Glycine

Articles tagged with "Glycine".

Glycine Improves Daytime Performance After Sleep Restriction: Clinical Trial

Tags: Glycine, Sleep Restriction, Daytime Performance, Cognitive Function, Sleep Recovery

October 22, 2025

Can Glycine Improve Your Performance After a Poor Night’s Sleep?

Glycine supplementation significantly improves subjective daytime performance, alertness, and cognitive function in healthy adults following partial sleep restriction, this clinical trial demonstrates. Participants who took 3 grams of glycine before bedtime after sleeping only 5 hours showed substantial improvements in next-day alertness ratings, reduced fatigue scores, and better performance on attention and working memory tasks compared to placebo. The study found that glycine not only improved sleep quality during the restricted sleep period but also enhanced the restorative value of limited sleep, allowing participants to function better despite getting less sleep than optimal. This suggests that glycine may help mitigate some of the performance impairments associated with insufficient sleep, making it potentially valuable for people dealing with unavoidable sleep restriction.

Glycine Improves Sleep Quality in Human Volunteers: Polysomnographic Evidence

Tags: Glycine, Sleep Quality, Sleep Supplements, Polysomnography, Sleep Onset

October 22, 2025

Does Glycine Supplementation Actually Improve Sleep Quality?

Glycine supplementation significantly improves subjective sleep quality and reduces sleep onset time in human volunteers, this controlled clinical trial demonstrates using both subjective measures and objective polysomnographic recordings. Participants taking 3 grams of glycine before bedtime reported feeling more refreshed upon waking, experienced faster sleep onset, and showed improved sleep efficiency on polysomnographic measurements. The amino acid appears to work by facilitating the drop in core body temperature necessary for sleep initiation and by modulating neurotransmitter activity in sleep-promoting brain regions. This research provides scientific validation for glycine as a safe, natural sleep aid with measurable benefits on both subjective sleep experience and objective sleep architecture.

Glycine's Sleep-Promoting Effects: NMDA Receptor Mechanisms in the Brain

Tags: Glycine, NMDA Receptors, Sleep Mechanisms, Suprachiasmatic Nucleus, Thermoregulation

October 22, 2025

How Does Glycine Promote Sleep Through Brain NMDA Receptors?

Glycine promotes sleep and facilitates body temperature reduction through its action on NMDA receptors in the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN), the brain’s master circadian clock, this research demonstrates. The study reveals that glycine acts as a co-agonist at NMDA receptors in the SCN, modulating the activity of neurons that control both circadian timing and thermoregulation. When glycine binds to these receptors, it enhances the natural evening decline in core body temperature that’s essential for sleep onset, while also influencing circadian phase timing. This mechanism explains why glycine supplementation can improve sleep quality and reduce sleep onset time—it works through the brain’s fundamental sleep and circadian control systems rather than simply acting as a sedative.