Kava for chronic insomnia

[ThePiper]

I have a friend who is a kava fan and drinks it with me often. He has chronic often severe insomnia and isn't medicated for it. He claims many nights he has to drink 6-10 beers just so he can sleep, and on nights where he doesn't want to drink he hopes for the best and ends up getting 0-5 hours with repeated wake up and many more hours wide awake in bed. He claims it is even worse when he has something he has to wake up for the next day, and says that he can't function well enough to have a job with any kind of schedule because of it. I would like to know if there's anyone here who has insomnia of this severity and if kava adequately helps them live a normal lifestyle. If so, what is your regiment and what types do you use?

 

[SelfBiasResistor]

How well does he sleep on the nights he drinks kava with you?

 

[Krunkie McKrunkface]

I have a friend who is a kava fan and drinks it with me often. He has chronic often severe insomnia and isn't medicated for it. He claims many nights he has to drink 6-10 beers just so he can sleep, and on nights where he doesn't want to drink he hopes for the best and ends up getting 0-5 hours with repeated wake up and many more hours wide awake in bed. He claims it is even worse when he has something he has to wake up for the next day, and says that he can't function well enough to have a job with any kind of schedule because of it. I would like to know if there's anyone here who has insomnia of this severity and if kava adequately helps them live a normal lifestyle. If so, what is your regiment and what types do you use?

Sounds like what my wife had for a couple decades. Kava fixed it, but it took about 7 months of daily drinking. Didn’t matter what type, as long as it is decent kava.

But thinking you can just drink some kava and instantly cure insomnia, might happen for some people sometimes, but kind of a long shot for most, I think.

 

[ThePiper]

How well does he sleep on the nights he drinks kava with you?

It's varied, but we also tend to drink it earlier and usually he is driving 45 minutes to get home so he misses the sweet spot for sedation. I gave him some to take home and he said he slept well both nights using about an ounce of root but he was still skeptical of it being a solution that would work for him. He says he hates having to drink a lot for it but he also seems to be skeptical of anything that has less power than large quantities of beer or pharms

 

[Dr.Krunk]

I used to fall in that category somewhat. When drinking the quality of sleep is effected significantly by the alcohol being in the system. For me it was, well I could just not sleep at all as an alternative so drinking was the answer for me.

My insomnia kinda went and came. It was never something I dealt with every week but often. I can’t say Kava was the answer but the more I started drinking it the less frequent it would occur. I’m typically a daily drinker and I rarely have insomnia occurrences anymore but it still happens on occasion where I can’t sleep for a few days. But that’s incredibly rare and is usually associated with something on my mind as opposed to lack of ability to sleep like before.

Can’t say what your friend will experience but if they are willing to give Kava a shot than it certainly can’t hurt. There’s a lot of natural remedies that can be as effective as traditional medications. Not all remedies are instantaneous like a medication is but often fix the issues instead of fixing the syptoms though.

Again not saying Kava is a cure all herb but it has helped me exponentially in so many ways that I couldn’t begin to imagine when first starting. Maybe I’m crazy and Kava is a placebo for many things, either way it just shows the power of the mind with positivity! I’ll stick with my shells though regardless, Bula!

 

[Zac Imiola (Herbalist)]

Honestly depends on what type of insomnia .
Is their heat?
Is it the fear of silence and darkness so they keep light or TV on which keeps them up.

Do you know what they have tried other than beer ?
If beer works well other than the alcohol it seems then a hops tincture might do it really well.
Tart cherry juice
1 ounce of chamomile made the exact same as kava . Rubbed and everything into hot water

Let me know about the first questions tho

 

[Intrepidus_dux]

Alcohol is really bad for sleep cycles. I throws off hormones that regulate such things.
A hops tincture or brew may help. Or valerian tincture.

I get insomnia frequently for various reasons. I think finding the reason is really important. For me it meant drinking less caffeine especially none after 3pm, diming lights in the evening, and managing blood sugar throughout the day. If my blood sugar and cortisol gets thrown off, then it takes several days to get back on track and have good sleep again. I choose to not stress about it. If I have an important thing the next day, I just tell myself that I can power through sleep deprived and rest later. Self care is a biggie. Consistent self care. It’s difficult for those who didn’t grow up that way.

Although perhaps your friend’s problem is entirely different? Kava helps me relax and gives me cool and informative dreams, but generally doesn’t help my insomnia issues like the methods I stated.