[Lisa Lou]

Good Morning Sistah's! I searched threads this morning and found several old ones, but nothing in the bio male section, so wanted to throw this out...

I did a PM ramp up for 3 weeks from 500 - 1000 mg and this past Tuesday began the next step, bumping up to 2000 for a week, and next week will level out at 2500. I ingest 4 times per day, 6 - 12 - 5 - 10. Right now the only additional things I am taking are 450 mg of SP with the PM at each dosing and 1 multivitamin every morning. Down the road I will add additional inhibitors and potentiators per Lotus A's and jcap114's research and posts (if you haven't read them you need to!).

Since I started the PM increase on Tuesday, I go to sleep at night fine, 10 p.m. lights out, and asleep by 10:30 with no assistance needed. However, the last 3 mornings (T, F, S) I have woken up at 2:30 - 3:30 a.m., feel refreshed and ready to go! I was concerned how that would affect me at work, but mid-afternoon came, and Thurs and Fri, I didn't make it home for lunch for my normal power nap, but was FINE! No mid-day Blahs. I am getting 4 - 5 hours of good sleep every night, when a week ago it as 6 - 7. My only big change has been the addition of larger doses of PM. Once I wake up, that's it, no going back to sleep.

Oh, and it's not a need to relieve myself issue. I think the SP I've been taking has solved that.

Anyone else experienced this? Any thoughts from my sisters more disposed to the scholarly side than me? Honestly, it is not a problem, YET, however, I know that the body normally needs those +/- 7 hours to truly refresh and regenerate. Maybe it's my body's way of giving an extra couple of hours to research and review the site...

Thanks for any insight provided.

Hugs,
LL

[Scotti]

While I'm not taking PM yet, I did experience a similar thing back when I started taking Saw Palmetto, Ginkgo and spearmint tea (for the SP I'm taking 450 4-5x/day). Sometimes I could fall right back asleep, and sometimes I tossed and turned, finally conceding and just getting up. Didn't effect me throughout the day, and come the next evening the same thing occurred. This lasted about a week or so and has now ceased. I've had no trouble sleeping 7 hours straight, or if I do wake up to relieve myself I fall right back asleep.

[Samantha Rogers]

This has not been an issue for me. But, irony, irony... last night after resuming PM yesterday, I hit the sheets about 10 and woke at about 3. Tried getting back to sleep but with limited success. How odd...

[GoneGirl]

I've read that women are more likely to suffer insomnia than men. I have no idea why that would be. Since starting Spearmint, I've been sleeping more soundly and no longer getting up at night.

CK

[Lisa Lou]

That's my schedule, Samantha! Well, at least I know I'm not alone!

[Lotus]

Dearest Lisa,

I'm glad you created this thread!, it seems like we get less and less these days. Without the assist of my sleepy pill I wouldn't get at least 4-5 hours. Pretty pathetic when you think of it. It's been going on for some time now, even eliminating caffeine didn't make a dent in that sucker (insomnia)!!.

So I'm afraid the candle is burning till it knocks me out, like last night, I was making a post to Sammie and boom! Lights out!

[Samantha Rogers]

That's my schedule, Samantha! Well, at least I know I'm not alone!

Well, it was new for me... Normally, I do wake somewhere between 2 and 4 to visit the loo, but then I go right back out. Not last night. Perhaps it had something to do with restarting my program yesterday, though.

[flamesabers]

Hello Lisa.

I haven't noticed a radical change in my sleeping habits whenever I adjust my pm dosage. While it's typically true people need 7+ hours of sleep every night to feel rested, I think there is a minority who can do just as well on fewer hours of sleep.

There have been times (prior to NBE and afterwards) when I notice my body can go into a sort of power sleep mode in which I feel rested after only 4-5 hours of sleep. Typically though, I have to have been engaging in hard physical work throughout the day. I like to think of it as my body being much more efficient with the sleeping process when I don't have the luxury of getting much sleep. Just as the body can utilize adrenaline to provide a short burst of extra strength, so can the body also do more with less I think in regards to sleep. Maybe in a week or two, you might feel very tired and end up sleeping for twelve hours straight. Afterwards, your body may readjust to your prior sleeping schedule. Barring a physical or mental health condition, I think the body knows how much sleep it needs and will let you know when you're getting too much or not enough sleep.

[AnnieBL]

I started taking gabapentin recently, which will hopefully do something for my peripheral neuropathy once the dosage is raised enough. To date at 200mg last thing at night, the only effect I have noticed is that I go to sleep much faster. But if I wake up, it is as difficult as ever to get back to sleep again. When I used to need small hours trips to the bathroom I'd get back to sleep quite easily, but now I mostly don't need those trips but wake up anyway and more often than not find it hard to sleep again. I don't know what has improved the nocturia and apparently reduced my sleep requirement but I suspect that PM may be involved somewhere.