Fixed my sleep problems !

Just thought I'd put this out there in case there's anyone else not getting a proper nights sleep.

Quick background - I've never been a great sleeper, but it started getting worse during 2020 and by November / December I was often waking at 2 - 3 in the morning and it sometimes took another 2 or 3 hours to get back to sleep, sometimes I would be awake the rest of the night. Of course as a T1 there's times when hypos or really high sugars will mess up your nights sleep regardless but I have been running the Libre for the last 12 months and very often sugars were good overnight, but sleep still rotten. Of course I ended up just generally feeling lousy and grumpy all day afterwards.

Of course I've long since done all the usual sleep stuff, cool room, blackout blinds, no electronics, quiet hour before bed, blue light filters on screens etc. It all helps slightly but I could tell it wasn't really fixing the main issue, I couldn't remember when I last woke feeling properly refreshed after a good nights kip, probably many years.

So the covid thing kicked off and as I'm interested in all sorts of medical stuff I was reading up on the Vitamin D debate, as well as microbiome research, and then this popped up on youtube -
I then dug a little deeper into Dr Gominak's website and found another few videos and thought "this seems a bit too good to be true" - which made me slightly suspicious but in the end I thought - it's only over the counter vitamins, and a few blood tests - I'll give it a shot, nothing to loose.

Well it's working great for me. I'm 3 1/2 months in and sleeping well every night, feeling great in the mornings. I know she does claim other benefits for the "rightsleep" method but it's too early for me to be able to say anything on that regard, but for good sleep - YES - it's sure working for me.

In a nutshell, (and there's a lot more detail in the videos) - Get your vitamin D3 level up between
150 nmo/L and 200 nmo/L, then take vitamin B50 complex for 3 months, this will restore the natural human microbiome which makes the chemicals that in turn make the neurotransmitters that tell our brains to sleep as we are supposed to.

You then need to keep your D level between 150 and 200 nmo/L to keep your new "summer" microbiome.

She is a neurologist based in the US so they use ng/ml instead of our nmo/L so you need to convert. (multiply ng/ml by 2.5 to get nmo/L)

Hope this helps someone else get some good quality sleep - and maybe more ???

Dave.
T1 since 1996, currently on insulin pump, libre, pravastatin.

If you're going to try this, you need to do your research & do it properly, please don't just go and take a ton of vitamins without checking your blood level. You will need a vit D blood level every month for at least the first 4 months so you can get it into the right level for sleep, and then to work out how much you will need per day to keep in the right zone.

If you can persuade your GP to check your D levels every month then great, but I just got mine online from here - https://www.vitamindtest.org.uk/
Only problem - esp with all the sudden interest in D levels at the moment is it is taking around 2 weeks from posting your blood sample to getting your result emailed back, so you need to be keeping an accurate record of how much D you are taking so you can accurately work out your next months dosage, you then need to back-date your corrected dosage, if you get my meaning.

Dr Gominak's workbook explains more about dosing and gives suggested starting dosing regimes depending on your initial blood level before you begin. Some people need a lot more D3 than others to reach the same blood level so you can't just say "go and take XX international units per day for XX days and that will get you into the right zone" - everyone is different, just like you cant say to someone with T1 diabetes - "just take 30 units of insulin every day and you'll be fine" - everyone is different, you need proper blood checks and then adjust the dosage accordingly. Dr Gominak's website has a lot more detailed info.

2 things I wish I had done before starting that I didn't -

Taking vitamin d3. - It makes initial dosing more complicated if you're already supplementing D3. If you have already been taking D3 for some time, I would keep the dose constant until you start, it makes things a bit easier.

Getting a sleep monitor. - As my sleep slowly began to improve, I thought it would be a good idea to find out how much REM I was getting per night to track my progress. I ended up with a Mi band 5 which is probably the cheapest out there that will track REM sleep. AFAIK your fitbits, oura rings, smartwatches etc will do the same. I was already about 6 weeks into the plan before I bought one, it would have been good to see what it was like before I started. - Wished I had bought it sooner.

Dave.

Goonergal said:

Coming back to update. Had a vitamin D blood test included in a panel from the GP this week. Back up to 168 nmol/L so I am starting on the B50 for 3 months to see what happens.

Will self-test vitamin d each month.

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Good D level there - I assume you've been supplementing if you're in the UK ? or having good sun exposure otherwise ?

Goonergal said:

Using the service linked up thread: https://www.vitamindtest.org.uk/

There are a few other services too, but this one looks to be the cheapest.

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I have been using this one as well - ^^^^^ https://www.vitamindtest.org.uk/ but the sheer demand due to covid plus the latest interest in vit D levels from many other angles of healthcare, not just diabetes has meant long waiting times for the results to come back which makes it hard to titrate your D levels on the fly, unless you keep accurate records of what you took and when, and that's assuming you're good at maths

Last test I submitted took 3 weeks to come back, which makes it difficult to calculate when you're adjusting doses once per month, I expect in a few years D levels will become regular GP healthcare checks on your annual blood screening but personally I don't want to wait

I was taking 4000 units of D per day however my sleep quality started to drop slightly, I upped it to 5000 per day and within a week I'm back sleeping like a baby again. I have a test kit waiting, I will submit another blood sample at the end of May.

Interesting podcast from Dr Holick - one of the pioneers of Vit D research -
happy napping - Dave.

Goonergal said:

Guess I’d better get some 1,000 iu capsules for adjusting.

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I just have 2000 unit capsules, but I do 5000 units per day by alternating 4000 one day and 6000 the next. Easy to do if you have one of those weekly tablet organizer things.

It takes a few days for your body to convert the D anyway so it all averages out.

Dave.