I'm still experimenting with REM. USP sent me a couple to try as I have a very screwed up sleeping schedule and most otc sleep aids don't help me at all. I work a rotating shift, so basically every day/night is almost like its own pattern. I repeat the cycle every 12 days so its hard to get consistent feedback. I've got several more cycles to go through, but experimenting along the way.
I'm going to post the final summary once I figure out what works best, but so far: REM alone does not help me fall asleep. It does however seem to give me a deeper sleep, even though (due to my schedule) I don't sleep for very long. The first night I tried it, it was during my worst sleep night. This for me is the night before my first day back to work. I took 4 caps the first night (USP informed me later I should have started with 2 ..oops).
It is a hard feeling to describe, but this first use was like a calming stimulant. My eyes felt like they kept wanting to open, yet my mind wasn't racing like it normally would be at this time. (I was very aware that I had just taken something and it was definitely having an effect, too much to try to analyze when you are trying to SLEEP... strong focus at night ain't so cool). Unfortunately I didn't sleep well at all. My girlfriend decided to stay up to "help me" get to sleep better since I was trying the REM. This of course backfired as I kept waiting for her to come back in (knowing if I fell asleep she'd wake me up when she came in)... low and behold I finally feel asleep for a few minutes, then she came in and the AC kicked on and slammed the door... very loud. well, that ruined night one! Still, with less than four hours sleep (maybe two hours total) I felt fine the next day.
I normally don't respond so well to melatonin or 5 htp but have been playing around with stacking these with REM. So far, Melatonin and REM together will most likely be my base stack. This makes me relaxed and slightly drowsy (which is what i want). The best combo so far has been 5-htp (100mg) , dhea (25mg), melatonin (3mg), and 4 REM. I think the 5-htp is the culprit in making me very groggy the next day. I am now playing with variations on this combo and timing. For me at least, I think taking the REM an hour before going to bed is better. I do get the heat kick from it, but it mostly seems to happen within the first hour. I need to take the 5-htp earlier than the others in the stack, hopefully that will help with the groggy feeling the next day.
So the early review is that for me REM improves sleep quality, and general well being the following day. I haven't felt tired at all during the day (or at night when one night shift). This alone would be enough. My main issue is actually falling asleep, finding something (non-script) that will put me down with no sides the next day. I can't use ambien or anything like that due to only having 4 hours sometimes. Assuming the synergy in the stacks I mentioned above continues to pan out, I'll be a happy camper. I've not noticed any added benefit from adding powerfull in regards to falling asleep. I've only tried this twice, but at that time was only focusing on falling asleep, not quality of sleep, the next day etc. etc. I'll try this combo again soon once I'm set on the rest of the stack.
USP sent me enough REM to fully test it out in several situations so I'm still experimenting and trying to see what works best with each day/night schedule I deal with. I'd be really curious to hear from any other with either a rotating shift, or even those that just work nights. It really is a totally different world when it comes to sleep patterns, and so far most of the reviews seem to be from people with more "consistent" sleep patterns than me.
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