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Clinical trial shows that the use of Vitamin D supplement improves sleep quality

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

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Re: Clinical trial shows that the use of Vitamin D supplement improves sleep quality

#71

Post by markenqualitaet »

tylerwhipple wrote: post #33

If anyone is struggling with sleep, I highly recommend episode 1-3 of the Huberman Lab podcast ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-XfCl-HpRM ), it has literally changed my life. Dr. Huberman is a Neurobiologist at Stanford and explains the science of sleep vs just telling you to not look at bright screens at night. I struggled with sleeping for 20+ years, now I easily wake up early. The biggest game changer: Sunlight…

Podcast looks good. Thanks for sharing.

Heads-up for those who care: It's a commercial podcast with sponsors, trojan ads and all, sadly.

https://hubermanlab.libsyn.com/rss

Re: Clinical trial shows that the use of Vitamin D supplement improves sleep quality

#72

Post by wincy »

wongarsu wrote: post #68
JonathanFly wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>The biggest game changer: Sunlight in your eyes within 30 minutes of waking up. Try morning walks for 1 week (without sunglasses) and your life will be changed. For me I had to also really avoid light at night. F.lux or Windows Night Mode is not enough. You gotta suffer with strong indoor lightblocker glasses, or use e-ink or something at night. And in the winter there sometimes isn't enough sun. You need a LOT of l…

> A minimum of 10 100-watt bulbs in my experience, and even more is better. Plugging in some rough numbers, that seems equivalent to a ~170W LED flood light. A 200W version is $70 from Amazon (e.g. [1]). Are the emitted wavelengths crucial or is such a lamp on a timer a viable way to get early "sunlight" in the winter? 1: https://www.amazon.com/Waterproof-Daylight-Security-Floodlig...

I think CRI does matter, I’m guessing the parent post saw something like this article.

https://www.benkuhn.net/lux/

Re: Clinical trial shows that the use of Vitamin D supplement improves sleep quality

#73

Post by wincy »

danuker wrote: post #49
JonathanFly wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>The biggest game changer: Sunlight in your eyes within 30 minutes of waking up. Try morning walks for 1 week (without sunglasses) and your life will be changed. For me I had to also really avoid light at night. F.lux or Windows Night Mode is not enough. You gotta suffer with strong indoor lightblocker glasses, or use e-ink or something at night. And in the winter there sometimes isn't enough sun. You need a LOT of l…

> You need a LOT of lightbulbs to make up the difference. Indeed. You can measure ambient light with your phone: https://f-droid.org/en/packages/com.vonglasow.michael.satsta... Pointing my phone towards the sun gives upward of 4000 lux, whereas the two bulbs in my room barely add up to 1000 from 1m away.

The outside at midday in summer on a sunny day is more like 120,000 Lux.

Re: Clinical trial shows that the use of Vitamin D supplement improves sleep quality

#74

Post by ethbr0 »

j1elo wrote: post #55
tylerwhipple wrote: post #33

If anyone is struggling with sleep, I highly recommend episode 1-3 of the Huberman Lab podcast ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-XfCl-HpRM ), it has literally changed my life. Dr. Huberman is a Neurobiologist at Stanford and explains the science of sleep vs just telling you to not look at bright screens at night. I struggled with sleeping for 20+ years, now I easily wake up early. The biggest game changer: Sunlight…

In my city during winter the Sun rises at 8:30am... so I'm afraid that won't be possible for people wanting (or needing) to wake up too early. Do you think one of those "simulates natural light" LED lamps are actually equivalent in terms of faking real sunlight?

I have one of the Phillips alarms [0]. Do not currently use it, but regularly did for a year or two.

I don't feel it's bright enough to mimic true sunlight, but it is much brighter than typical light sources. Especially at full brightness on a nightstand.

I've never had problems waking up, so can't speak to those who do. But I would absolutely say it made the experience of waking up smoother and more pleasant.

I'd describe it as a normal waking being jarring, even without alarm, where I have a brief moment of confusion as my brain snaps into consciousness.

Whereas with the light almost every morning was a smoother transition, where I rose to consciousness more gradually, while still sleeping, and then basically opened my eyes already awake.

[0] https://www.amazon.com/Philips-Simulation-Headspace-Subscrip...

Re: Clinical trial shows that the use of Vitamin D supplement improves sleep quality

#75

Post by vintermann »

m0zg wrote: post #43
rapsey wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My insomnia was fixed using vitamin d and magnesium. Magnesium has by far the bigger impact.

Magnesium (in the form of ZMA) is known to increase the vividness of dreams for some reason. Or maybe it's something else in ZMA. I did take it daily when I was lifting heavy, and I can confirm. It's a side benefit in my book, unless your dreams are nightmares.

This sounds odd, but who am I to disagree?

Sorry, I couldn't resist. Seriously though, I can attest that it seems to do something for sleep/dreams, though it's hard to pin down what. Either I remember more dreams, or maybe it makes dreams more distinct as opposed to merely "things you were thinking of as you fell asleep".

Re: Clinical trial shows that the use of Vitamin D supplement improves sleep quality

#76

Post by bamboozled »

JonathanFly wrote: post #41
tylerwhipple wrote: post #33

If anyone is struggling with sleep, I highly recommend episode 1-3 of the Huberman Lab podcast ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-XfCl-HpRM ), it has literally changed my life. Dr. Huberman is a Neurobiologist at Stanford and explains the science of sleep vs just telling you to not look at bright screens at night. I struggled with sleeping for 20+ years, now I easily wake up early. The biggest game changer: Sunlight…

>The biggest game changer: Sunlight in your eyes within 30 minutes of waking up. Try morning walks for 1 week (without sunglasses) and your life will be changed. For me I had to also really avoid light at night. F.lux or Windows Night Mode is not enough. You gotta suffer with strong indoor lightblocker glasses, or use e-ink or something at night. And in the winter there sometimes isn't enough sun. You need a LOT of l…

I rock a pair that is this strong: https://www.swanwicksleep.com/pages/code-red-rebels

Absolutely changed my life in a positive way. I routinely just want to fall sleep now around 10pm if I slip those on around 6:30-7.

Before i wore the blue light blockers. I’d often lie awake until 12-1am while watching my partner sleep. It was so distressing.

Re: Clinical trial shows that the use of Vitamin D supplement improves sleep quality

#77

Post by rhipitr »

I had been living in an area that’s particularly gloomy in the later fall and winter months. My wife had not been feeling great. At her regular checkup, my wife was prescribed ergocalciferol for a rather pronounced vitamin D deficiency. She said she felt like a new person after taking it.

Re: Clinical trial shows that the use of Vitamin D supplement improves sleep quality

#78

Post by kemitche »

FrankyHollywood wrote: post #56

I needed better sleeping and tried various things. In the end I stopped drinking coffee and tea. For me its now just hot or cold water, sometimes a herbal tea, and an occasional beer or orange juice. First caffeine-free weekend I had terrible headaches, than came weeks of strong urges (I felt I was an addict). In these weeks I just fell asleep on the couch or even at my desk at work. I slept a lot these weeks, during…

I can +1 this. I'm on caffeine now, but once a year or so I will "detox" from it to reset for a few months. The first days/weeks are exactly like you said.

The only difference is that after a month or so, I go back to coffee - just at a greatly reduced volume. That first cup is absolutely heavenly.

Re: Clinical trial shows that the use of Vitamin D supplement improves sleep quality

#79

Post by chartpath »

brainwipe wrote: post #26

Being a blue-skinned ginger, I just need to have someone describe sunlight to me and I start producing Vit D. I also sleep like the dead.

Thanks for the chuckle.

Same here but mostly brown hair except red in the beard. I suspect it's not limited to red haired folks but that the gene occurs in people with relatively northern ancestors (Ireland, Scotland, Scandinavia).

IIRC there were lots of red haired people in the continental Celtic population too. Would they have the same adaptation for less need of sunlight?

Also makes me wonder how the Inuit manage.

Re: Clinical trial shows that the use of Vitamin D supplement improves sleep quality

#80

Post by stordoff »

rich_sasha wrote: post #11
MavropaliasG wrote: post #5

50,000 IUs every 15 days for 8 weeks. I wonder if it would have better effects if they were given 3-4k IUs every day

I keep reading about these “IU”s on HN, what on earth are they? Here in the uk you just buy “Vitamin D” and take one pill per day. No fine-tuning, unless you need specialised therapy perhaps.

IUs are used in the UK - my prescription is given as "Colecalciferol 800unit capsules" and many supplements list it. Some only list the μg value though.
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