrs. And I wake up feeling crisp! Also my asthma, which had me audibly wheezing prior to the borax, is slowly disappearing. It's also a fabulous detoxer, and is anti-microbial and perhaps also alkalining too.

At first I took the Borax in the morning, but after 3 weeks, it started to make me very sleepy so I switched to bedtime. It's very fast-acting--one minute I'm lying in bed wide awake, wondering when it's going to start knocking me out, and the next minute, I'm so deeply asleep I haven't even noticed I was getting sleepy, it's so immediate a response.

My friends who are also taking borax find that they have more energy. I MAY be feeling more energetic, but the stuff still knocks me out, so experiment on a laid-back, no-driving-etc-day to see how it affects you.

The other reason I was taking borax is that it balances the whole body's hormone, endocrine, and glandular system over time. I've been taking it now for at least 3 months. I've increased my dose to a tablespoon (from a teaspoon). Just last week it seemed to me that my post-menopausal dryness was no longer an issue. I intend to continue taking this forever.

Oh yes, another borax good result: my neighbor, 70 yrs old, fell off a horse and broke 2 ribs. Since he won't go to doctors, I gave him some borax. He says his ribs healed fast, and with much less pain than the other times they have broken.

Dosing excerpts from midway through the link at beginning of this post:

Firstly, dissolve a lightly rounded teaspoonful (5-6 grams) of borax in 1 litre of good quality water* free of chlorine and fluoride. This is your concentrated solution. Keep the bottle out of reach of small children. (* I''m using distilled water)

Standard dose = 1 teaspoon (5 ml) of concentrate. This has 25 to 30 mg of borax and provides about 3 mg of boron. Take 1 dose per day mixed with drink or food. If that feels right then take a second dose with another meal. If there is no specific health problem or as a maintenance dose you may continue indefinitely with 1 or 2 doses daily. "

(elsewhere in my reading people taking the borax-in-water cure seem to take it for 5 days, stop for 2, then start again for 5 days, off for 2 days, and so on. )

"If you do have a problem, such as arthritis, osteoporosis and related conditions, menopause, stiffness due to advancing years, and also to improve low sex hormone production, increase intake to 3 or more spaced-out standard doses for several months or longer until you feel that your problem has sufficiently improved. Then drop back to 1 or 2 doses per day. "

http://g2cforum.org/index.php/list/other-alternatives/20552-the-borax-conspiracy-how-a-mineral-vital-to-health-was-suppressed

http://g2cforum.org/index.php/list/other-alternatives/2910-big-island-dairy-farmers-fight-radiation-with-boron

BTW... Trazodone HCL does work for my insomnia. At first I had to double-dose but now I can take 1/4 pill and that will also knock me out.... But why bother when borax is much safer and helps with so many cures.
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Last I would like to thank Joy and Everyone about mentioning the water cure. I think adding the right salt will help w my frequent urination, thirst, and allergies. Had forgotten that histamine is a dehydration response. Beginning to wonder if I was developing diabetes. Would diabetes show up in a hair sample?

Many Blessings!

Dr. Oz recommends tart cherry juice for insomnia. Take 1 ounce an hour before bedtime. Tart cherry juice is a natural source of melatonin. Dr. Oz also said the ideal time to go to bed is 9:45PM. Also sunshine during the day, exercise and magnesium are beneficial for getting a good night sleep.

I started using Brewer's Yeast (Nutritional Yeast) about 30+ years ago. I have discovered over the years how it has cured the worst diarrhea and vaginal candida. Since 2016 I started taking it not as a solution to a problem but an almost daily supplement and have amazing results. I sleep so well when I take it regularly. Cures all types of insomnia. I also have been taking it to keep me healthy. I have not had a cold for years and I was using it while working in the classroom. If I forget to take it I have gotten sick over the years but I have learned to take it right away when I am coming down with something and it helps amazingly.

I use 2 heaping tablespoons in a small cup of warm water. (tastes the best). Make sure you stir it and taken best like a "shot". I really don't mind it. I look at it as feeding the health gut bacteria that works for me.

I have noticed that my trouble sleeping vanished when I started snacking on dried figs (maybe about a cup a day). An eye twitch that I had been suffering with for over a year also disappeared. I noticed the improvement less than a week after starting to eat the figs. I skipped one day, and that night the sleeplessness returned. I resumed eating figs the next day and my sleep improved. It's been about a month now and I am so impressed by the results! I have read that figs are a good source of various vitamins and minerals, so I think it might be the combination that works for me. I had tried eliminating caffeine and taking magnesium supplements with no effect. I also tried mag-rich foods like hemp and pumpkin seeds with no effect. Potassium-rich bananas and avocados never helped me either.

Do you take everything you mentioned right before you go to bed?

For Insomnia and waking up at 2-3AM in the morning thats the liver and kidneys trying to detox.