Flax Oil for Improved Sleep

If you are having trouble sleeping, try adding flax oil to your diet. The author of The Omega Diet, Artemis P. Simopoulos cites a study in which depressed patients were given up to 6 tablespoons of flax oil a day. Within two weeks, patients reported sleeping better. They also reported experiencing joy and happiness that they had never experienced before.

Other research suggests why flax oil is an effective treatment for sleep disorders. Generally, fatty acids are involved in initiating and maintaining sleep. There are different categories of fatty acids that we need: omega-3, omega-6, and omega-9 fatty acids. All three types of fatty acids play a role in sleep. Flax oil is a rich source of all three of them.

A neurochemical called serotonin is vital for healthy sleep. Serotonin is the most abundant neurotransmitter in the Raphe Nucleus, an important sleep center in the brain. Serotonin is also the substance your body uses to make melatonin, which helps us fall asleep.

It is not enough to fall asleep; one must also stay asleep. A substance called Prostaglandin D2 (PGD2)helps us stay asleep. The body makes PGD2 from linoleic acid, an omega-6 fatty acid that is foundin flax oil.

A substance in the body called oleamide makes us sleepy and helps us fall asleep. The body makes oleamide from an omega-9 fatty acid called oleic acid. Flax oil is also a rich source of oleic acid.

I tried adding flax oil to my diet--two tablespoons per meal--and was sleeping better within two weeks.

Flax oil should always be kept refrigerated and should never be heated. The best way to eat flax oil is to pour it over other food. I like pouring it over brown rice and lentils. You can also experiment by making your own salad dressing using flax oil.



If you want a scientific reference for the facts cited above, try looking up an article: Essential fatty acids and sleep: mini-review and hypothesis. This was authored by S. Yehuda, S. Rabinovitz, and D.I. Mostofsky. It was published in Medical Hypotheses1998, 50, 139-145. The article does not recommend flax oil specifically but it does discuss the role of various types of fatty acids in sleep.

Help For Insomnia

For most of my life, I have suffered from sleep difficulties and have struggled to find solutions.

I have tried it all: exercise, over-the-counter sleep remedies, Ambien (which I loved), diet, and acupuncture.

I have a master's degree in psychology and wrote my thesis on the effects of perinatal nutrition on the spatial abilities of rats. This training taught me how to research the scientific literature and find out what the latest scientific information is.

The goal of this blog is to present scientific research in a compact and readable form so that you can find solutions that help you.