6 Things I Tried When My L5-S1 Woke Me at 2am, Before I Found the Real Reason
Two bad discs, L4-L5 and L5-S1. Four years of waking at 2:10 in a recliner. Here is everything that did not work, and the one thing that finally got there.
Written by Dan, 61 · L4-L5 and L5-S1
If you came here from my post, you know about the recliner. What I left out was the list.
Four years of things I bought and believed in. Every one bought me an hour. Not one changed what time I woke up.
None of them failed because I did something wrong. They failed because of where they were trying to get to.
6A new mattress
It was the first thing I blamed. We bought a new one. I still knew what time it was before I opened my eyes.
Some nights it felt like somebody was stabbing me in the back. On the new mattress too.
5A wedge pillow and a pillow between my knees
Then I turned the bed into a project. The wedge. The knee pillow. Then another one.
If one of them moved at 2am, I was done.
I still sleep with the knee pillow. It helps a little. But it helps the position, and the position was never the problem.
4Melatonin
I took it for months. I fell asleep fine.
I never had trouble falling asleep. My trouble was being woken up.
3Gabapentin
This is the one I regret the most.
It made me foggy all day and awake all night. Two problems instead of one. I read the same line of the paper four times. My wife would ask me something and it would not land anywhere.
I found out later I was not the only one. People in those groups say it plainer than I can. "I felt dumb on it." "You trade one problem for another."
2Turmeric capsules
This was the right idea. I want to be clear about that. The research on turmeric is real.
I took them for a long time. I have a drawer full of bottles I did not believe in and bought anyway.
By then I had stopped letting myself hope. Every time I hoped, it cost me money. Then it started costing me more than money.
One night in January I worked out I had been awake three nights running. I put my face in the pillow so my wife would not hear it.
1The thing that finally got there
There is a man I know from physical therapy called Ray. Two years of nodding at each other in that parking lot.
I told him I was not sleeping. He asked me what time.
I said around two.
He said,
Then he told me what he took. A small brown bottle with a dropper. Under your tongue, hold it 30 seconds, then swallow.
It was months before I understood why it worked. I asked our pharmacist. She told me two things nobody had told me in four years.
Why it is always the same time. Your body makes its own anti-inflammatory. It runs on a clock. It is highest in the morning and it bottoms out between midnight and four. When it drops, the swelling around the nerve comes up and the nerve gets leaned on harder. That is the 2:10. It was never the mattress.
Why under the tongue. The tissue under your tongue absorbs straight into the bloodstream, so it does not get sent to the liver first. It is the same reason some heart pills go under the tongue. And it is seven plants, not one, because the swelling does not come from one place.
It is called Lumbar IV.
- Seven plants, not one
- Held under the tongue, so it does not get sent to the liver first
- One dropper morning and night
- 365-day money-back guarantee, even on empty bottles
"Most of my patients with nerve pain have tried everything on that list. The time of night is the clue. When the body's own anti-inflammatory dips in the early hours, an irritated nerve has nothing holding the swelling back. That is why the same hour keeps showing up."
What happened to me
Week one, nothing. Week two, nothing I would put my name to.
Then one night in the third week I woke up at four instead of two. I was annoyed about it. Four is still the middle of the night. It took me until the afternoon to understand what had happened.
A few days later I woke up and it was light outside. I lay there working out whether I had been up. I had not.
About a week after that my wife said, without looking up, that I had not been down in the night. She said it the way you mention the weather. She had noticed for a while. She did not want to say it out loud in case she was wrong.
The one I did not expect was the reading. I had not finished a book in two years. I thought it was my eyes. It was not my eyes.
I am still not perfect. If I overdo it in the garden, I feel it down that leg. But I sleep in my own bed now. Most nights. With my wife beside me.
It was not just me
"I have a herniated disc at L5-S1. After 3 years, my sciatica got so bad that my entire left leg and foot went numb. About three weeks after starting Lumbar IV, my pain went away and I regained feeling in my left leg. Thank you!"
"The neck pain that used to keep me up at night has eased, and my sleep has greatly improved. I don't often write reviews, but this product has greatly helped me."
"He had L4-L5 fusion four years ago and has been in constant pain ever since. Two months in and I have my husband back. He's out in the garden again, sleeping through the night, and last weekend he asked me to go dancing."
You get a full year to decide
They give you 365 days. If you think it did nothing, send the bottles back, even the empty ones, and you get your money back. No form to fill out. No restocking fee. Nobody arguing with you.
Here is what I would do
I am going to be plain, because nobody was plain with me.
Tonight is going to happen either way. So is the night after it. If nothing changes, you already know what time you will be looking at the ceiling.
One full dropper under the tongue in the morning and one at night. Hold it 30 seconds, then swallow. It is not a sleeping pill and it does not work like one. Mine took about three weeks. Give it longer than you want to.
I am not going to tell you it will work for you. Ray did not tell me that either, and it is the only reason I listened to him.
Check Availability →365-day money-back guaranteeThis batch is limited. When it is gone, the next one is a few weeks out.
Story based on real customer experiences. Individual results vary. These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.