Creatine causing insomnia / sleep disturbance?

[Vexer]

Anyone ever slept like crap when on creatine?

Been loading with 20gr/day for 5 days now and the last 3-4 night I have woken up after 4-5hours of sleep, every single time. Almost impossible to get back to sleep after that, even though I feel thumped. Also I'm way more anxious when I wake up than usual.

Getting to sleep is also more difficult, though I initially just put that down to the heavy workouts I have re-instated (I was on a layoff for 10 months)

I have heard anecdotal evidence that it can keep your brain alert & interfere with melatonin secretion...

 

[zazen5]

There is evidence that creatine also effects the brain for increasing resistance to fatigue during sleep deprivation. There arent many studies that I know of regarding whether creatine would be associated with insomnia. What I have found personally is that creatine enables me to lift heavier and that heavy lifting can me have greater difficulty at falling asleep. Maybe this is due to enhanced sympathetic nervous system activation and more catecholamines from the heavy lifting? I dont think it is the creatine itself, at least for me.

What seems in order is some type of carbohydrate meal before bed to help sleep. This may impact serotonine secretion(enhanced?) after the meal.

There are other things you can do that will help you to get to sleep and stay asleep. I read games from the SCID on the go android application which is free for chess. What I do is go through chess games. It is highly interesting and fatiguing mentally. Each move is similar to lifting weights in terms of attentional focus required. So I definitely recommend reading chess games/problems if insomnia is an issue.

Other things that help me if sleeping is difficult is north pole magnets. I have two diamante wrist magnetic bracelets that I bought(made in Japan) with a high gauss rating. I put one on my left wrist for better sleep quality. Magnetic therapy is known to help sleep difficulty. As long as the person doesnt have a heart pacemaker there shouldnt be any problems with safety doing this.

 

[Vexer]

Great insight zazen, thanks. Especially the increased catecholamines after stimulating the CNS with the heavier lifting sounds plausible.... I definitely notice an increase in the weight I can handle a few days into the creatine load...

 

[zazen5]

You're welcome. Insomnia was definitely a problem when I was a students in the UW Seattle dorm in 1990 due to noise + the after workout energy-wish I had used earplugs.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using EliteFitness

 

[Russianstar]

Creatine affects cortisol.
Cortisol affects both circadian cycles and Diurnal cycles, cortisol is often lowered at night while on large amounts of creatine, and this can play havoc with sleep cycles.
The study talked about above is somewhat misquoted,
RATIONALE:

"Sleep deprivation has a negative effect on cognitive and psychomotor performance and mood state, partially due to decreases in creatine levels in the brain. Therefore, creatine supplementation should lessen the negative effects of sleep deprivation"..

It has nothing to do with causing you less sleep, it should in theory help sleep.

The only thing of note is "They were tested for plasma concentrations of catecholamines and cortisol at 0 and 24 h"

Then...

"Norepinephrine and dopamine concentrations were significantly higher at 24 h than 0 h, but cortisol were lower"

Lowered cortisol during the morning hours is bad news.. you either wake up groggy caused by an insulin dump, or cant sleep.

The other explanation is overloading the system with creatine increases the stress on the pre frontal cortex, however I doubt that is the case.

Kindest regards RS