One way to wake up faster, with more energy (ginseng)

With the usual caveat that you should always check with your doctor before trying different medical things, the following article describes a solution that seems to help me be more awake in the mornings.

I’m old, I was born with a rare blood disease, and I also have sleep apnea, so waking up in the morning is a hard, hard thing to do. Even after I manage to get out of bed and my eyes are open, it feels like it’s several hours every morning before I’m truly awake.

I also currently live with someone who wakes up before me and likes to start talking as soon as I get out of bed, so lately I’ve been experimenting with ways to try to wake up faster in the morning.

My solution

I’m “fortunate” that I wake up several times during the night, so one solution that seems to help is to take some ginseng at approximately 4am. I know from past experience that ginseng doesn’t affect me right away, but seems to keep me more alert for about six hours, so I came up with this solution.

So far this has been working well, because (a) it doesn’t wake me up right away, and then (b) when I do need to wake up a couple of hours later, I do feel more energetic right away. I won’t say that I’m “wide awake,” but I do feel significantly more awake.

If you live with someone who likes to talk to you before you’ve had your first cup of coffee, you know how important this is.

Ginseng products I am using

If you’re interested in this technique, you can try any ginseng product you like, but this is the ginseng I have been taking at 4am:

• Korean Red Ginseng from Nutricost

A nice thing about it is that it’s pure ginseng; it doesn’t have any other additives, such as caffeine. The label says that two capsules provides 1,000mg of Korean Red Ginseng Extract, and in parentheses it also shows “Panax ginseng” and “stem and leaf”.

Another ginseng product I have tried that I know makes me more alert in the afternoon is:

• Zolotus Panax Ginseng

However, in addition to Panax Ginseng Root, it also includes Gingko Biloba Extract, Ashwagandha, Beet Root, and Green Tea Extract, and as a first experiment I just wanted to try pure ginseng, so that’s why I went with the Nutricost product. That being said, I know that I like the Zolotus during the day, so I will probably start testing it at 4am as well.

I also know from past experience that if I take this product in the evening, it will interfere with my sleep.

My past ginseng orders

Also, just to prove that I use the products I just mentioned, here’s a list of some of my ginseng orders from Amazon:

Summary

In summary, if you wake up tired every morning and want to try something — anything — to help feel less tired in the morning, I can confirm that this works for me.