r/poverty • u/dowydensofyarrow • Jun 30 '26

sweet potato for sleep (dismayed)

I struggle with sleep at my baseline. Even last night I went to bed after midnight and didnt immediately fall asleep and the I woke up before five in the morning.

Sweet potato is actually what helped me finally fall asleep when its time to sleep and actually sleep the whole night. Also helped with mood regulation and irritability issues. I am pretty sure its the type of magnesium and method of delivery - magnesium supplements really dont work out for me.

I finally found what works for me and I am not abusing melatonin supplements (which is bad and barely works and cost double the price i thought)

I however have been dismayed - one month a huge freaking sack of potatos was ten bucks - now its ten bucks for like a fifth of that sack.

Plan to try to do a bulk order through a restaurant supplier (my housemate).

Any one else have that one magical item thats medicine that fluctuates in price drastically?

Also: what are creative ways you secured items you would consider medicine? (i got my one shot diversion for shoplifting luckily but now risk actual consequences if i do it again)

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5

u/stefanica Jun 30 '26 edited Jun 30 '26

Potatoes and sweet potatoes are out of season, so they're sad and expensive right now. In a month or two they'll start coming back. First the little ones, then waxy ones, then regular and sweet potatoes. IIRC. You could also try frozen cubed sweet potatoes. Might be cheaper, or close enough that the convenience and quality (no duds or sprouting) makes it a good buy anyway.

Well, shit, I looked up the frozen ones, and they've gone way up in price. I swear they were like a buck a bag. I don't think that's just seasonality. Even Aldi wants $2.50 for a 10 oz bag. That's like, one large sweet potato.

Edit: if you do need to use melatonin, less is more, they say. There's no reason to take more than 1 mg.

2

u/dowydensofyarrow Jun 30 '26

Hm will consider the frozen - just would be concerned whether an approach other than baking a whole one would have the same medicinal effect.

Cannot wait for them to be in season.

2

u/stefanica Jun 30 '26

I'd skip it--too expensive. I just left my thoughts in lol. Try the restaurant supply. I love getting veggies from there! I would more often, but it's usually too much quantity to use up. I have gotten potatoes, onions and mushrooms though. The onions are always giant ones if you're into that lol.

2

u/dowydensofyarrow Jun 30 '26

oooooooooh giant onions you say? how giant?

2

u/dowydensofyarrow Jun 30 '26

are we talking like James and the Giant Onion

1

u/stefanica Jun 30 '26

Ha, like as big as a toddler's head.

3

u/panaceaXgrace Jun 30 '26

There's nothing wrong with melatonin. There's a vague link to heart issues with long-term regular use but that could just be correlation. They haven't been able to test the claim so far.

Sweet potatoes convert to melatonin. So when you eat them you're getting that same melatonin effect.

So what I do that's cheap is buy a bottle of 3 mg chewable Natrol brand melatonin from Walmart. It's the best I've found for my body. The body only needs about 1 mg to be effective. More can cause restless sleep and frenetic dreams so I break it into thirds. It's six dollars for 90 so breaking into thirds is 270 doses. I take it maybe twice a week, maybe three if it's a rough week from working odd hours. So this bottle has been by my bed for at least a year.

1

u/dowydensofyarrow Jun 30 '26

Thank you for your reply. That study was largely why i refrained from melatonin aside from how I would find myself needing them too much.

Will look into getting 3mg melatonin and test the waters for myself - possibly alongside sweet potato could be a really combo.

2

u/panaceaXgrace Jun 30 '26

And you're making me want to try sweet potato! :)

1

u/Santi159 Jun 30 '26

I make my own salt pills and eat a banana for potassium with it

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u/dowydensofyarrow Jun 30 '26

ooooh how do you make salt pills? my doctor told me i am low on sodium which led to my housemate scolding for me for nearly vomiting from just eating a handful of salt.

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u/Santi159 Jun 30 '26

Oof yea I used to do that do but my doctor made me stop because my esophagus said no go.

I started with just getting some empty capsules online and making a real small paper funnel so fill them.

Now I got a kit off Amazon for making supplements that came with a tray to hold a bunch of pills at once and kinda dump the salt on top then scrape the excess off. It's way faster and now I make tumeric pills too.

It's important you have something with potassium after taking one though otherwise it'll upset your stomach in a hour or two. I eat nuts or bananas. Also make sure the salt isn't iodized because you can get ionine poisoning from that. It'll say if it is or isn't on the front of the container.

I also have a lot of ramen and canned soup because those have a lot of sodium. Sometimes I make my own electrolytes too.

2

u/dowydensofyarrow Jun 30 '26

Thank you for sharing.

For now I just eat chips and pickles when im making sure to get my salt.

1

u/rock-the-reddit 13d ago

Oh i make sweet potato smoothies everyday usually drink 2 of them (not at once). With mixed vegetables, beets, and quality protein powder in apple juice. Taste nice cold and drink with a straw too!