If you have trouble sleeping or if you
seem to sleep fine, but you don't feel
rested and energetic during the day then
this video is for you. It could be that
the solution to your problems is as
simple as glycine.
Hi. I'm Dr. Chris Masterjohn of
chrismasterjohnphd.com. And you are
watching Chris Masterjohn Lite where
the name of the game is
“Details? Shmeetails. Just tell me what works!”
And one thing that can work for
better sleep is 3 grams of glycine
before bed. Now there's a few ways to do
this, but first let's talk about why it
works. Studies have shown that not only
does glycine have a calming effect in
the brain to help you wind down and
prepare for sleep but also it helps
lower your core body temperature at
night which is one of the things that
makes your sleep more effective.
When you fall asleep you get into
slow-wave sleep quicker and you stay
stable in that state and so what happens
is not only might you get more sleep, but
your sleep might be more restful so that
even though glycine itself has a calming
effect you may feel more energized
during the day.
The studies that have been done have
used 3 grams of glycine.
There are a couple ways to get that.
One is to just buy a glycine supplement.
I don't care which one you use really, but
take the glycine supplement in the
amount that provides three grams of
glycine right before bed. Another way to
do that and one that I frequently
advocate as a way of getting glycine is
to take collagen. Hydrolyzed collagen
such as Great Lakes or Vital Proteins,
one serving generally provides a little
over three grams of glycine, just make
sure you look at the nutrition facts to
make sure that that's what you're
getting. Now should you do one or the
other? Well you really have to try it.
So I have some clients who report that they
get gastrointestinal distress when they
take free glycine, but not when they take
hydrolyzed collagen. I have another
client who takes free glycine because he
gets GI distress from taking hydrolyzed
collagen and not free glycine. I have
another client who doesn't get GI
distress from either of these
supplements, but collagen doesn't help
her sleep and it looks like free glycine
does. Why might that be the case? Well one
of the reasons that glycine promotes a
calming effect in the brain is that it
antagonizes the excitatory effects
of another amino acid, glutamate.
If you're taking hydrolyzed collagen you're
getting some glutamate in it and so that
glycine might not be as effective for
you if messing with that ratio is really
what you need. Additionally it might be
the case that just taking the glycine on
its own helps the glycine get better
into the brain when there aren't as many
competing amino acids so that might be
one reason that you need to try free
glycine and if collagen doesn't work for
you don't rule out that free glycine
might be the answer. On the other hand my
best friend says that she needs about 20
grams of glycine, and in order to get
that amount of glycine she needs to rely
on collagen, and if she takes it as free
glycine she feels super out of it, out of
breath and like she's dying. So the
point is everyone's a little bit different.
Start slow with 3 grams, don't
use higher until you know you need it.
I'll talk about how to know that in the
next video, in two videos from now.
Start slow with 3 grams, make sure that you try
free glycine and you try collagen, pick
the one that works the best with the
least GI distress, if that's an issue, and
the best results that makes you feel the
best, sleep the best, and feel the most
rested and energized when you wake up.
All right. I hope you found this useful.
Signing off this is Chris Masterjohn of
Chris Masterjohnphd.com. And you've
been watching Chris Masterjohn Lite.
And I will see you in the next video.