Here's What You Need To Know About L-Theanine

If you deal with daily stress or trouble sleeping, you&#;ve probably turned to a hot cup of tea to settle your nerves. Indeed, there&#;s good reason tea has a reputation for being so comforting. Research shows that tea can help with everything from lowering cholesterol to improving gut health.

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So, it&#;s natural to think about the ingredients in tea that make it so beneficial. Enter L-theanine &#; an amino acid that&#;s present in tea leaves. It&#;s also used as a supplement, as it may help with anxiety and sleep conditions.

Dietitian Julia Zumpano, RD, LD, talks about what l-theanine is and what you should know before you consider taking it.

What is L-theanine?

L-theanine is an amino acid found in tea leaves, particularly green tea and loose-leaf tea, that has several potential health benefits. But first, let&#;s go over what amino acids are and why they&#;re important.

&#;Amino acids are proteins and they&#;re really the building blocks of our life,&#; explains Zumpano. &#;Amino acids are molecules used by all living things to make proteins. In total, we as humans need 20 different amino acids to function properly. But there are those 11 essential amino acids that our body really needs to get through food.&#;

While L-theanine isn&#;t essential for our survival, its presence in plants and fungi has been studied for its possible impact on our brain function.

L-theanine can be taken by drinking certain teas like green teas, white teas or matcha. It can also be taken as a tablet or pill form.

Benefits of L-theanine

But if you&#;ve looked up the benefits of L-theanine, you may have started to scratch your head. Some proponents claim it can help you feel more alert, while others say that it can help with insomnia. So, which is it? As Zumpano points out, the best way to get the most use out of L-theanine has a lot to do with when you&#;re taking it and what you&#;re pairing it with.

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It&#;s also important to know that these effects may vary from person to person and that there&#;s still limited research on the benefits of taking L-theanine to help with mental and cognitive issues.

Here are some of the explored benefits of L-theanine:

Improving sleep quality

You may have heard that taking L-theanine before bed can help if you experience disruptive sleep or have trouble falling asleep. A study explored the benefits of an L-theanine and GABA supplement combination on sleep quality and length. GABA, short for gamma-aminobutyric acid, is a naturally occurring chemical messenger in your brain that&#;s been linked to creating a calming effect. It&#;s also available as a dietary supplement. The study showed that this combination could potentially increase sleep duration and REM sleep.

According to Zumpano, if you&#;re looking to try L-theanine in tea or supplement form, it&#;s a good idea to take it in the evening before going to bed and not pair it with any coffee or caffeinated beverage. If you&#;re experiencing more serious sleep issues like insomnia or sleep apnea, L-theanine likely won&#;t do the trick.

Also, you should ask your healthcare provider before pairing any prescription medications with L-theanine before bed. L-theanine can be safely taken with melatonin, however.

Reducing stress and anxiety

Remember how a cup of tea can calm you down after a hectic day? Research shows that L-theanine supplements can elevate your levels of GABA, dopamine and serotonin, which promotes relaxation and reduces anxiety levels.

A randomized trial from found that healthy adults who took L-theanine over the course of four weeks had a decrease in stress-related symptoms. While these results are promising, it&#;s important to remember that stress reduction will look different for everyone, depending on what stress response you&#;re having and when you&#;re experiencing it.

Boosting mental clarity

If you&#;re feeling brain fog or a general blah feeling, L-theanine may be able to help give you a boost of mental clarity and enhance your ability to focus. According to the same study, L-theanine helped healthy adults with verbal fluency and the ability to stay focused. The benefits are heightened when taken with caffeine.

&#;If you&#;re going to take L-theanine to gain more alertness and mental clarity, you should take it during the day,&#; advises Zumpano. &#;It does seem to do better with coffee or a caffeinated beverage.&#;

Side effects and risks

L-theanine is generally considered safe and well-tolerated when taken at appropriate doses. In general, it&#;s recommended that you don&#;t exceed 500 milligrams (mg) a day. Most healthy adults can take between 200 mg and 500 mg a day.

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But like any supplement, it may cause side effects, particularly at high doses. You can also simply try upping your tea intake to help get a good dose of L-theanine.

&#;If you&#;re trying to get your L-theanine in the form of black tea or green tea, then you&#;re going to have similar side effects like having too much caffeine,&#; notes Zumpano.

Some of the reported side effects of L-theanine include:

• Headaches.
• Dizziness.
• Nausea.
• Jitteriness.
• Irritability.
• Diarrhea.

Is it safe?

It&#;s important to add that these L-theanine side effects are relatively uncommon and tend to be mild. L-theanine is generally considered safe for most people, but it&#;s always a good idea to talk to your healthcare provider before taking any new supplement, especially if you have any underlying health conditions or are taking medications. In addition, pregnant or breastfeeding (chestfeeding) people should also exercise caution when taking L-theanine, as there&#;s limited research on its safety in these populations.

&#;As of right now, the FDA has classified L-theanine as generally safe, but we don&#;t have specific guidelines on how to take it, just what the studies have shown,&#; adds Zumpano.

It&#;s also important to know that, like all supplements, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) doesn&#;t review or regulate L-theanine products. This means no one checks what&#;s sold to ensure it&#;s safe and effective. If you&#;re planning to try L-theanine in supplement form, you should look for a high-quality version with no added fillers.

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If you&#;re reading this blog post, you&#;re likely one of the millions of people who are beginning to take notice of the many benefits of L-Theanine. A naturally occurring amino acid found in green tea, black tea, and some mushrooms. L-Theanine has a variety of benefits such as improved focus, anxiety reduction, and it can even be used as a sleep aid.

Given its massive increase in popularity, there has been a corresponding bump in the number of L-Theanine supplements for you to choose from. Typing &#;L-Theanine&#; into Amazon or Google returns over 1,000 results! 

With all these options, how are you supposed to pick the one that&#;s right for you? Luckily, we&#;re here to help you wade through the thousands of different supplements on the market and pick the right one for you.

Factors To Consider When Choosing An L-Theanine Supplement

On first glance, most of the options on the market seem very similar other than the colors on their packaging. But upon closer inspection, there are actually a few key differences to take into consideration.

You&#;ll first need to decide what your L-Theanine goals are, as well as your preferred ingestion method. After you&#;ve gotten clarity on those two questions, you can take a look at the active ingredients as well as dose size and pick the right product for you.

Let&#;s take a closer look at each of these differences.

Pairing L-Theanine With Other Active Ingredients

The biggest difference between L-Theanine supplements is whether or not they contain other active ingredients. It&#;s extremely important for you to take a close look at the active ingredients list before purchasing.

On just the first page of Amazon&#;s &#;L-Theanine&#; search results, you&#;ll see the following &#;extra&#; active ingredients listed: melatonin, caffeine, magnesium, glycinate, citrate, taurate, apigenin, passion flower, valerian root, gabapentin, 5-HTP, and chamomile. 

Overwhelmed yet? Don&#;t worry, we&#;ll break down the most important combinations to consider.

Energy & Focus

If your goal is energy, focus, and concentration, try an L-Theanine and Organic Caffeine combination. There is a growing list of studies that suggests the synergistic effects of these two supplements when used together. 

L-Theanine can help offset some of the negative physical side effects of Caffeine such as jitters, crashes and headaches. It also works to calm the racing mind giving a long lasting feeling of smooth focus and energy to help you get into the zone for long periods of concentration without feeling on edge.

If you&#;d like to continue drinking your morning coffee but still love the sound of long lasting focus and concentration, choose a pure L-Theanine supplement with no added ingredients to pair with your coffee. 

Sleep

If your goal is instead to use L-Theanine as a sleep aid, consider a supplement that includes melatonin. Most of this type will have the word &#;Sleep&#; somewhere on the packaging so it&#;s usually easy to spot this variation. 

Anxiety & Stress

For anxiety and stress reduction, we recommend sticking with a pure L-Theanine supplement with no added active ingredients. Some supplements include other natural additives with supposed benefits to help give a calming effect but the science on many of those ingredients looks dubious at best. 

What Dose Should I take?

The number of different dosage options can be overwhelming and the dosage level you choose can make a big difference on the effectiveness towards your desired outcome. 

The first page of Amazon shows dosage levels between 25 mg all the way up to 250 mg with later pages of the search results going all the way up to 400 mg. With all those choices, how do you pick the one right for you?

Unfortunately there is no easy answer to this question as factors such as age and body weight can alter the strength of specific doses. Therefore, some trial and error might be required to find the optimal dose for you.

That being said, here are some guidelines to help you get started:

If you&#;re looking for focus and concentration, try starting with 100 mg of L-Theanine paired 100 mg Caffeine. This 1:1 ratio seems to be the sweet spot for many people looking for mental clarity and energy. 100 mg of Caffeine may be lower than you usually take, but the powerful synergistic effect of Caffeine and L-Theanine can enable you to use lower doses of Caffeine. 

For sleep and anxiety relief, the most common dose is 200 mg but you&#;ll likely need to do some trial and error to find the sweet spot for your body and mind.

What Form Factor Do I Prefer?

Given L-Theanine supplements come in pills, gel caps, powders, drops, and shots, you have a large range of options to choose from. This choice mostly comes down to personal preference, however there is one important difference to consider.

Your body tends to absorb liquids more quickly and completely than solids so drops and shots are an excellent choice, especially if your goal is focus and concentration.

#1 Best For Focus and Concentration:

Proper Wild Clean All Day Energy Shots

While there are many pills on the market, one of the only L-Theanine shots on the market is Proper Wild&#;s Clean All Day Energy Shots. Proper Wild contains 120 mg of L-Theanine paired with 100 mg of Organic Caffeine from green tea, providing the ideal ratio for energy, focus and productivity.

Their 2.5 oz liquid shots come in three delicious flavors: Peach Mango, Blackberry and Ginger, and are much easier to take than swallowing pills. 

And because they are a liquid supplement, the energy and focus will hit you much more quickly and you&#;ll get increased absorption of the active ingredients.

If your goal is energy and focus and you dislike taking pills, give Proper Wild a try. 

#2 Best For Sleep:

Nature Made Softgels

It&#;s actually somewhat difficult to find a supplement that only contains L-Theanine and Melatonin but Nature Made Softgels fits the bill. Containing 200 mg of L-Theanine and 3 mg of Melatonin, it&#;s an excellent combination to test out as a sleep aid.

#3 Best For Anxiety and Stress Reduction:

Sports Research

For stress and anxiety reduction, Sport Research 200 mg liquid gels offer a high quality and strong dose of L-Theanine. They are manufactured in the US and Sports Research has been around since . 

#4 Best Powder:

Bulk Supplements L-Theanine Powder

If you&#;re big into Nootropics and morning routine, you may be one of the many people who love to combine their supplements with fresh fruits and veggies into a power shake. If that sounds like you, you might prefer simply adding another powder to the mix. 

If so, give Bulk Supplements L-Theanine Power a try. Its ingredients list is extremely simple and the bulk packaging is excellent value for the money assuming you have the cabinet space to store it.

#5 Best Gummies:

Nature&#;s Way

If you dislike pills and prefer gummies instead, try Nature&#;s Way gummies. They come in 200 mg doses and are fruit punch flavored.

Their formula&#;s only active ingredient is L-Theanine so they are a good choice for stress and anxiety reduction.

Conclusion

Given there are so many options on the market, I sincerely hope you now have a much better understanding of how to choose the one that&#;s right for you.

If you&#;re looking for enhanced mental clarity and are still unsure which version to try out, give Proper Wild&#;s Clean All Day Energy Shots a try. Their strong L-Theanine dosage (for reduced jitters) and convenient 2.5oz liquid shot size are a perfect fit for your daily routine.