L-Theanine Experiment
Posted: Sun May 04, 2014 11:17 am
As a result of the paper that Views posted on L-Theanine at http://bb.rls.org/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=4749&start=255, I decided to try it out.
For the first couple of days I didn't see all that much difference. About the 3rd night I realized that I was getting sleepy almost immediately after I took it and more importantly, I was sleeping through the night. No bathroom breaks, just 7 to 8 hours of completely uninterrupted sleep. It seemed too good to be true, wonderful sleep using a simple amino acid supplement that was far more effective than melatonin.
After a couple of days I also noticed that not only was I not getting any WED breakthroughs during the day, but that I often forgot to take my afternoon done of pramipexole. I would realize this when it was time for my evening dose (and still wasn't experiencing any symptoms). After realizing what was happening, I was got a bit more diligent on the timing of my afternoon dose.
Well the honeymoon only lasted for about two weeks. First I started experiencing issues with the recurrence of insomnia (sans other WED). So I stopped taking the L-Theanine and now I am getting a recurrence of the severe symptoms of WED at bedtime even though I am taking my pramipexole on schedule. So, my guess is that the L-Theanine may act something like a natural source of dopamine that is additive to the pramipexole. Hopefully I can get back to normal in a couple of days because four straight nights of symptoms is starting to grow thin. I don't want to even think about the possibility of the "A" word at this point.
So, proceed at your own risk. It was a beautiful two weeks that had me thinking about reducing my dose of pramipexole, but not now.
For the first couple of days I didn't see all that much difference. About the 3rd night I realized that I was getting sleepy almost immediately after I took it and more importantly, I was sleeping through the night. No bathroom breaks, just 7 to 8 hours of completely uninterrupted sleep. It seemed too good to be true, wonderful sleep using a simple amino acid supplement that was far more effective than melatonin.
After a couple of days I also noticed that not only was I not getting any WED breakthroughs during the day, but that I often forgot to take my afternoon done of pramipexole. I would realize this when it was time for my evening dose (and still wasn't experiencing any symptoms). After realizing what was happening, I was got a bit more diligent on the timing of my afternoon dose.
Well the honeymoon only lasted for about two weeks. First I started experiencing issues with the recurrence of insomnia (sans other WED). So I stopped taking the L-Theanine and now I am getting a recurrence of the severe symptoms of WED at bedtime even though I am taking my pramipexole on schedule. So, my guess is that the L-Theanine may act something like a natural source of dopamine that is additive to the pramipexole. Hopefully I can get back to normal in a couple of days because four straight nights of symptoms is starting to grow thin. I don't want to even think about the possibility of the "A" word at this point.
So, proceed at your own risk. It was a beautiful two weeks that had me thinking about reducing my dose of pramipexole, but not now.