L-Theanine is a great supplement to help you sleep and reduce anxiety.
Personally I have had sleeping problems for as long as I can remember….
When you can’t sleep people usually start with Melatonin…
…which does help some people.
For those of you that have high anxiety levels however Melatonin usually isn’t enough…
That is where L-Theanine comes into to play.
I’ve used L-Theanine daily for a few years now and have done a ton of research on it.
For me it helps me reduce my anxiety and stress levels, which in turn helps me relax and sleep.
What Is L-Theanine?
Theanine is an amino acid naturally found in tea trees from the Theaceae family. It has also been found in edible mushrooms Boletus baidus.
Glutamate and L-Theanine have many similarities, Glutamate helps transmit nerve impulses in the brain. Theanine is considered to be the precursor to the neurotransmitter Serotonin. Increased levels of Serotonin promotes greater ability to relax and remain calm and gives you a sense of well-being.
So now that we know what L-Theanine is let me explain how it actually works.
The first thing you need to know is L-Theanine is capable of being transmitted over the blood-brain barrier and is able to enter into the central nervous system. Once it passes your blood brain barrier it works by helping to moderate your alpha brain waves. L-Theanine dampens our restlessness and anxiety by preventing our neurons from firing excessively keeping us calm. It does this by targeting neurotransmitters that regulate your arousal, stress, pleasure and attention.
As mentioned earlier L-Theanine acts as a Serotonin precursor which is known to help control sleep and wake cycles. Taking this supplement will also make you “feel good” because Dopamine and Norepinephrine are modulated which is our “happy” chemicals.
The Many Benefits of L-Theanine
When you have higher levels of Dopamine it gives us a feeling of pleasure, motivation and excitement. Dopamine is the reward system in our brain, when we do something we enjoy Dopamine floods our brain. One of the primary benefits of L-Theanine is it leads to higher levels of Dopamine which can help with things that cause insomnia such as stress and anxiety. L-Theanine also helps to keep you remain focused and increases your productivity in work and school.
Fun Fact: I took 400mg of L-Theanine before writing this article to keep me focused.
It has also been researched that L-Theanine can help protect your brain. In a study by NCBI it was indicated that protective effect of L-Theanine not only helped reverse cognitive and oxidative damage but it also helped protect against it. It is thought that this protective effect on the brain helps protect Neurons from being damaged by blocking over-stimulation of synaptic receptors. This also helps protect them from low levels of oxygen which is called oxidative stress. There are also studies that L-Theanine may even play an important role in the treatment of Parkinson’s disease, although more research is needed on this.
L-Theanine Side Effects or The Lack There Of
Now naturally we all want to know what the side effects are of this seemly perfect supplement. Even after doing a ton of research I’ve found that L-Theanine is one of the few supplements that currently doesn’t have any known side effects. When uses appropriate dosages of the supplement the worst that might happen to someone is they feel no effects at all.
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