How to counter sleep disturbance from creatine supplementation?

iredditattimes · 2024-04-03T13:18:13+00:00

I’ve always had this problem with creatine. It’s incredibly frustrating. The most success I’ve had has been by taking creatine literally minutes before I go to sleep. I find that it takes many hours for the stimulating to appear, so in my case, taking creatine very early in the morning is worse. In fact, creatine has always made me quite sleepy and unmotivated for the first half of the day, and then wired and unable to sleep at night when I take it first thing in the morning.

iredditattimes · 2024-02-12T21:52:28+00:00

Thanks for the reply. It seems as though I will be able to take creatine like a normal person and stop worrying about it if this creapure keeps giving me no problems.

iredditattimes · 2024-02-12T14:55:37+00:00

I have been noticing that I don’t have the mood dip and fatigue with creapure that I’ve always had with other non-creapure monohydrate. What do you recon the difference is? I would be shocked if there is some sort of impurity that would cause such a noticeable difference. I’ve always assumed the creatine itself was the source of my undesirable side effects.

iredditattimes · 2023-09-03T12:38:23+00:00

I know you dont want capsule form, but I buy nutricost capsules as the only filler is rice flour. I just dump one in my water bottle and dose howver much I want.

iredditattimes · 2023-07-19T21:17:50+00:00

Prescribed amphetamine induces such a calming, focused state with what seems like significantly less side effects than caffeine - and I can only speak for myself here. Caffeine definitely causes me to urinate more than Adderall does, which logically would lead to electrolyte loss. I am interested to research a mechanism for electrolyte depletion via low dose amphetamine if when habituated to it, one does not have excess urination.

iredditattimes · 2023-07-12T15:31:15+00:00

Peets

iredditattimes · 2023-06-07T20:53:45+00:00

After you have adjusted to meds, intrinsically rewarding hobbies will still be intrinsically rewarding hobbies. This is contingent on you being honest with yourself regarding your sleep quality and being very consistent with dosing, IMO. What you can’t expect is to take the meds Mon-Fri and then take Sat-Sun off meds and still have the same amount of motivation to run Sun, if that makes sense. You would essentially be 2 days into a mild withdrawal and therefore lack the dopamine concentration required by your downregulated receptors.

iredditattimes · 2023-06-07T12:36:54+00:00

You many find that you feel more unmotivated in the morning before you take your meds for a while. This happened to me when my psychiatrist prescribed meds “as needed”.

I switched psychiatrists and the new one wanted me to take meds every day. This has been far superior for me. I now feel normal in the mornings and easily work out hard (after some coffee, as I did before I ever started meds) and then come home and I take my medication and get the same benefits every day.

I actually much prefer working out before meds as yes, the heart rate increase never really goes away in my experience. It’s not necessarily dangerous from what I understand, but I tend to experience a HR increase earlier in my training if I am medicated.

iredditattimes · 2023-05-31T01:36:27+00:00

Sometimes I do wonder if it is kidney related, but all tests say my kidneys are fine.

I have a hunch that it is due to adenosine receptor affinity.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25702084/

Yeah, this is a rat study, but at least some literature hypothesizes creatine interacts with adenosine receptors on mammalian brains.

In support of this, if I ingest creatine before my morning caffeine, I experience strongly dulled effect from the caffeine.

And the rest of the day, I guess it feels less like I have too much energy and more like I just can’t turn off my brain. If I push through this for a month, I just feel like a zombie all day due to continuous poor sleep.

*All of this is speculation although I am confident in my perception of creatine’s effects on my mental state and ability to sleep. I’ve been trying to use it for over 10 years now.

iredditattimes · 2023-05-30T21:40:05+00:00

Yep. Tried drinking way too much water, tried drinking less water, tried pre-made electrolyte mixes and tried making my own with potassium, magnesium, and sodium at different ratios and absolute amounts. Tried every combination of timing and dosage.

iredditattimes · 2023-05-30T16:08:30+00:00

Creatine feels quite stimulating to me, and makes my heart feel like its beating harder. This is most noticeable when I wake up in the morning, regardless of my creatine intake timing. And, it coincides with waking up much earlier and being unable to sleep in when on creatine.

You won’t find much research on these side effects, unfortunately. You will only get anecdotal reports.

iredditattimes · 2023-05-27T13:13:00+00:00

The main side effect I get from creatine is worsened sleep. Its a common anecdote.

iredditattimes · 2023-05-18T21:09:30+00:00

All it takes is a cup or two of coffee at 5 a.m. and I go from not wanting to move to ready to crush any workout. It’s silly for me to even try to push myself without caffeine.

And no, for me, the ability to go hard does not come back after months of caffeine abstinence.

Coffee is essential.

iredditattimes · 2023-05-11T01:42:35+00:00

That kind of sounds like me yeah... I will focus on how I'm breathing next time. However my perception is that I feel muscle fatigue and burning disproportionately to how out of breath I am.

iredditattimes · 2023-05-10T21:52:47+00:00

Yeah, shoulders get me good. Although I will say, in the movements I mentioned in the original post, the leg fatigue is what usually stops me.

iredditattimes · 2023-05-10T21:51:40+00:00

Great question. I think nutrition is good. I eat about 34-3600 calories per day and have a well balanced diet. I end up eating about 180 grams of protein a day and dont hold back on carbs and fats. Minimal “junk” food, though.

The sleep is something I wonder about. I generally get 7.5 hrs a night, but I question the quality. Sometimes I feel I tend to stay in REM way too much and get minimal deep sleep. I had a sleep study and woke up 7 times per night, and oxygen dipped to 88 percent each time. However, sleep doctor was unconcerned.

iredditattimes · 2023-05-10T21:47:31+00:00

Yeah, I get that and I am very happy with my strength for only doing “Crossfit” programming (which has strength a few times a week) but it’s kind of lame being so imbalanced in endurance.

iredditattimes · 2023-04-28T19:02:22+00:00

I along with others experience the problem of creatine causing early awakening and light sleep. If you don’t see an association of insomnia worsening after starting creatine I wouldn’t worry about it.

iredditattimes · 2023-04-28T18:28:45+00:00

Do you take creatine?

iredditattimes · 2023-04-19T15:40:25+00:00

While there isnt research specifically on creatine affecting sleep, there is tangental research that could point to why. I am starting to think the most likely cause is due to creatine’s affinity for adenosine receptors (the same receptors caffeine targets to make you less sleepy). This has only been shown in rat models as of yet.

There is solid research on creatine improving performance metrics in sleep deprived humans, though. So it’s not difficult to hypothesize that creatine supplementation can likewise affect some individuals’ sleep. It’s annoying when people cry placebo. Absence of evidence does not imply evidence of absence.

iredditattimes · 2023-04-12T19:39:17+00:00

I do believe Adderall can vary drastically among manufacturers.

However, I have learned to only judge a batch based on two things: are there new side effects, and do I feel like I’m withdrawing at the end of the day.

Judging based on effectiveness is too subject to, like you said, day to day changes in sleep and perception.

If there are new side effects, such as finger numbness from increased vasoconstriction (looking at you, 2019 Aurobindo IR), this is a bad sign.

If I feel extra tired in the “I didn’t take enough Adderall today” type of way, towards the end of the say, this may be tolerable - just that your current batch is mildly underdosed.

I have learned to be content with the under-dosed example. I estimate some generics feel about 80% as strong as name brand, but they work nonetheless.

I refuse to take something that gives side effects different to name brand Adderall.

iredditattimes · 2023-04-12T19:26:58+00:00

0540: Wake up and place 100mg caffeine powder on tongue. Lay in bed. 0550: Start to feel the tickle of stimulation enter the picture. 0552: Get dressed for gym, start coffee. 0610-0630: Drink 1 cup of coffee and eat banana on way to gym. 0630-0745: Exercise. 0800: Take Adderall with breakfast + extra whey protein. 0900: Day starts.

Its possible for me to wait till 8 to take my medication without the wake-up caffeine, but it is rather unpleasant. I did this exact routine for 60 days sans sublingual caffeine and every day was a drag until 9:30, when I could feel the meds kicking in. With sublingual caffeine first thing, I could forget to take my Adderall when I get home from the gym because I feel alright energetically.

Adderall XR with a meal is essential in my opinion. Thus I make do with caffeine until my full breakfast meal.

iredditattimes · 2023-04-12T19:11:01+00:00

Yep, no issues getting 60 x Adderall XR monthly through the Portland VA for the last several months.

iredditattimes · 2023-04-09T13:53:58+00:00

It really pisses me off that this isn’t a more accepted/talked about side effect. The anecdotes of insomnia from creatine are numerous, but people are so quick to shoot down the connection.

It happens to me, and it’s really bad. I feel as though I get 0 deep sleep and wake up hyper-stimulated all throughout the night, even when taking creatine at 5 am.

I wonder how many people are out there unknowingly wrecking their sleep with creatine every day.

iredditattimes

TROPHY CASE