Customer Reviews

Source Naturals L-Tryptophan 500mg, 120 Tablets

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I am a true insomniac who does not want to take prescription sleeping pills due to side effects and dependency issues. So I tried this. Works really well for me. Does not knock me out. Just eases me into a natural sleep. Price at Amazon is half of what I would pay at local health food store.

This doesn't make me sleep like Unisom, but it does help me fall asleep naturally. When I wake in the morning, I don't have that "sleeping pill hangover." I just feel refreshed.

I'm a chronic insomniac, but I hate the hung-over, dragged-out feeling the next day after taking over-the-counter sleep meds. Tryptophan is the stuff in turkey that makes people sleepy after Thanksgiving dinner. I take it with the herb valerian, and I quickly zone out with no fuzzy feeling the next day.

I've tried many natural remedies for anxiety, but this is by far the best. Much more effective than 5HTP. If I feel that I'm starting to have anxiety or out-of-proportion stress (social anxiety or what have you), I cut a tablet in half (more than this and it makes me sleepy (I'm 5'8" and 140 lbs - effectiveness will differ based on size, no doubt) and I can feel the excess nervousness or anxiousness slip away. Also, if you have trouble falling asleep you can take up to three before bedtime (JUST before as it works quickly). I highly recommend this product.

I weaned myself off Cymbalta 60mg - I don't suggest it but I will say that if you have to do it on your own, L-Tryptophan helps to lessen the blow of it all.

This stuff has saved me from a pharmaceutical need spanning 12 years. You name it, I've been on it: Paxil, Prozac, Zoloft, Xanax and Cymbalta - they all did as promised and all were painfully habit forming. I hated "needing" a pharm cause they're the last ppl I wanna help line the pockets of!

So, I considered 5-HTP again, I used for a few months (years ago) when I was uninsured and had to wean myself of Paxil (most painful thing I've EVER experienced). But, I've seen mixed reviews of 5-HTP lately and L-Tryptophan seemed to be the safest because it occurred sooner in the body during the Serotonin process. They couldn't be more right!

I take 3 at night and sleep and dream like a baby. Vivid dreams, like a diary of my day. It's fantastic. I've cut back on coffee. I feel a permanent smile on my face. I feel brand new. I HIGHLY suggest this product.

This is a great supplement that really helps with sleep and relaxation. As an insomniac I take many medications and supplements to help sleep, and Tryptophan is one of the good ones when taken in conjunction with other things.

Milk and banana at bedtime is my mother's remedy for good sleep. It always worked; I have known that since childhood. What I discovered myself is that every time I had a dinner of rice and garbanzo beans or eggs, I slept deeply and soundly. Digging deeper for the reason traced it to tryptophan and carbohydrates as the common ingredients in all these.

Tryptophan works best for sleep in conjunction with a high carbohydrate dinner because carbohydrates increase insulin, which in turn increases the uptake of tryptophan in brain to increase serotonin synthesis, and that is helps melatonin synthesis, which puts you to sleep. Calcium magnifies the effect of tryptophan on sleep by augmenting the conversion of serotonin to melatonin. Milk and dairy products have all these ingredients and work best for sleep. The downside to this approach is high calories and potential weight gain.

A glass of milk (0.08%) and a banana (0.01%) have about 2000 mg of tryptophan, equivalent of four 500 mg tablets. In my experience taking three to four 500 mg tablets works best for sleep. What I found is that supplement increases the allergy symptoms because tryptophan is also involved in histamine synthesis, which mediates allergies. Sometimes I have also had hangover with tryptophan and melatonin supplements but not tryptophan rich food. However, I do not notice allergy symptoms with tryptophan rich food. If you take supplements for few days in a row, the effect wears off; not so with tryptophan rich food.

The big downside to supplements, of course, is the potential impurities that can get in with the supplements. In 1989 a syndrome called Eosinophilia-myalgia syndrome was linked to 2 impurities, EBT & MTCA, in Tryptophan from a Japanese manufacturer. At least 37 people died from that illness. As we all know, Congress & Senate are for sale, and like the Wall Street, Supplement industry has bought a share of the legislature and avoided all regulation.

For me personally, exercise in the evening and listening to audiobooks really put me to sleep and are the best sleeping aids, without any disadvantages. Tryptophan, taken in the form of dairy products (milk) and banana at bed time help. Occasionally I have used tryptophan in pill form, 2-4, 500 mg pills taken with about 1000 mg of calcium work really well.

Update 10/1/2009: There is lot of batch to batch variability in the quality of this product. So far, I have tried 3 different batches and one did not work at all. This indicates poor quality control in this unregulated industry of supplement manufacturing.

This is one of the few products that does not give you that tired/out of it feeling the next day after you have taken it. It is not addicting and gives you a good nights rest. I take it about one hour before I want to go to sleep and it relaxes me just enough to go to sleep quickly. Source Naturals are excellant products and always have very good food allergy labeling.

My naturopath suggested this to help me sleep through the night (I could GET to sleep but not STAY asleep). It works like a charm, with no "sleep hangover" or side effects like other solutions I've tried (melatonin, kava kava, ambien, 5HTP, St. John's Wort, chamomile and various teas). I have tried other brands and always come back to Source Naturals. I just discovered their Aller-Response for my miserable March allergies and have the same success. Thank you, Source Naturals!!

I stumbled onto this after my doctor tried me on various prescription sleeping pills, which didn't help me at all. I have slept more in the last couple of years since I discovered it than I had for the 15+ years before, when I was averaging 2-3 hours per night. I prefer the tablets to the capsules because I have a great deal of trouble swallowing the capsules--they stick in my mouth, so I end up choking on them. Unfortunately, Amazon is having a great deal of difficulty sending tablets when I order them. The last time I placed an order, I received capsules twice before I finally got tablets, and my current order just arrived as capsules as well. I like using Amazon--this is a difficult product to find in the stores around here--but consistently getting the wrong item is very frustrating, as well as costing me sleep when I run out before they get it right.