I enjoy my sleep, so sleep supplements are fun to explore. My issue with most of them was the grogginess I would feel from their serving sizes of melatonin (typically in the 3-5mg range).
So I continued to dive into and explore if there were other supplements that aid in sleep quality just like melatonin does - to not just rely on the melatonin.
It eventually led me to glycine, and I found how important it truly is for our entire body.
In this post, we are diving into glycine in its entirety: from its various benefits, supplementation, and usage.
Let's dive in!
Glycine is an amino acid (and neurotransmitter) that helps with a variety of things, most notably sleep. The primary amino acid found in collagen, it is one of the most naturally occurring proteins in our body.
Glycine is a neurotransmitter that can be both excitatory or inhibitory, meaning it can stimulate or turn-off brain activity.
In addition to these, glycine helps with the following processes:
Since glycine assists in all of these processes, it is one of the most important amino acids in our body.
Since your body typically produces Glycine (similar to Creatine), we wanted to explore the benefits that occur with additional supplementation.
In this section, we are going to address what supplementing with Glycine can do for your body.
Glycine is best known for its improvements in sleep quality. It also improves the quality of sleep by decreasing your body's temperature. As they both aid in sleep wellness, brainpower is improved and fatigue is reduced. This is why we believe it's an incredible amino acid to supplement with.
Through utilizing it for sleep, glycine also improves psychomotor vigilance in the morning after supplementation. Psychomotor vigilance consists of your attention, focus, and reaction times.
In summary, you can break down glycine and sleep in this way:
Recall in our melatonin and serotonin post, both of these neurotransmitters go hand-in-hand with each other. While serotonin is a hormone that regulates various things in our body (mood, digestion, etc), it also allows us to make melatonin and also helps us with the concept known as sleep pressure.
We build up sleep pressure through various physical and mental effort throughout the day. It allows us to fall asleep quicker, and get a better night's rest.
Through supplementation, glycine elevates serotonin, reduces insomnia symptoms, and improves sleep quality. For individuals who suffer from some insomnia issues, improving your serotonin levels allows a better night's rest.
While glycine supplementation is primarily used for sleep, here are a few other benefits of glycine:
As glycine continues to be studied, we may realize more benefits through supplementation.
Since the normal daily diet consists of around 2g of glycine, extra supplementation will help with the previously mentioned benefits.
Here's how we would use glycine if we are supplementing it (in addition to our nutritious diet):
Before taking glycine, please consult with a doctor or physician.
As you can see here, as glycine is the main amino acid in collagen (named after Greek word for "glue"), it's no wonder it keeps us together in various ways.
You've seen that glycine helps with digestion, brain health, blood sugar regulation, and more. In addition, you've seen that glycine supplementation helps with sleep, heart disease, and various cognitive benefits.
Glycine is an incredible amino acid and we believe that supplementing with it will allow you to access a plethora of benefits.
As glycine shows a plethora of benefits in improving sleep quality, we use L-Glycine in our sleep supplement, Drift. L-Glycine, combined with melatonin, l-theanine, and magnesium produces synergistic benefits that allow for phenomenal sleep.
Thank you for reading our latest article on glycine!
Any questions, comments, or insights? Throw them below, or email me at tony@reforgedperformance.com.
Until next time, Reforged Legion!
As I own a fitness brand dedicated to helping people exercise out of depression, I was instantly drawn into the title of the episode.
In it, the speaker mentioned his book.
I picked it up.
I read it.
And it was SUPER INFORMATIVE.
I wanted to share it with you all today because I am rereading it for a second time.
As we continue our way into 2022, one thing that can set us back from reaching our goals are our habits.
Some of us have habits that help facilitate all aspects of our health: mental, physical, and even existential.
Other habits can forestall or neglect those aspects of our health.
So in this post, we are going to go over 7 bad habits that can affect your mental health this year.
Let's dive in!
Welcome to 2022.
A new year of possibilities and opportunities.
A new year of improving our mental health and wellbeing.
We all want to make some big changes in our lives and are completely excited about it... but sometimes, it's only a matter of time until some setback happens.
And some of us quit when it gets tough.
Do you ever wonder why some of our New Years Resolutions fail?
There are a few reasons.
In this post, we are going to cover 5 reasons why most people fail their New Years Resolutions.
Let's dive in!
