5-HTP Benefits for Sleep: An Evidence-Based Guide

What is 5-HTP?

5-Hydroxytryptophan, or simply 5-HTP, is an amino acid that the human body produces from L-tryptophan, a common dietary amino acid building block. It is a compound critical in the natural production of two main neurochemicals: serotonin and, eventually, melatonin.

Serotonin has sometimes been referred to as the 'happy hormone' because it helps regulate mood, appetite, and emotional well-being.

Importantly, serotonin is also the precursor to melatonin, the hormone responsible for your sleep-wake cycle, or circadian rhythm.

By increasing available 5-HTP, you increase the raw materials necessary for your body to synthesize more serotonin, and subsequently, more melatonin. This neurochemical cascade constitutes the premise as to why supplementation with 5-HTP may help people suffering from anxiety, low mood, and poor sleep.

How Does 5-HTP Work for Sleep?

You may have heard that eating turkey makes people drowsy. This is why people often slip into a “food coma” after eating their thanksgiving meals. So why is that? The reason for this is that turkey (and other foods we will discuss later in this article) is a rich source of a nutrient called 5-HTP.

5-HTP stands for 5-hydroxytryptophan. It is a type of amino acid that has an effect on the brain and the way it processes certain neurotransmitters. Neurotransmitters like serotonin can help calm the body and prepare it for a restful night of sleep.

The way it works is as a precursor to serotonin and other neurotransmitters. In other words, your brain needs 5-HTP and other nutrients to produce neurotransmitters like serotonin that help you sleep.

5-HTP also has a beneficial effect on the hormones that regulate sleep. Most notably, 5 HTP is needed for adequate melatonin levels - the hormone that signals your brain that it's time to go to sleep. The National Institutes of Health has studied the effects of 5HTP as they pertain to hormone production and regulation.^[1] They have stated that:

5-HTP plays a major role both in neurologic and metabolic diseases and its synthesis from tryptophan represents the limiting step in serotonin and melatonin biosynthesis.

In essence, 5HTP helps you sleep by ensuring that your brain and body are prepared for it. It upregulates the hormones and neurotransmitters that are absolutely essential to reduce sleep latency and improve the overall quality of your sleep.

Benefits of 5-HTP for Sleep

Benefits of 5-HTP for Sleep

Now that you have a better idea of what this nutrient is and how it can be used to improve sleep quality, it’s time to dig a bit deeper into the 5HTP benefits and how they specifically affect sleep.

May Help Decrease Sleep Latency

Sleep latency refers to the time it takes for you to fully fall asleep after you start trying in earnest. Excessive sleep latency is usually what causes insomnia and can reduce the overall time you spend in deep, restful, and restorative sleep.

In addition to detracting from your total amount of nightly sleep and overall sleep quality, excessive sleep latency can cause great frustration, anxiety, and agitation.

5-HTP is so useful because it has been shown in high-quality clinical studies to reduce sleep latency. The National Institutes of Health conducted an in-depth study on the effects of 5HTP on sleep latency and stated the following:^[2]

Older adults had poor sleep quality and 5-HTP supplementation helped reduce sleep latency for up to 8 weeks. Prolonged effects were not observed, and this may be due to acclimation of the body to longer-term 5-HTP supplementation.

May Help Support Deeper Sleep

It’s not only about how long you sleep or how long it takes you to fall asleep. The depth and quality of your sleep is also vital to your overall health. Taking hydroxytryptophan for sleep can benefit you by allowing you to fall into a deeper, more restful state of sleep. Take a look at what the Mount Sinai staff had to say about 5-HTP for sleep and depth of sleep:^[3]

In one study, people who took 5-HTP went to sleep quicker and slept more deeply than those who took a placebo. Researchers recommend 200 to 400 mg at night to stimulate serotonin, but it may take 6 to 12 weeks to be fully effective.

May Have Cognitive Benefits

When you are able to get better sleep, your brain will be more rested and better able to tackle your daily tasks. So 5-HTP can benefit the user by improving their overall cognitive functions which include improved focus, attention, better ability to learn and retain new information, improved memory, and better resilience against stress, depression and anxiety.

May Be Beneficial For Neurotransmitter Production

Your brain and your body benefit greatly when you are producing enough neurotransmitters that help with physical and cognitive function. One of these neurotransmitters is called serotonin.

Serotonin is responsible for many types of cognitive processes including mood regulation, stress management, adaptive qualities, and outlook. There have been high quality studies that confirm the fact that 5HTP is beneficial for increasing serotonin levels as we see in the following quote:^[4]

5-HTP increased central concentrations of serotonin and selectively impaired the ability of monkeys to inhibit orienting to faces.

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How to Take 5-HTP for Sleep

The best way to take 5HTP for sleep is to find a quality 5HTP supplement or to ask your doctor to recommend one to you. At this point, you may be asking yourself, ‘how much 5htp for sleep?’ It is generally recommended that adults take about 100-300 milligrams of 5-HTP per day to optimize their sleep health.

When To Take 5-HTP For Sleep?

Timing is everything when trying to get the most out of 5-HTP for a better night's sleep. Generally speaking, consumption should occur about 30 to 60 minutes before you begin your nightly sleep routine.

This strategic timing is vital due to the physiological steps involved with 5-HTP. Once ingested, 5-HTP is absorbed and works as a direct building block for the neurotransmitter serotonin.

Serotonin is crucial for maintaining a good mood, but for sleep, the critical step is its ultimate conversion to the potent sleep hormone melatonin. Melatonin is a hormone that controls your circadian rhythm, which is your body's internal sleep-wake cycle.

Taking 5-HTP about an hour before lights-out allows the body ample time to make this conversion. This can help the rising melatonin levels coincide with your desired time to fall asleep, effectively shortening sleep latency-the time it takes to drift and promoting a more profound sense of relaxation.

Potential Side Effects and Precautions

As long as you stick to the recommended daily dose of 5-HTP, you aren’t likely to experience adverse side effects. However, if you exceed your recommended dose, some minor side effects might make themselves known.

According to the MedlinePlus website, these side effects can include mild muscle issues, drowsiness, diarrhea, vomiting, and nausea.[5]

5-HTP vs. Other Sleep Aids

5-HTP is a preferable choice if you are trying to improve your overall sleep quality because it is not as dangerous as synthetic sleep aids that can introduce external hormones to your body and actually disrupt your circadian rhythms.

For instance, 5-HTP may be a preferable choice to ashwagandha or melatonin sleep aids because, as we discussed earlier, melatonin is a hormone.

Taking too much melatonin or taking it over a long period of time may cause a hormone imbalance for some users that can make it harder for them to fall asleep in the long-run. For the most part 5HTP is viewed as a safer, natural alternative to sleep aids.