yes it helps me sleep i take 100mg nightly,i do buy the enteric coated one though ,its more expensive but the non coated one made me sick to my stomach.

I am starting this now...will let you know how it goes!

What is it?

I have been taking it off and on for the past couple of months. I have found that I feel less nervouse and have more restful sleep when I am consistant with it. I haven't had any luck with it helping the pain, but I do think it has helped in other ways. I take 3 35mg in the late morning and 3 just before bed.

It helps me sleep. I think the recommended dose has been too much for me, though, as I have felt realy sluggish and "heavy". So I am decreasing the dosage and adding an enriching greens drink. Feel better after 2 days.

I don't know what it is.

I just wanted to point out to all of you who don't know what 5-HTP is, if you will notice, 5-HTP is highlighted in green and underlined. Anytime you see this in a post, you can click on it to get more information.

I've never met Dr. Benbadis personally, but if you go to the TGH website, you can actually watch a taped livebroadcast of a temporal lobe resection. (http://www.or-live.com/tgh/1333/) Viewers were able to send in questions and Dr. Benbadis answered them live during the broadcast. I had few questions of my own medical team a year ago, because Dr. Benbadis had already answered them a year before -- during this surgery. I'd recommend watching it if you're considering the surgery, and If you can see Dr. Benbadis, so much the better!

I am not sure I would recommend anything from Mrs. Fast. I read her book that she wrote with a doctor and it seemed that so much of the emphasis is placed on the healthy spouse and not enough responibility is placed on the person with BP. She does have some good ideas but I just have some issues with her take on the responsibility issues.

It seems to be helping me. I just started it, and had tried it some years ago, but I think I wasn't taking enough.

Will update as time goes on.

My sleep is better, pain is down and mood is brighter.

I wanted to let you all know something about 5-HTP that I have heard from a physician and psychiatrist that you should be aware of. If you are taking any antidepressants be really careful with 5-HTP. The reason being (and I am no doctor, don't claim to be, and don't play one on t.v) it may mess with the seritonin (and I am not a spelling bee champion )in your brain and can cause seritonin poisoning. So, give a quick call to your physician or pharmacist before you take it...Oky Doky???

I take it at bedtime and it helps make me sleepy.

I took it and I couldn't tell a difference.

Excellent point, JLS!! There are warnings on the 5-HTP bottles about exactly that. I think that mine warned about not taking it with antidepressants, including SSRI's or MAOI's.

I have to also say that it was first recommended to me by a physician several years ago, but didn't seem to work. So, I felt comfortable in giving it another try. I read about it first and checked out all the cautions.

5-HTP also increases the sedative effet of any sedating medications, and alcohol should be avoided within several hours of ingestion.

I wonder about this old post about enteric coated 5-HTP, because they can cause nausea, and they can affect the action of intestines as well.

But I have to say, with caution, as it's very early on, that this is the first break that I've had from profound exhaution, poor sleep, feeling depressed and severe full body pain in the morning and throughout the day.

It may be the little breakthrough that I thought would be out there, but had no idea when or how I might find it.

It's not a cure, but I feel like I'm starting to feel human again after months and months of not feeling vaguely human. Or, really, even years. I have the sense that this has been a player in my problem, but has progressed over time.

I was told by my pain management physician (who thought that I had a problem with neurotransmitters, which is what this acts on, namely serotonin and melatonin) that it would take three solid months of good sleep before I would truly start to recover from this profound sleep deprivation.

I will share what I find out as I go along, for any who are interested.

MomOfTwoBees. It may be that like me, you weren't on a sufficient doseage. I tried once, with only one 100 mg tablet a day. Then I tried going back to that a couple weeks ago. On Sunday I purchased a new bottle to try again, and this time took three a day. It started to work within a couple of days and by day four, was amazing.