L-Theanine for Sleep Maintenance
L-theanine reduces pre-sleep arousal but has weak maintenance-specific evidence.
Overview
Verdict
How It Works
Dosing & Protocol
Typical dose
- Recommended dose
- 200-400mg before bed
- Expected timeframe
- 2-4 weeks
Protocol
- form
- Not applicable
- duration
- Not applicable
- co factor
- Evidence is insufficient for sleep maintenance specifically. Theanine has reasonable evidence for sleep quality and falling asleep - a four-week trial at 200 mg/day improved subjective sleep quality and reduced latency, and an actigraphy study in boys with ADHD at 400 mg/day found improved sleep efficiency. Sleep maintenance is a different problem. Theanine acts by reducing pre-sleep arousal, and it has a relatively short duration of action, so it is unlikely to influence awakenings in the second half of the night, and no trial has reported wake-after-sleep-onset as a primary outcome in adults. Nocturnal awakenings more often reflect sleep apnoea, alcohol, nocturia, pain, hot flushes or circadian factors than pre-sleep arousal.
- titration
- Not applicable
- starting dose
- Not applicable as an established treatment for staying asleep
Evidence
What the studies say
No studies are yet linked to both L-Theanine and Sleep Maintenance.
Safety
Caveats
Not sedating. Better for hyperarousal than for physiological awakenings.
Less likely to help if
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