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!
A few years back, it was very common to see various fitness competitors get in trouble for banned substances - because of supplements.
I remember one in particular competed and got disqualified because of one of his Pre-Workout products containing DMAA, him unknowingly realizing that it was a banned substance. This sadly ruined his reputation for quite some time.
We don't want things like that to happen to you.
So in this short post, we are going to dive into recommendations tactical and performance athletes should consider when taking supplements.
Let's dive in!
As you may have noticed, our supplements are VERY POTENT.
They're efficaciously or clinically-dosed (following scientific studies).
Therefore, it's imperative that if you take supplements to consider the following (ESPECIALLY with ours) by reading this post!
New Year, New Us.
Everyone is ready to make big lifestyle changes for the New Year (especially after 2020)... but as always, not everyone is prepared to make significant changes with their lifestyle.
We tend to underestimate our goals because we are completely optimistic and excited for the New Year. Without a coordinated strategy or direction, a lot of us end up failing because we never know how to get there.
In this post, we are going to give you 8 tips to conquer your fitness goals in 2021. After reading this, it is our hope that your mindset will be shifted to conquer your goals.