I'm A Retired Fire Captain & This Supplement Is Helping Me Get My Sleep Back On Track

I spent 25 years working on a 24-hour rotating shift as a fire captain and EMT. It was the best job in the world—but it took a real toll on my sleep. I sometimes had to function on four to six hours of sleep during a 24- to 48-hour period, and getting back into a regular sleep routine between shifts always took time. That was the "job," but being able to thrive with limited sleep extended to my personal life. I was also raising two daughters, and being present for them called on almost as much energy but definitely as much focus as being a firefighter/EMT. No wonder I didn't place much value on quality sleep!

Like many women in their 50s, I often wake up in the middle of the night. But instead of getting up at the 3 a.m. hour, sometimes I'd wake up as early as 1 a.m. and have a lot of trouble falling back asleep. This fragmented sleep affected my mental health and energy levels, and I'd get incredibly tired in the afternoons after a mid-evening wake-up. Naps were out of the question. I had too much to accomplish each day, and I wanted my waking hours to be full of movement and energy!

I tried a lot of the usual sleep aids with no success. Melatonin made me too groggy in the mornings, as if I'd just had a night out on the town. Sipping reishi tea before bed gave me really vivid dreams that woke me perplexed and out of sorts. I'd try to exhaust myself with physical activity during the day, but that didn't make it easier to sleep through the night either.

With sleep support+, on the nights I do wake up, I'm able to go back to sleep quickly—and it's made a huge difference in how I feel the next day.*

Here's how a usual night goes when I take the supplement: I'm in bed by 9:30 p.m. and my alarm "reminds" me at 9 p.m. to start preparing for bed, which includes stepping away from electronics including social media, dimming the lights, limiting food/liquid intake, and jotting down at least three things I'm grateful for from my day's experiences. I head to bed with the intention of reading a chapter or more of a great book but hardly ever get more than a few pages read. My body just feels ready to get into a great sleep, so I fall asleep very quickly. I know I'm getting deep, REM sleep because I go through some dream states and wake feeling well rested.

If I do need to get up to go to the bathroom or listen to the coyotes or owls serenade our woods, I can fall back asleep without lying there forever. I used to keep a pencil and paper by my bed at night because when I'd wake up, my mind would be busy with the things I couldn't forget to do the next day. Since taking sleep support+, I haven't had to use that nearly as much. My mind just stays quiet until I wake up around 5:30, having gotten about eight hours of sleep.