Vitamin B6 (2013, 2014) and Insomnia

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2014
Researchers investing the biochemistry of sleep identify vitamin B6 as one of the precursors to serotonin. Serotonin is a precursor to melatonin, which is recognizes as one of the primary biochemicals that regulate the circadian rhythm and support good sleep.

Researchers: Y. Yang, et al

Published: Strategies of Functional Foods Promote Sleep in Human Being, Current Signal Transduction Therapy, December, 2014.

2013
Noting that poor sleep quality is linked to mortality, researchers investigated diet and nutrition in nearly 2000 men and women over the age of 65. The quality of their sleep was categorized as good, fair or poor.

For both men and women the better the sleep the lower the mortality. For men they found that a good variety in diet was associated with better sleep. They found that women with poor sleep quality had markedly lower vitamin B6 and vegetable consumption and concluded that vitamin-B6 deficiency was a greater indicator of mortality than sleep.

Researchers: Y.C. Huang, et al

Published: Sleep quality in the survival of elderly taiwanese: roles for dietary diversity and pyridoxine in men and women, Journal of the American College of Nutrition., 2013.