Kava and sleep

[Jerome]

I read a lot of posts talking about how well kava allows you to sleep. I for one find kava interrupts my sleep more than anything. Particularly after drinking quite a bit. The diuretic effect plays havoc with my bladder far more so than even a dozen beers would and I'm up frequently throughout the night draining the tanoa.

Anyone else find that kava is not a great sleep aid?

 

[Sam Handwich]

Depends on the type and the quantity. I have slept really well after some Nene or stone and have been wired after some Loa Waka. The worst yet was after trying the all lateral root drink mix from kava king, I was up till 3am that time! I also get what you are saying about the multiple trips to the bathroom. For sleep I would do just one or two shells of Nene about an hour before bed, seems to help.

 

[Zac Imiola (Herbalist)]

Yeah its dose dependant for me . Too much and my muscles tense up. I found that it's a cold tense ness .. and a warming herb like valerian or edible cannabis can calm it down and let me sleep if it really is a bother.
Ultimately I think if we want to consume kava for sleep we have to use it for that that day. If this makes sense. Like the first cup of coffee is always the best or first sips of yerba . Or the first few shells of kava. Once it wears off and then later you redose. It's not a repeat of the first but just more on top . So I feel like if I really had sleep issues and needed kava for sleep I wouldn't consume any all day and then have a few nice potent shells of a heavy kava and go right into bed. Rather than drink it all day with 3 different intentions and then hope all the medicinal aspects just work like sleep later. This seems to not work for me. With any herb. If I use kava for euphoria in the mid day then I need a muscle relief after work it just doesn't work as well cause I used up that first hit of the day in a sense .

 

[Jerome]

Makes sense. I need to hold out my kava consumption till what my wife and I call "Happy Hour". That being the time when both kids are finally asleep and we can sit down!

The way I'm consuming it right now just isn't working by the time I get to bed.

No cannabis edibles here in Florida! Although my city and county law enforcement are in the process of decriminalizing small quantities. It will be a while before it goes legal in the "sunshine state".

 

[Kojo Douglas]

In my early days as a Kava drinker, it seemed to help. More recently, it has hindered. I tend to get really creative and inquisitive when I drink Kava these days.

Honestly, when I want to get a good nights sleep I typically have a few beers with dinner.

 

[kavadude]

Personally as a lifelong insomniac I can go either way. Sometimes I will fall asleep as soon as I hit the sack (very rare for me), other times it seems to keep me up. I definitely have to get up to take a whiz more, but this doesn't seem to be a major disruptor of how I feel the next day (I wake up 5-6 times a night anyway).

Like the night before last, the kava sedated me a lot and I went to bed at 10, slept like a log. Then last night, I went to bed at 1 and it took me an hour to fall asleep, then I had to wake up for work so I'm not very well rested.

Basically, I have no idea.

 

[Kojo Douglas]

Personally as a lifelong insomniac I can go either way. Sometimes I will fall asleep as soon as I hit the sack (very rare for me), other times it seems to keep me up. I definitely have to get up to take a whiz more, but this doesn't seem to be a major disruptor of how I feel the next day (I wake up 5-6 times a night anyway).

Like the night before last, the kava sedated me a lot and I went to bed at 10, slept like a log. Then last night, I went to bed at 1 and it took me an hour to fall asleep, then I had to wake up for work so I'm not very well rested.

Basically, I have no idea.

Ha! "Basically, I have no idea."

Yeah. I feel the same way. With my life being generally insane, I don't get very much sleep.

 

[sɥɐʞɐs]

It helps me sleep the vast majority of the time. The only times it disturbs my sleep, it's from a secondary action, not the actual kava buzz. That is, sometimes I get so uncomfortably bloated from it in the middle of the night, that my body tries to wake up...but I'm simultaneously heavily sedated from the kava which gets me stuck in the very uncomfortable nether world.

Waking up to pee is the other nuisance/secondary effect, but kava keeps me so sedated all night, that I fall immediately back to sleep most of the time. I wake up to pee no matter what, sober, alcohol, kava...but kava has been the only one that allows me to fall right back to sleep. I do feel like my kava sleep would feel more restful, if I could sleep through the night without ever waking though.

I'm not a heavy sleeper by nature and even when I used to drink alcohol, no matter how much, it never helped me sleep good...I couldn't sleep in late, I'd wake up in the middle of the night and struggle to get back to sleep.
Kava sleep is a godsend to me and it's one of the main things that kept me coming back to kava, I used to barely even get any effects from kava but still persisted with it almost entirely for the sleep benefits.

I'd say it absolutely helps but has the ability to hinder in certain circumstances.

 

[VictoryRider]

For me it depends quite a bit on the strain. Heady ones will always keep me awake. Case in point, a couple
nights ago I had some GHK Hiwa, and I think I slept maybe 3 hours total. Could. Not. Fall. Asleep.

Stone -- I'm out cold very quickly and sleep well.

 

[Summer]

I have found that even if I have choppy sleep, when I wake up I feel more refreshed, as though the choppy sleep just didn't bother me as much. I almost can't remember if I'm tired and I usually don't keep thinking about it, either.

 

[kavadude]

I've been thinking about this a little more.

One thing that kava reliably does is that it allows me to sleep longer. That may not sound miraculous to most people but if you are a committed insomniac you know what it's like to get 5 hours a few nights in a row even when you have more time to sleep. On the other hand, sometimes I can get kinda wired and be up for an hour in bed experiencing some heady effects. So it can help me catch up, but isn't great when I have to wake up at specific times. I'd say it's a net positive, which is more than can be said for pharmaceutical sleep aids.

 

[TheKavaSociety]

the timing is of crucial importance. remember: some of the heavier kavalactones take up to 2 hours to fully kick in. So if you have your kava and try to go to sleep 30 minutes later, you might find it a bit more difficult than if you try to go to bed 2-3 or even 4 hours after your last shell.

 

[Kojo Douglas]

More recently, Kava has been helping me sleep. If I do a heavy session at 5 PM or so, and I lay down to sleep at 9 PM, I can usually fall asleep by 10 PM and sleep until 4 or 5 AM.

 

[Edward]

A lot depends on the kava. Most kavas are sedative to me once it starts wearing off but some are bordering on soporific, not long after drinking them I feel as though I could sleep straight away and often do more or less.

 

[Groggy]

I only drink heady kavas, as soon as my head hits the pillow, I am out. I wake up in the middle of the night for other reasons.

 

[avahZ]

Kava don't help me sleep at all, it does the opposite. For sleep I stack phenibut, a pinch of l-dopa, and some valerian. I have terrible insomnia and ear worms(repeating music or sounds in my head). I can go days without sleep and feel every stinking minute of it. You have to cycle this stuff or you WILL become an addict. Phenibut effects gaba A receptors and if I am not mistaken kava hits the gaba B. B seems to give me restless sleep and my stack seems to hit the right notes. On days I cycle off I take an ambien. I hate that pill, but other than my alchemy, it's the only thing that has worked for over 10 years. Kava is my work day destressor.

 

[Jerome]

Kava don't help me sleep at all, it does the opposite. For sleep I stack phenibut, a pinch of l-dopa, and some valerian. I have terrible insomnia and ear worms(repeating music or sounds in my head). I can go days without sleep and feel every stinking minute of it. You have to cycle this stuff or you WILL become an addict. Phenibut effects gaba A receptors and if I am not mistaken kava hits the gaba B. B seems to give me restless sleep and my stack seems to hit the right notes. On days I cycle off I take an ambien. I hate that pill, but other than my alchemy, it's the only thing that has worked for over 10 years. Kava is my work day destressor.

Bummer dude. I hope you find something to help you sleep.

A word of advice. The best sleep I ever had was when I worked gnarly construction, or tree work, or was a regular surfer. Basically burning it out till you can't move your limbs. Dig foundation footings for ten hours a day in the Florida Sun and i assure you insomnia won't be a problem. Wrangle a chainsaw on top of a bucket truck till your shoulders give out and a concrete block feels like a down pillow.

Might be worth a career change. I'm thinking of going back to working with my hands. The peace alone is worth it. There's something in the Hebrew scripture that talks about the labor of a poor man and his sound sleep. Being poor and hard worker and your don't need drugs to find peace.

 

[avahZ]

...

Ecclesiastes 5:12 NLT
People who work hard sleep well, whether they eat little or much. But the rich seldom get a good night’s sleep.

A career change may be a bit too late , but yea being able to put in a few hours of hard labor can help.

 

[SelfBiasResistor]

I totally agree that the timing is important. Very strong kava can make me want to close my eyes and sleep during the big kavain rush but that is no fun. I used to do that during my high nausea days but now that I can comfortably stay awake, it isn't what I want to do. I have a lot of issues sleeping and have found it best to take a good dose of kava in the later afternoon/evening. The type of kava is important too as some do not seem to have good sleep enhancing properties. For me, the absolute best benefit to sleep from kava is that it extends the amount of sleep I get and makes it so much easier to fall back asleep. I do wake up needing to urinate but falling asleep is never a challenge.... Unlike alcohol which wears off in the middle of the night and getting back to sleep is difficult.

 

[Summer]

I am changing careers and I have never felt better in my life. After a nasty two year battle and only by the grace of God I have conquered my prescription pill addiction, and I have won. I have a Bachelor's Degree and am completely changing my life and my career - in small steps. I finally feel like my creativity is starting to come back to me. Those little parts of my brain that were numbed for so long are starting to activate again. I am even thankful for my battle because without it, I wouldn't even have had the courage to see that there is a big world out there and I am gonna go see it.

Edit: My sleep was great on pills, practically non-existant during taper, and just now starting to balance off. It took a lot of time and a lot more tears.