Glycine helps people sleep better in a different way than sleeping pills, because it helps them fall asleep faster and reach deep sleep faster without changing how much time they spend in different sleep stages.
Scientific Claim
Glycine improves sleep quality through a mechanism different from traditional hypnotic drugs like benzodiazepines, as it shortens sleep onset latency and slow wave sleep latency without altering sleep architecture.
Source Excerpt
“Thus, a bolus ingestion of glycine before bedtime seems to produce subjective and objective improvement of the sleep quality in a different way than traditional hypnotic drugs such as benzodiazepines.”
Evidence from Studies
Supporting Studies
Glycine ingestion improves subjective sleep quality in human volunteers, correlating with polysomnographic changes
The study directly compares glycine's effects to benzodiazepines, noting that while benzodiazepines alter sleep architecture, glycine does not but still improves sleep quality metrics. This provides causal evidence for glycine's unique mechanism of action.