Supplements targeting the serotonergic system for sleep can lead to fragmented sleep and difficulty in later sleep phases.

“I personally have tried taking a supplement which was Al tryptophan, which is the precursor to serotonin or five HTP, which is designed to increase, it is serotonin basically. You're just a one biochemical step away from actually taking actual serotonin. And I'll be honest the sleep that I had with increased serotonin by way of tryptophan or five HTP was dreadful. I fell asleep almost immediately. You say, well, that's great. And 90 minutes later, I woke up and I couldn't sleep almost for 48 hours.”

“So for some people those supplements might work, but be aware serotonin supplements could disrupt the timing of REM sleep and slow wave sleep. And in my case led to waking up very shortly after going to sleep and not being able to get back to sleep.”

“I think one of the potential dangers is that based on what's going on in your body, that can change the absorption of natural sort of tryptophan and serotonin uptake within the brain itself.”

“I can anecdotally say, when I've taken tryptophan, the precursor to serotonin, or serotonin itself, I have a horrendous night's sleep. I fall asleep very easily. And I experience ridiculously vivid dreams. Neither pleasant nor unpleasant is kind of a mishmash. And then I wake up and I experience several days of insomnia.”

“That and I've done the positive control and the negative control and all the variations there of to confirm that, at least for me supplementing with serotonergic agents is a bad idea for me.”

“However, I actually do not recommend for most people for sake of sleep, because it can disrupt the normal architecture of sleep and create a deep sleep early in the night, and then a spontaneous waking with some trouble to get back to sleep.”

“And by taking serotonin by supplement or by stimulating serotonin release by supplement with 5-HTP or with tryptophan, which is an amino acid precursor to serotonin, one can run into the problem of disrupting the normal architecture of sleep cycles throughout the night.”

“I myself have tried 5-HTP prior to sleep and all I can tell you is that it led to very deep sleep for about one to three hours. And then I woke up and I could not fall back asleep. I ran that experiment twice before I decided to abandon 5-HTP as a sleep aid.”

“this is one of the reasons why I personally this is just my experience I'm not a fan of of supplements that tap into the serotonergic system for sake of sleep because um certainly serotonin plays an important role in sleep but anytime I've taken something you know 5htp or something like that to try and improve sleep I find that um I fall asleep and then I wake up very deep deep sleep and then I wake up um very alert and I have trouble with the later phases of sleep”

“anytime I've taken something you know 5htp or something like that to try and improve sleep I find that um I fall asleep and then I wake up very deep deep sleep and then I wake up um very alert and I have trouble with the later phases of sleep and I think that is because yes serotonin is involved in sleep but it's involved in sleep at a very specific point in this as you refer to it this like Symphony or ballet of different sleep stages and how they evolve and um interdigitate with one another across the night”

“But beware, serotonin supplements could disrupt the timing of REM sleep and slow wave sleep.”