TL;Dr: 10g/day of glycine for 6 months has significantly improved my sleep quality and tolerance for sleep deprivation.

My dear friend, have you heard of the Vitamin?

The Vitamin has been foretold in ancient legends as the deliverer of all who suffer mysterious ailments. The Vitamin has been foretold on … Tumblr:

Unfortunately, I can’t tell you what your Vitamin will be, but beyond all reasonable expectation I found mine in the shape of the simplest amino acid - Glycine is in almost everything you eat, your body makes it too, and still you might not have enough.

I’d like to pretend I deeply researched this uncommon health intervention before gallivanting off to Nootropics Adventure Land, but actually I just regularly prompt every new AI model with my whole sleep dealio cause oh-my-god could I please just need less sleep already?

Shoshannah’s Sleep Dealio - TL;Dr: Healthy Long Sleeper

You know how some people are genetically blessed to only need 4-6 hours of sleep? They are the extremes on a bell curve where most of us sit around the 8-8.5 hour mark.

Guess who lives on the other side of that bell curve?

Indeed, the healthy long sleepers - a breed so rare that everyone will assume you are depressed or deficient in something.

Except all my tests come back fine - more than fine. So damn fine that the sleep doctor was absolutely over the moon when he informed me the reason I need 10 hours of sleep a night is cause I have the brain waves of a 10 year old (on a sleep EEG).

Presumably this has some sort of benefit, but who knows.

Then one day, Opus 4.6 was released, and I was very sleep deprived, as happens to me frequently. 8 hours of sleep will do that to you me.

And so I again dumped my medical history into this new Claude and … lo and behold - our lord and savior emerged:

Opus 4.6 has a special place in my heart ever since 10 minutes ago when I looked up which Claude gave me the advice that changed my life

So I ordered glycine the same day. And then promptly forgot about it.

Sleep deprivation, not even once about 40-80% of my life.

Then a few days later an essay titled “Is fever a symptom of glycine deficiency?” goes up on LessWrong.

Oh boy was that a strange read.

You know who had a fever?

24-year old me who had been a vegetarian for 2 years, and ended up with 3 solid months of fever. I got my blood tested every which way to Sunday, and the doctor could not find any deficiencies nor any other causes of fatigue, fever, or any other f-word.

Now 3 months of fever sucks, and I was sleeping much of it, and eventually I was like … you know … I could … maybe … try … the obvious thing and reset my diet and eat loads of meat.

After 2 weeks my fever went away and I felt great. I’ve been a very conflicted carnivore ever since. After reading that essay, I looked up sources of glycine, and guess what? Various meat products are absolutely stacked with it.

So after reading that I grabbed my new pills, and took them, and …

My body and mind flooded with an overwhelming sense of relaxation and ease. It was so much I could hardly move. It’s like I got hit with a fluffy relaxation and well-being hammer.

This probably won’t happen to you. This probably doesn’t happen to anyone. But it happened to me and it made Claude so worried to boot, bless their heart.

To me it felt too good to overly mind, and over the course of a couple of weeks I got used to the effect, and now I just feel a pleasant sense of relaxation in the evening shortly after taking my dose.

Some nights I lie tossing and turning in bed, till I realize I forgot my glycine. I swear by the power of the God of Availability Bias, that’s how much it helps!

Anyway, unfortunately, I still need 10 hours of sleep.

But.

First of all, sleep deprivation hits me a lot less than before, and actually taking my 10 hours feels a lot better. Glycine has made sleeping pleasurable and good for me. And consequently, my mood is much improved and my energy levels are higher. Claude and Chat tell me this is to be expected.

And yet I cannot overstate how much glycine has helped me. It has been the number one best drug I’ve ever taken by a mile, barring … antibiotics. Antibiotics are strictly better. But you know. They do keep you from literally dying and stuff. Pretty stiff competition there.

Anyway, it’s been 6 months now, and the effects have lasted.

Glycine is clearly my Vitamin. To the point that my friends have sent me this:

And this:

And honestly, if someone tells me about a problem vaguely sleep or stress related, I will sit there biting my tongue till my willpower eventually takes a hike and I whisper softly:

Have you tried glycine?

If you want to give it a whirl, it’s easy to find online. I take 5 grams with breakfast and 5 grams with dinner. If you try it, let me know how it goes in the comments. Maybe it’s someone else’s Vitamin too.