Stuck Like Glue: The Glycine Guide
I enjoy my sleep, so sleep supplements are fun to explore. My issue with most of them was the grogginess I would feel from their serving sizes of melatonin (typically in the 3–5mg range).
So I continued to dive into and explore if there were other supplements that aid in sleep quality just like melatonin does — to not just rely on the melatonin.
It eventually led me to glycine, and I found how important it truly is for our entire body.
In this post, we are diving into glycine in its entirety: from its various benefits, supplementation, and usage.
Let’s dive in!
About Glycine
Glycine is an amino acid (and neurotransmitter) that helps with a variety of things, most notably sleep. The primary amino acid found in collagen, it is one of the most naturally occurring proteins in our body.
Glycine is a neurotransmitter that can be both excitatory or inhibitory, meaning it can stimulate or turn-off brain activity.
In addition to these, glycine helps with the following processes:
- Digestion. Glycine helps breakdown fatty acids in food.
- DNA and RNA Production. Glycine helps the body produce DNA and RNA.
- Regulating Blood Sugar. Glycine regulates blood sugar levels.
- Building Blocks. Glycine typically facilitates the production of other compounds in our bodies. For example, Glycine, when combined with arginine and methionine, creates creatine.
- Neurotransmission. Helps with cognition, mood, appetite, and more.
Since glycine assists in all of these processes, it is one of the most important amino acids in our body.
Glycine Supplementation Benefits
Since your body typically produces Glycine (similar to Creatine), we wanted to explore the benefits that occur with additional supplementation.
In this section, we are going to address what supplementing with Glycine can do for your body.
Glycine and Sleep
Glycine is best known for its improvements in sleep quality. It also improves the quality of sleep by decreasing your body’s temperature. As they both aid in sleep wellness, brainpower is improved and fatigue is reduced. This is why we believe it’s an incredible amino acid to supplement with.
Through utilizing it for sleep, glycine also improves psychomotor vigilance in the morning after supplementation. Psychomotor vigilance consists of your attention, focus, and reaction times.
In summary, you can break down glycine and sleep in this way:
- Helps you fall asleep quicker.
- Reduces symptoms of insomnia.
- Improves quality of sleep (feeling well-rested).
- Improves attention, focus, and reaction times (the morning after use).
Glycine and Serotonin
In our melatonin and serotonin post, we mentioned that both of these neurotransmitters go hand-in-hand with each other. While serotonin is a hormone that regulates various things in our body (mood, digestion, etc), it also allows us to make melatonin and also helps us with the concept known as sleep pressure.
We build up sleep pressure through various physical and mental effort throughout the day. It allows us to fall asleep quicker, and get a better night’s rest.
Through supplementation, glycine elevates serotonin, reduces insomnia symptoms, and improves sleep quality. For individuals who suffer from some insomnia issues, improving your serotonin levels allows a better night’s rest.
Other Benefits
While glycine supplementation is primarily used for sleep, here are a few other benefits of glycine:
- Helps Against Heart Disease. Glycine prevents the formation of low-density lipoproteins to protect from coronary heart disease.
- Potential Bone & Joint Benefits. As glycine helps with collagen production, there may be some benefits to supplementing with it for bone and joint health.
- Get Back On Sleep Track. While tested in rats, glycine may help you get back on track with your sleep after disrupted sleep.
As glycine continues to be studied, we may realize more benefits through supplementation.
Using Glycine
Since the normal daily diet consists of around 2g of glycine, extra supplementation should help with the previously mentioned benefits.
Here’s how we would use glycine if we are supplementing it (in addition to our nutritious diet):
- When it comes to taking glycine, there is no exact recommended dosage for supplementing it, but 500mg-3g of additional glycine helps. This range will be good for both sleep and blood sugar regulation.
- I typically supplement with an additional 500mg of L-Glycine for sleep.
Before taking glycine, please consult with a doctor or physician.
Like Glue
As you can see here, as glycine is the main amino acid in collagen (named after Greek word for “glue”), it’s no wonder it keeps us together in various ways.
You’ve seen that glycine helps with digestion, brain health, blood sugar regulation, and more. In addition, you’ve seen that glycine supplementation helps with sleep, heart disease, and various cognitive benefits.
Glycine is an incredible amino acid and we believe that supplementing with it will allow you to access a plethora of benefits.
It is one of our components in our sleep supplement Drift that I use daily.
I just wanted to thank you all for taking the time to read another one of my posts!
Any questions, comments, or insights? Throw them below, or email me at tony@reforgedperformance.com.
Until next time!
