I've had chronic, extreme insomnia for most of my life, and it got worse when I developed adrenal fatigue. For five weeks now, I've taken niacinamide an hour before bed, along with a handful of herbs and melatonin and sometimes OTC sleep aids like Unisom. The niacinamide has made a noticeable difference, and still works 5 weeks after I started taking it nightly. I didn't want to announce my insomnia cure here on Curezone until I was sure it worked consistently for over a month, and it has. As we know, many supplements work for a few days to a week and we think it's the miracle cure, and then it stops working. Niacinamide has worked consistently for me for 5 weeks now, and I know it's what has made the difference because I haven't changed my "sleep cocktail" of other supplements during that time.

Niacinamide is vitamin B3 which is similar to Niacin but is NOT the same thing, and they aren't interchangeable. I tried inositol (another B vitamin often used for sleep), which works very well for some people on this board, but it can cause hypoglycemia in those who are susceptible to that condition, and I am. I had to stop taking inositol because it was making me wake up in the middle of the night with hypoglycemic attacks. Niacinamide doesn't cause hypoglycemia, but it depresses the central nervous system, which helps people stay asleep.

The only caveat is that if you take too much of it, it can make you depressed during the day, so be aware of that if you try it. I take 1,000 mg an hour before I go to sleep, and if I'm having an especially hard night and wake up at 2am, I take another 1,000mg along with my usual kava kava, passion flower, etc. Don't take a large dose of niacinamide too close to your wake-up time or you might feel sluggish and woozy. I've found it leaves my system within about 4 hours, so I can take it at 2am and wake up without feeling fuzzy headed at 6am.

Also, niacinamide is cheap! (And thank goodness for that, because I'm paying a lot each month for all the supplements I take for adrenal fatigue.) Nature's Life brand makes a time-released version if you want to try that. The time-released version is helpful in keeping you asleep if wake-ups are your issue, but it doesn't have the same powerful effect in putting you to sleep. If getting to sleep in the first place is your problem, you may want to try the regular niacinamide.

If you try it, I hope it helps you the way it's helped me! I have a new job now and have to wake up at 6am every weekday, and I wouldn't be able to do it without niacinamide. That said, I do still have to rotate OTC sleep aids and take handfuls of melatonin and other herbs each night. However, I know the niacinamide has made a big difference, because everything I was taking wasn't enough to give me 8 hours of sleep, until I added the niacinamide.