Interesting thought for insomnia sufferers or to counteract caffeine effects
Chemistry and biology are one of my favourite subjects & I’ve just been having a chat with Allan about insomnia, of which we both suffer.
Doing a bit of reading I have found out a few things about the GABA receptors in your brain, which are responsible for relaxing muscles & sleep, amongst other things.
Anything containing GABA or promoting it will help you sleep.
Caffeine inhibits this process, keeping you awake.
Tea contains Caffeine & GABA – which probably accounts for the relaxing effects of some tea.
Coffee only contains Caffeine – which probably accounts for the strength of its wakefulness effect.
One thing I realised is that GABA Oolong/Gabalong is probably a good evening tea.
Vitamin B6 will help too.
Also, foods with Glutamic Acid/Glutamate should help combat the effects of caffeine:
Glutamic Acid/Glutamate (Forms Glutamine) MGS. Per 6-8 OZ. Serving
Almonds, tree nuts (10.3 g.)
Banana (220 mg.)
Beef liver (6.5 g.)
Broccoli (740 mg.)
Brown Rice (940 mg.)
Halibut (7.9 g.)
Lentils (2.8 g.)
Oats, whole grain (7.4 g)
Oranges, citrus fruits (210 mg.)
Potato (830 mg.)
Rice Bran (3.7 g)
Spinach (680 mg.)
Walnuts, tree nuts (5.4 g.)
Whole Wheat, whole grain (8.6 g.)
And.. exercise will help.
And.. exercise will help.Hopefully this will be of help to some people. I searched for what foods NOT to eat before bedtime and couldnt find any… yet.
And.. exercise will help.Hopefully this will be of help to some people. I searched for what foods NOT to eat before bedtime and couldnt find any… yet.:)
Another thing I have just seen:
GABA capsules. each one has as much GABA as 100g of Gabalong tea. I’m going to try some to see if they counteract caffeine :)
Also available on Amazon.
http://www.amazon.com/NOW-Foods-Gaba-500mg-Capsules/dp/B0078W47PM/ref=sr_1_4_a_it?ie=UTF8&qid=1454465955&sr=8-4&keywords=GABA+capsules
double the strength and with B6!
I think trying to regulate and increase GABA in the brain naturally and with help from diets and supplements might be helpful for us that tend to get whipped by caffeine.
Exercise is also important for promoting balance in brain chemicals and helping this process.
I read that taking GABA doesn’t actually do anything as it doesn’t cross the blood brain barrier.
“Exogenous GABA does not penetrate the blood–brain barrier;34 it is synthesized in the brain. It is synthesized from glutamate using the enzyme L-glutamic acid decarboxylase (GAD) and pyridoxal phosphate (which is the active form of vitamin B6) as a cofactor. This process converts glutamate, the principal excitatory neurotransmitter, into the principal inhibitory neurotransmitter (GABA).3536 GABA is converted back to glutamate by a metabolic pathway called the GABA shunt.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamma-Aminobutyric_acid
Hmm. Yeah, thats what it says. Thanks for pointing that before everyone rushes out and buys a lot of the tablets.
Hmm. One thing that is proven is reduction of blood pressure and hypertension, which could also help restfulness. so not all is lost
Does that mean the claims of GABA tea (I see it with Oolongs a lot) should be lumped into this non-penetrating category too? Or it there something different happening when we’re talking about coming from the leaf?
I think the claims that it does help are true (for hypertension at least) – maybe not to the extent I was thinking firstly, but any reduction in blood pressure is good for relaxation.
GABA in tea must cross the blood-brain barrier then because I have felt the effects of GABA tea several times. I find it hit or miss though.
Placebo? edit, in the end we don’t really know. It’s hard to generalize this stuff.
IMO, this is why medical stuff should be left out of tea discussions.
Thanks for an interesting post. Do you have a reference for the effect of Glutamic Acid on caffeine?
I cant find the one I had last night (I’m at work) but heres one with Theanine as well:
https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/yakushi1947/95/7/95_7_892/_article
Theres a massive list here:
Also Ive noted you can get GABA re-uptake inhibitors, which, if similar to the effects of 5-hydroxy-tryptophan (5htp) on serotonin could be something similar to anti-depressant effects but for insomnia? That is all speculation as I need to get back to do some work.
:)
the more i drink tea, the faster i fall asleep. How about that condition Rasseru? please explain it to me. if i dont have my around midnight pu session i cant fall asleep
White teas or green oolong could be a problem but they are not my favorite anyway. I rarely drink them. But Pu , Yancha or GABA oolong are great at night. GABA oolong from Taiwan Sourcing is delicious.
I am a seasoned tea drinker… and as long as I don’t drink tea after 5pm I can easily be asleep by midnight (my typical bedtime). If I drink pretty much any kind of caffeinated tea after 5pm I am tempting fate. I do exercise quite a bit and certainly think cardio will help the body relax and process all that caffeine.
Thanks for sharing. This is good information!
Or I could just order Chinese take-out for a dose of monosodium glutamate and follow that up with funky Pu and then lie down for a nap.
I try to avoid late night gongfu sessions and silver needle tea. I can get away with GABA oolong and sencha, which I underleaf. And chamomile is always a good nighttime tea.
Only downside to drinking tea in the evening are the bathroom trips in the middle of the night. Still worth it though :)
I’m in the same boat as Yunnan Sourcing on this one, except my cutoff for tea is at 3 instead of 5, and I can’t get too carried away before that. I’m sensitive to caffeine (stimulants in general) and am a bad sleeper to begin with. And jealous of you folks who can drink caffeine later! Only herbals before bedtime for me. A mixture of Chamomile and Lavender has been helping recently. And it doesn’t hurt that it tastes great, too ;-)
I try to cut off caffeine by three in theory too but it usually ends up around four. I cannot have late caffeine if I want to sleep. I wish ripe puerh put me to sleep. I used to drink ripe puerh until 11 or 12 and still sleep. And then one day it’s like a switch went off in my brain and I couldn’t sleep.
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