Thread: Timing for taking vitamin B6 and 5-HTP?

A lot of people complain that B6 keeps them awake if they take it before bed. 5-HTP is probably okay to take at whatever time; still, it might make you feel a bit drowsy.

Everyone's body chemistry is different, so experiment with dosage and timing to see what works.

5-HTP helps promote the natural production of melatonin, which assists sleeping. Therefore, 5-HTP should be taken before bedtime - probably at least 20 minutes prior to the desired time for falling asleep (it has to go through the stomach first, which does take a bit of time).

B6 aids the conversion of 5-HTP into serotonin (before that in turn is converted to melatonin), but this should not happen before the 5-HTP has entered the brain, because serotonin cannot enter the brain, whereas 5-HTP can. Therefore, 5-HTP should probably have a head start, before B6 is added to the mix.

I take B6 as a WBTB-snack, which greatly improves dream recall in the morning.

Cheers Earthatic

Voldmer, thanks for the info!
I took both B6 (60mg) and 5-HTP (100mg) last night before bed. I was expecting a better dream recall but had the worst dream recall ever as I only remembered a name starting with A... from the whole dream.
So I now understand that I took them in wrong timing... (not sure about the dose too). I would be glad if you can share with me the doses you take. I will try this again on Saturday night.

I take 100 mg 5-HTP before bedtime (but only every third day; I'm trying other things on the remaining days). As for B6, I take a 121 mg pill (why the odd amount, instead of simply 100 mg, is beyond me ). I only do this every other day. Generally speaking, I think one should not ingest more than 100 mg per day. There can be unpleasant side effects, if the dose is too high (200 mg might have such effects, if taken over a longer period of time).

There have been reports about succesful use of doses considerably smaller. I also took only 50 mg before, and that also seemed to work. My guess is, that proper timing of B6 will allow a dose of 50 mg to be highly effective.