Month: February 2012

Vitamin D3 and Sleep: 5000 IU Better than 3000 IU (Story 13)

Seth Roberts6 Comments

Jenny West, the Englishwoman who discovered independently the value of taking Vitamin D3 in the morning, wrote again:

Since reading some of the other D3 stories, I increased my D3 [morning] dosage to 5000 IU/day [from 3000 IU/day] two days ago.

1. I immediately slept even better – no longer being aware of mid-sleep turning-over.

2. I’ve had a large boost of energy and the clarity of thought that both Robin Barooah and Alexandra Carmichael mentioned.

3. A year-long injury – specifically a dislocated coccyx – has suddenly taken a step forward, and I found myself running for the Tube last night – something I can’t remember when I last did it. Is this a direct effect of the D3, or an indirect one resulting from much better sleep?

This agrees with what both Alexandra and I experienced: a dose of 4000 IU worked much better than a dose of 2000 IU.

Assorted Links

Seth Roberts2 Comments

Thanks to Anne Weiss, Phil Alexander and Dave Lull.

Vitamin D3 in Morning Has No Clear Effect on Sleep (Story 12)

Seth Roberts12 Comments

Alex Chernavsky, who has used the Shangri-La Diet successfully for two years, recently commented as follows (emphasis added):

For what it’s worth, I’ve taken Vitamin D at different times of the day, and I’ve never noticed any effect on my sleep. Of course, my sleep is already pretty good, in the sense that I fall asleep quickly and don’t usually wake up during the night. (My sleep is not good in the sense that I don’t get enough of it.)

By email, I learned that Alex is now taking Vitamin D3 — this particular product, which is vegan (“plant-source”) — at 5000 IU every other day. On weekdays, he takes it at about 8:00 am, on weekends, 9:30-10:00 am.

What might explain Alex’s failure to notice better sleep?

1. Not enough D3. I found that 2000 IU/day had no noticeable effect, whereas 4000 IU/day did produce noticeable benefit. Alex is getting 2500 IU/day — or less, if he takes it too late on the weekends.

2. His source of D3.

3. Individual differences large enough to matter. If you do sensitive psychology experiments, you will learn there are individual differences in everything.

4. Ceiling effect. Alex’s sleep is too good to notice improvement.

Those are the just the obvious possibilities.

Law Schools Sued For Lying About Post-Grad Employment

Seth Roberts15 Comments

If it isn’t clear for whom law schools exist, now it is clearer:

The saga began last year, when Strauss and Anziska, both veterans of corporate legal work, filed lawsuits against New York Law School and Thomas M. Cooley Law School, in Michigan. The allegation: That Cooley and NYLS, by allegedly inflating post-graduate employment numbers, had committed fraud and violated local consumer protection acts. . . . The job market for lawyers has been contracting for years; hiring is down across the board. At the same time, law schools have continued to crank out young lawyers at an alarming rate.

This is the legal version of the joke that people go to law school because they aren’t good at math. So far twelve schools have been sued. I look forward to learning how the teachers at those schools react. Which side will they take? .

More about the lawsuits. I blogged about the deception a year ago. The California Culinary Academy in San Francisco was successfully sued for similar deception a few years ago. Inside the Law School Scam, a blog.

Vitamin D3 in Morning Makes Her Fall Asleep Faster and Sleep Better (Story 11)

Seth Roberts2 Comments

I have heard many stories about Vitamin D3 and sleep, often in the comments section of this blog. From now on I am going to number them. (I retitled earlier posts.)

Elizabeth Funderburk emailed me:

I’ve always suffered, rather lightly I guess, from SAD in the winter. In 2010 I started eating primal, which I thought would help – it helped in many ways but I still got gloomier all winter and didn’t even realize it til that first warm sunny spring day when I “woke up.” Your November post about D3 reminded me that I wanted to try it this winter, so I got a bottle and started taking it in the morning. I forgot a few times and took it in the midday or afternoon, and yes, I felt noticeably more spazzy and awake those evenings. Now, if I forget, I just skip it if I remember later than 10 am. I do think I sleep better. I take 4000-6000 IU daily.

I asked her for details.

Tell me about yourself.

I live in Reno, NV, USA, and I’m 34. I do home renovations.

What brand?

Kirkland D3 2000 IU gelcaps. The first bottle I got was from Walgreen’s, so I guess it was Nature’s Bounty gelcaps. Both seem to work equally well. I have not tried capsules. I take the D3 while I’m waiting for my coffee, usually 6 or 7 am.

How has your sleep improved?

With D3, I would guess I fall asleep in 10-30 minutes most of the time (trouble falling asleep once every 7-10 days). The wave noise thing by my bed is on a 45 minute timer. If the wave sounds stop and I’m still laying there conscious, I categorize that as a “trouble falling asleep” night and I will usually get back up and read for an hour.
In the fall before I started the D3, I’d take more than 45 minutes to fall asleep more often than after starting D3.

But I think more importantly, the quality of my sleep was not restful more often before D3 – I slept well (lightly, vivid dreams, woke up briefly, woke up feeling rested) maybe twice a week. I slept poorly (heavy, dark pit of sleep, no remembered dreams, unwilling to wake up and get up) 5 nights a week. It’s pretty binary; I usually sleep well or poorly, not “so-so.” Now, taking D3, I sleep well 6 nights a week, and poorly once a week.

What do you mean by “spazzy” (“more spazzy in the evening”)?

When I did take it in the afternoon, I noticed that I felt energetic when I’d prefer to feel sleepy – really raring to go at 7 or 8 instead of starting to wind down. I think it would be a fabulous tool for people working swing or graveyard shifts!

“thanks for the reminder” — you mean you had read elsewhere that Vitamin D3 first thing in the morning is a good idea?

You gave me the idea to take it IN THE MORNING. You “reminded” me about it in the sense that it’s one of the few supplements Mark Sisson (mark’s daily apple) suggests everybody could benefit from – I noted that when I gave up grain and started eating primal in early 2010, but it wasn’t something I’d bothered to take at that point, because I spend a lot of time outside in the spring/summer/fall. (Winter, too, but because I’m all covered up in clothes and the sun is so weak, I don’t seem to get the natural level of D3 I need.)