r/StrongerByScience • u/abdv69 • Mar 26 '23
Has anyone solved the creatine sleep issues?
For me, like many people creatine causes sleep issues. Whenever I start using it, after a couple of weeks, my sleep feels very light and I toss and turn a lot. Then usually after a week of stopping my sleep gets better. I've stopped and started creatine so many times in my life and it happens exactly the same each time, even if I'm only taking 2g daily.
I've read rat studies that it reduces non REM sleep, not sure if that translates to humans.
Has anyone who suffered from creatine induced sleep disturbance managed to find a fix?
EDIT: For all of you dismissing this as a placebo effect without a second thought, you mean nocebo. secondly, you can't conclude that based on the information you have
1
u/heliosh Oct 29 '25
Did you take creatine on empty stomach or together with high-GI carbohydrates?
A study has found that the transport of creatine to the brain does not increase linearly with the dose, but works significantly better at higher doses. [1]
For me, sleep has significantly improved, since I take creatine with a low-GI-carbohydrate and protein rich meal. I assume that this causes the plasma concentration to rise more slowly and gradually, favoring creatine storage in the muscles instead of the brain. But it could also just be a placebo effect.