How L-Theanine Changed My Sleep Forever
Unlike other supplements, this one won’t betray you in the morning.
Sleep is important. As you grow older, it arguably becomes more important. But that doesn’t stop people from putting it aside and prioritizing other aspects of life.
When I was a junior in high school, I had a job working as a busboy. The particular night that I’m thinking about was during a warm summer. I was working late on a Saturday again. One of the servers, a nice lady with an unexplained jovial mood, noticed that I was sulking a bit. At that time, it was just my resting face, but that’s a topic for a completely different piece. Anyways, she said to me “Come on! You’ll sleep when you’re dead.”
She laughed as she said this. I laughed too. I guess it was sort of true. I did have to work the very next day and it was an early shift to accommodate the Sunday breakfast rush. I would definitely be lacking in the sleep department. At that time, I wasn’t unfamiliar with sacrificing my sleep in order to do other things. Although, most of the time this consisted of staying up really late to play video games, going out for late-night drives with friends, and consuming way too many Youtube videos in the span of a night.
I think I still remember what she said now because it pointed out a truth about the world that I would notice again and again — most people don’t care about sleep. Sleep is something that can always be sacrificed. In fact, we tend to worship the idea that sleep should be sacrificed in order to accomplish high achievements, meet quotas, and satisfy desires. This is a mentality that needs to be eradicated. Especially when you consider that the long-term effects of chronic sleep loss lead to several health complications that include obesity, heart attacks, and depression.
Even if someone knows all this, it can still be difficult to set up a proper sleep schedule and make the necessary life changes to get more sleep. I have a fairly solid routine now and I’ve found that incorporating l-theanine to the mix has done wonders in benefitting it.
Chances are that you’ve already heard about l-theanine before. You might be familiar with the fact that it can be used with coffee in order to combat jitters and other unpleasant side effects of high caffeine dosages. L-theanine is a naturally occurring amino acid and can be found in the same leaves that are used for green tea and matcha.
On most nights that I seriously have trouble sleeping (Sundays), I am usually stressing out about something. L-theanine is an anxiolytic. That means it has been shown to have positive effects on the mental and physical symptoms of stress. Unlike most anxiolytics like valerian and hops, l-theanine does not have any sedative effects. This is also why I greatly preferred taking l-theanine over something like melatonin. Melatonin often left me feeling groggy in the morning, whereas l-theanine didn’t have any noticeable effect on my wakefulness or mood.
In a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial for boys with ADHD, l-theanine was found to improve sleep percentage and showed a decrease in time spent awake during sleep. Along with getting some blackout curtains, I found that my Fitbit showed a significant decrease in my time spent awake during my sleep schedule. It was also much easier to fall asleep each night. I put on my customary playlist for sleep and drifted off within the first five minutes. Considering it usually takes me fifteen-plus minutes to fall asleep, I see this as a huge improvement.
As someone who has struggled with lots of intrusive thoughts before bed, I’ve found that a combination of meditation and l-theanine before bed has had a huge impact on my ability to wind down at the end of the day. L-theanine is not going to instantly knock you out at the end of the day. However, you’d be hard-pressed to find a supplement with similar benefits and no side-effects.
Along with the 50mg of l-theanine in my matcha tea each morning, I try to take 200mg before heading to bed each night. Because of the virtually zero side-effects, I’ve found that l-theanine has dramatically improved my sleep quality and daily life. In a world that celebrates sleep deprivation, it’s good to have a little help in combating all the obstacles that we face when trying to improve our sleep quality.
