We could all use more sleep, but just because we need it, doesn’t mean it’s easy. That’s why some people turn to vitamins and minerals or other sleep aids to assist in getting a much-needed good night’s sleep.
If you are unsure about taking a pharmaceutical sleep aid, as these often come with a high risk of side effects or increased drowsiness, there are many natural alternatives you can look to.
One natural nutrient that some people turn to for sleep is L-Theanine.
If you are not familiar with L-Theanine, you are not alone!
What is L-Theanine?
L-Theanine is an amino acid.
If you are not familiar with amino acids, they are simply molecules that combine with each other to form proteins.
In the human body, they help break down food, help you grow, repair your body’s tissue, and perform a wide variety of other bodily functions.
To learn more about amino acids, look here.
L-Theanine is an amino acid that you can find in tea leaves and some types of mushrooms. It is also an effective and natural nootropic.
What is a nootropic?
Simply put, a nootropic is anything that is natural or synthetic that might have a positive impact on your mental or cognitive abilities.
- Dietary Supplements
- Prescription Drugs
- Synthetic Compounds
To learn more check out my nootropics guide here.
L-Theanine, when taken in high enough doses, can improve your cognitive performance and sleep quality.
Taking it can help you relax when awake without creating drowsiness.
How Does L-Theanine Benefit Sleep Quality?
So the real question: does L-Theanine help sleep?
L-Theanine is truly unique in that it can assist with sleep without being a sedative. How does this work? No one has the perfect answer, but it does, and the effects have been well-documented.
The bio-effects of L-Theanine include:
- Modulating your brainwave activity
- Promotion of calming neurotransmitters
By modulating brainwave activity, L-Theanine helps you reach a calm focus and can help promote anxiety-free relaxation before you go to sleep.
By promoting calming neurotransmitters, L-Theanine can help with reducing excessive brain activity, which can allow for additional focus on current tasks and fewer distractions.
Other Benefits of L-Theanine
The benefits of L-Theanine are as follows:
Sleep Improvement:
Improving your relaxation and lowering stress makes L-Theanine assist in sleep quality.
This is accomplished by causing people to fall asleep quicker and easier. It can also approve the quality of sleep once you have fallen asleep.
Another potential benefit of L-Theanine is assisting children who have ADHD to get better quality sleep. This can really assist them with managing their ADHD and a proper night's rest can improve their education and performance in other activities.
Reduce Stress and Anxiety:
Because L-Theanine is an anxiolytic, or anti-anxiety drug, it can greatly reduce a person’s anxiety. However, unlike other anxiolytics, L-Theanine doesn’t have sedative or drowsiness effects.
It does, however, promote a calm and more importantly, attentive, wakeful type of focus. It also can reduce both mental and physical stress symptoms.
This can include the lowering of blood pressure and heart rate. It can also help with anxiety reduction in people with other mental diagnoses such as schizophrenia.
Bettering Focus, Learning, and Memory:
The stress hormones cortisol and corticosterone can be challenging when it comes to focusing and learning. L-Theanine can assist with rectifying that.
L-Theanine can lower these hormones' levels and ensure that they don’t interfere with memory, focus, and learning.
It can also increase attention span or reaction time. Additionally, some people use it in conjunction with caffeine to enhance their cognitive abilities.
Mixing these can improve the length of attention span, better the visual information process, and increase the ability to switch from one task to another.
Weight Maintenance:
It is no secret that when you improve your sleep and mental health, you have an easier time maintaining a healthy lifestyle. This includes diet, exercise, and the maintenance of a healthy weight.
This is because stress reduction and sleep can limit your tendency to eat unhealthy food, and you are less likely to skip your workout.
L-Theanine Dosing for Sleep
If you have decided that L-Theanine is right for you, the next question you might have is: what is the right dose?
The recommended doses for L-Theanine are between 100-400 mg. It is always a good idea to begin with the smallest dose to determine how it will affect you before increasing or taking the max dosage.
There are also great natural supplement options if you are interested in starting to take L-Theanine.
- Supergreen Tonik: Contains 250 mg
- Mind Lab Pro: Contains 100 mg
Another thing to keep in mind when taking L-Theanine is that studies have shown that it can be more effective when combined with GABA or Magnesium.
Like with any natural supplement or vitamin, it is a good idea to check with your doctor before taking a new supplement as it can affect your health and if you are already taking supplements, you want to make sure it is safe to mix.
This is also a good idea if you have any other conditions that might be affected by L-Theanine.
If you are pregnant or breastfeeding or have low blood pressure, consult with a doctor before taking L-Theanine. You also need to consult with a doctor before you begin using L-Theanine for children.
Possible Side Effects of L-Theanine
Most adults can take L-Theanine without issue, but like most nutrients or supplements, L-Theanine can come with potential side effects.
Potential side effects from taking conflicting supplements can include:
- Increasing Drowsiness
- Decreasing Ability to Sleep
- Interference with L-Theanine’s Intended Effects
- Interference with the other Supplement or Medication’s Intended Effects
Some medications and supplements that you should be careful of mixing with include:
- Medications to treat high blood pressure
- Any stimulant medications, including those that contain caffeine (coffee, black tea, oolong tea, guarana, etc.)
Other Natural Sleep Supplements
There are other natural sleep supplements you can look into before turning to synthetic medications or prescription drugs.
These include:
- Melatonin
- Lavender
- GABA
- Valerian
- CBD Oil
- Kava
- California Poppy
- Glycine
- Chamomile
- 5-HTP
- Magnesium
The above natural sleep aids are a great alternative to synthetic prescription drugs assisting sleep.
One to take note of is Melatonin. This natural hormone in your body can help you sleep by sending your brain a signal that it is time for it to sleep.
Melatonin supplements can greatly assist your body’s natural melatonin influences.
Another great choice for natural sleep aids is magnesium. This mineral helps many functions in the human body, including brain function and heart health. Magnesium helps your body relax, which can help promote sleep. As mentioned above, this can also pair with L-Theanine.
Lavender is soothing and is used for many things in the household. This is why it is believed to assist and aid sleep. Some studies even show that simply smelling lavender before you sleep can help.
That is why pillow mists, nighttime face washes, and other sleep products are scented in lavender.
Another great supplement that you can take while taking L-Theanine is GABA.
Known for producing a calming effect, GABA, or Gamma-aminobutyric acid, is a chemical messenger that can slow down and calm your brain by blocking specific signals that would normally feed to your central nervous system.
GABA is a very common inhibitory neurotransmitter that blocks chemical messages that can stimulate the nerve cells in your brain. These messages often heighten your senses and emotions, but GABA works to prevent this. Because of its effects, GABA can help with anxiety, stress, and even fear.
Another supplement that you might have heard of is tryptophan, often associated with eating a Thanksgiving turkey. While there is not enough tryptophan in turkey to actually make you sleepy, taking at least 1 gram of tryptophan per day has been known to help sleep.
With all the potential resources out there, you have many options to assist in your sleep before turning to a pharmaceutical option.
Related: Nootropics for sleep
Bottom Line
The bottom line is that L-Theanine is a great alternative to synthetic supplements for aiding sleep.
Because it is a nootropic, L-Theanine allows natural relaxation without making you feel drowsy. It also comes with other benefits, such as reduced stress, better focus, better learning abilities, better memory, and even weight management.
There are also great supplement options when it comes to taking L-Theanine. If you look, there are options everywhere.
While there are some potential side effects, if taken responsibly, L-Theanine is a great option for longer-lasting and more restful sleep.
You can even take L-Theanine with other sleep aid supplements like magnesium and GABA.
If L-Theanine isn’t for you, there are some great alternatives you can try before running to the pharmacy.
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