Exercise and other forms of daily activity are obviously essential to a healthy, fit lifestyle.

However, so, too, is nightly rest and relaxation essential to health and fitness, and increasingly so with an increase in daytime activity.

Male health and fitness come not as a direct result of exercise but of the yin-yang balance between high-intensity exercise and deep-sleep relaxation.[1]

This means that there’s also a sort of yin-yang balance in how we take our health and fitness supplements:

  1. Performance-enhancing supplements are typically taken prior to exercise or any intense activity, whereas...
  2. Anabolic recovery support supplements are typically taken post-exercise or even at nighttime prior to bed.

Where then should D-aspartic acid, the testosterone boosting amino acid, fall on our supplement schedule?

In the morning? At night? Circa exercise?

For such natural testosterone boosters, when we take them matters less than how much we take daily.

Even so, considering the importance of evenly distributing your daily DAA serving throughout the day, to ensure maximum absorption, the question remains: when should I take DAA?

And are there any special benefits to taking DAA before bed? Let’s read and find out!

Should I Take D-Aspartic Acid Before Bed?

The short answer: yes, you should take D-aspartic acid before bed.

And, now, the long answer: you should take D-aspartic acid before bed, but you should also take D-aspartic acid during the daytime—say, in the morning or prior to working out, depending on how many other pre- and intra-workout supplements you’re taking.

The reasoning for this is two-fold:

  1. Distribution: amino acids notoriously compete for absorption, potentially lessening the overall effectiveness of DAA if you take your DAA serving all at once, especially in conjunction with other ingredients and foods.
  2. Immediate Benefits: supplementing DAA during the daytime, say before exercise, may help acutely deliver the anabolic advantages of DAA, whereas supplementing during the evening, say before bed, may help with overnight recovery and anabolic muscle growth.

Take note that much of the etiquette around DAA supplementation remains clinically unverified and is more so backed by anecdotal and professional recommendation—though there is clinical research available that demonstrates DAA’s benefits on male health and fitness.

Even so, distributing your daily D-aspartic acid serving evenly throughout the day, with your final sub-serving coming right before bedtime, may help ensure adequate absorption while potentially assisting with overnight recovery, repair, and male performance enhancement.

D-Aspartic Acid Benefits for Male Health

Unlike protein powder supplements and the aminos that comprise branched-chain amino acids (BCAAs), D-aspartic acid doesn’t directly contribute to muscle-building protein synthesis—though L-aspartic acid, the L-enantiomer of D-aspartic acid, does seem to play a role in protein synthesis.

Rather, D-aspartic acid plays a regulatory role in the synthesis and secretion of testosterone and other testosterone-related hormones.

By improving testosterone status via the hypothalamus-pituitary-gonadal (HPG) axis, a hormonal system linking the brain to the testes, DAA may promote the following male health benefits:[2,3]

  • Increased Lean Muscle Mass
  • Enhanced Strength Gains
  • Boosted Sex Drive and Libido
  • Improved Fertility (Sperm Quality)
  • Decreased Stress and Mood Imbalances
  • Improved Cognitive Performance
  • And more…

Whereas some nighttime recovery supplements typically work by supplying raw aminos or proteins for enhanced anabolic muscle+strength gains or providing tissue-replenishing micronutrients, DAA enhances male health and fitness by stimulating the signaling hormones involved in testosterone production.

Theoretically, the regulatory hormone benefits of DAA may acutely assist with overnight recovery and repair, though further clinical research is required to verify this.

Other Beneficial Ingredients to Take with D-Aspartic Acid Prior to Bed Time?

Taking D-aspartic acid both during daytime and nighttime is best for maximizing the absorption and bioavailability of your daily DAA serving, while potentially gaining an overnight recovery boost via DAA’s effects on steroidogenesis.

However, it’s not the only natural T-booster worth considering for nighttime male enhancement. Other beneficial ingredients worth stacking with D-aspartic acid before bed include:

Ashwagandha

For a boost on both male health and sleep quality, ashwagandha is perhaps your best bet, thanks to this herb’s well-documented benefits on cognitive relaxation and testosterone status.

Often touted as an anxiolytic nootropic, ashwagandha seems to “improve sleep parameters [sleep quality and sleep onset latency] in patients with insomnia,” as one study claims.[4] Much of this is attributed to ashwagandha’s sedative-like effects on cognition that naturally combat anxiety and other sleep-disruptive mood states.

As an adaptogen, ashwagandha seems to also assist with stress hormone and testosterone status by way of the HPG axis,[5] providing significant stress-relieving and testosterone-boosting effects for the busy, active man.

Mucuna Pruriens

An aphrodisiac, a nootropic, a male enhancer—Mucuna pruriens (Velvet Bean) is one of those do-it-all botanicals that provides a broad spectrum of fitness benefits in multiple health systems.

The benefits of this velvety herb are largely attributed to Mucuna’s high concentration of L-DOPA, a precursor compound to neurotransmitter dopamine.

Engaging the dopaminergic system, as well as the HPG axis, Mucuna pruriens seems to benefit sleep quality in service of enhanced daytime performance while also helping with the management of stress, semen quality, and free testosterone activity.[6,7]

Luteolin

The reasoning behind stacking luteolin, an aromatase-blocking flavonoid, with D-aspartic acid has less to do with sleep quality or overnight sleep recovery than with complementing the sex hormone-boosting effects of D-aspartic acid.

As a potentially “across the board” booster of sex hormones, including both male and female, DAA often comes paired with a natural “estrogen blocker,” such as luteolin, to ensure that DAA’s rise in testosterone activity doesn’t also translate to a rise in estrogen.

By inhibiting aromatase, the enzyme responsible for converting testosterone to estrogen, luteolin may help keep your testosterone count within a male-healthy threshold while mitigating any unwanted boosts in female sex hormones.[8]

Final Word on Taking D-Aspartic Acid Before You Go To Bed

D-aspartic acid encourages a male hormonal profile that’s conducive to healthy overnight muscular repair and strength enhancement.

But does this mean that supplementing DAA before bed will specifically work togethers enhancing overnight repair and performance enhancement? Hard to say.

Either way, it seems to be best practice to split your DAA serving for both daytime and nighttime ingestion, namely to evenly spread DAA distribution for maximum absorption and bioavailability, with the potential upside of increased nighttime recovery.

Look for the advanced form of DAA, as D-aspartic acid calcium chelate (D-AA-CC), in Testo Lab Pro®’s clean, comprehensive, vegan-friendly formula—an powerful T-booster for both daytime performance and nighttime recovery.

References

  1. Dolezal BA et al. Interrelationship between Sleep and Exercise: A Systematic Review. Adv Prev Med. 2017; 2017: 1364387.
  2. Roshanzamir F, Safavi SM. The putative effects of D-aspartic acid on blood testosterone levels: A systematic review. Int J Reprod Biomed. 2017 Jan; 15(1): 1-10.
  3. Topo E et al. The role and molecular mechanism of D-aspartic acid in the release and synthesis of LH and testosterone in humans and rats. Reprod Biol Endocrinol. 2009; 7: 120.
  4. Langade D et al. Efficacy and Safety of Ashwagandha (Withania somnifera) Root Extract in Insomnia and Anxiety: A Double-blind, Randomized, Placebo-controlled Study. Cureus. 2019 Sep; 11(9): e5797.
  5. Lopresti AL et al. An investigation into the stress-relieving and pharmacological actions of an ashwagandha (Withania somnifera) extract: A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study. Medicine (Baltimore). 2019 Sep; 98(37): e17186.
  6. Boivin DB, Montplaisir J. The effects of L-dopa on excessive daytime sleepiness in narcolepsy. Neurology. 1991 Aug; 41(8): 1267-9.
  7. Shukla KK et al. Mucuna pruriens Reduces Stress and Improves the Quality of Semen in Infertile Men. Evid Based Complement Alternat Med. 2010 Mar; 7(1): 137-144.
  8. Lu DF et al. Inhibitory effect of luteolin on estrogen biosynthesis in human ovarian granulosa cells by suppression of aromatase (CYP19). J Agric Food Chem. 2012 Aug 29; 60(34): 8411-8.