Trouble Sleeping?
#1
If you have trouble sleeping you might benefit from reading this. I have taken Ibuprofen almost every night (because of a troublesome sciatic nerve) for 4 years. I also have issues with insomnia. I read the article and the last part "Say no to NSAIDs" jumped out at me. Last night I didn't take any Ibuprofen... and I slept from 11:30 until 6:30 without waking at all during the night. Amazing! I'm going to try it again tonight. *crossing my fingers* Smiling

http://www.menshealth.com/health/power-m...w.facebook

Quote:BETTER SLEEP
POWER OF MELATONIN

When the lights go out, melatonin ignites your sleep cycle—and moonlights as one of the world's most powerful antioxidants. Now you just need to harness it
By Laura Roberson, Photographs by Travis Rathbone, Posted Date: October 5, 2011

YOU OWN AN ALARM CLOCK, RIGHT? YOU KNOW, THAT THING designed specifically to annoy slumbering human brains into wakefulness? Well, you also own a sleep clock. It's called melatonin, and trust us when we tell you that it's much more advanced than that contraption on your nightstand. Not only does it quietly help you conk out every night, but it also functions as an uber-antioxidant, preventing disease with one hormonal hand tied behind its back.

"Compared with other antioxidants, like vitamin E or vitamin C, melatonin is far superior in preventing cellular damage from free radicals, the by-products of oxygen," says Russel Reiter, Ph.D., a professor of cellular biology at the University of Texas health science center in San Antonio. "The wrinkles beside your eyes? That's free-radical damage. Degeneration of organs? Free-radical damage. Alzheimer's? Free-radical damage. Oxygen is required for life. But it's also what kills you over the course of a lifetime."

Unfortunately, some things can mess with your melatonin levels. And while your sleep clock may never stop ticking, it can be thrown seriously out of whack, leaving you awake when you should be asleep—and dead when you should be alive. That is, unless you . . .

Move toward the light
We're all for conserving electricity, except at the office, where you should turn on the damn lights! Tell anyone who complains that sitting in a dimly lit office all day may suppress your melatonin at night. In a 2011 Harvard study, researchers exposed people to either low or normal light during the day, followed by a few hours of bright light at night. Those exposed to low daytime light were more susceptible to the melatonin-suppressing effects of bright nighttime light. In fact, a 2010 Swiss study found that the better illuminated your waking hours are, the more soundly you'll sleep at night. So when you arrive at work, raise your blinds and replace your bulbs with the "cool white" type (look for 4100K on the label); these bulbs emit light from the blue part of the spectrum, which delays your melatonin production. We like EarthTronics 13T2 Micro Spiral Cool White 4100K ($2.50, greenlightingsupply.com).

Make a melatonin salad
Even if your body is sometimes short on melatonin, it's good to know that the stuff does, in fact, grow on trees. Take tart cherries, for example—they're one of several foods that are natural sources of the hormone. And although these foods won't provide enough melatonin to help you sleep, they will bolster your disease defenses. "Any melatonin, including that from plants, will be absorbed and used to provide antioxidant protection," says Reiter.

Set a Guinness record for health
You'll probably never tune in to a beer commercial and hear "Less Calories, More Melatonin!" but yes, it's even in your brew. In a recent Spanish study, drinking beer boosted people's blood levels of melatonin and, consequently, their antioxidant capacity. Make it a Guinness Extra Stout: The study also found that the higher a beer's alcohol content, the more melatonin it contains.

Follow the military model
From cheap quartz crystals to precision mechanical movements, there are myriad ways to make sure a clock or watch keeps accurate time. In the case of your sleep clock, it comes down to discipline. If you want your melatonin to tell you to sleep at the right time, then you need to make sure the rest of your routine happens like, well, clockwork.

"It's like a mild case of jet lag. If your sleep becomes messed up, try to keep other factors constant," says W. Christopher Winter, M.D., Men's Health sleep advisor and medical director of the sleep center at Martha Jefferson Hospital in Virginia. "The military is a great model: Soldiers eat meals at the same time, exercise at the same time, sleep at the same time. Your body likes regimen." If you provide it with time cues throughout the day, your body will release melatonin at the right time, too.

Sleep in a cave
Your bedroom isn't for watching Modern Family. If Sofia Vergara doesn't keep you awake, the light from your TV, iPad, computer screen, or smartphone will. "Even short intervals of light at night immediately depress melatonin," says Reiter. Turn off electronics at least 2 hours before bed, suggests Dr. Winter, and block outside light with room-darkening curtains, such as Plow & Hearth Blackout Curtain Panels (plowhearth.com, $30). Have night-lights? Swap out white bulbs with red ones, which have the least impact on melatonin.

Take the children's dose
Given melatonin's near-magical powers, you'd think more would be better. But you'd think wrong if you were talking about the supplemental stuff. "A lower dose of melatonin may be as effective as a higher dose," says David Blask, Ph.D., M.D., a professor of structural cellular biology at Tulane medical school. "In some cases, large doses may actually diminish the response you're trying to achieve." Worse, if you regularly take a megadose, you may stop responding to melatonin—in natural or supplement form—entirely, warns Richard Wurtman, M.D., the MIT neuropharmacology professor who discovered melatonin's role in sleep. His studies show that the effective dose for sleep is 0.3 milligram (mg). You won't find such a small dose in stores—supplement makers tend to think more is better. So pick up a pill cutter and take a quarter or half of a 1 mg pill, such as Natrol Melatonin ($14 for 180, natrol.com).

Supplement strategically
It's the melatonin paradox: Melatonin supplements are pills that help you fall asleep, but they aren't "sleeping pills." With regular knockout drugs, you take a dose just before bedtime and wait for the curtain to come down on your consciousness. Melatonin supplements don't induce sleep but rather initiate the sleep cycle, which actually begins several hours before you hit the sack. Try swallowing your supplement a few hours before darkness falls. As the melatonin enters your bloodstream, your body will think dusk has arrived early, so you'll fall asleep more easily come bedtime.

Say no to NSAIDs
Workout soreness can keep you awake, but so can the painkillers you might pop to relieve it. There's evidence that taking a nighttime dose of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), such as aspirin and ibuprofen, may suppress the part of your nervous system that releases melatonin, says Reiter. Fight your evening aches with acetaminophen, he says, which may have less of an effect on melatonin. Next, check your prescription bottles: "If taken in the evening, beta-blockers can turn down melatonin production—or even turn it off at a high enough dose," says Dr. Blask. Some antidepressants such as fluoxetine (Prozac) may also have this effect. If you're often tired during the day, ask your doctor if you can take your meds earlier.

Reply
#2
I have been thinking about trying this. Is there anyone here that currently takes melatonin? Any advice would be helpful. Smiling
Reply
#3
I've got one of those pillows on order that punches you in the nose every time you snore. I don't expect to get a good nights sleep ever again. Laughing
Reply
#4
(12-21-2011, 10:54 AM)PonderThis Wrote: I've got one of those pillows on order that punches you in the nose every time you snore. I don't expect to get a good nights sleep ever again. Laughing

Almost like being married, eh?!?! Laughing Laughing
Reply
#5
The only time I've ever had trouble sleeping is when I wasn't tiredBig Grin
Reply
#6
(12-21-2011, 10:51 AM)Valuesize Wrote: I have been thinking about trying this. Is there anyone here that currently takes melatonin? Any advice would be helpful. Smiling
Bad bad dreams.

Reply
#7
(12-21-2011, 10:51 AM)Valuesize Wrote: I have been thinking about trying this. Is there anyone here that currently takes melatonin? Any advice would be helpful. Smiling

Value,

Years of alternating shift work, changing time zones and being in "different" environments led to my experimentation on sleep aides. Melatonin was the best IF you were guaranteed 7 to 8 hours of being undisturbed. I usually am asleep within 15 minutes of taking 1 tab, but if that sleep is interrupted it really sucks. When I can't get a straight 8, then a healthy diet, moderate exercise and frequent naps work best.

EDIT: If I have the time to relax then a strong cup of chamomile tea before bed has helped.
Reply
#8
(12-21-2011, 12:51 PM)Simon Peter Wrote:
(12-21-2011, 10:51 AM)Valuesize Wrote: I have been thinking about trying this. Is there anyone here that currently takes melatonin? Any advice would be helpful. Smiling

Value,

Years of alternating shift work, changing time zones and being in "different" environments led to my experimentation on sleep aides. Melatonin was the best IF you were guaranteed 7 to 8 hours of being undisturbed. I usually am asleep within 15 minutes of taking 1 tab, but if that sleep is interrupted it really sucks. When I can't get a straight 8, then a healthy diet, moderate exercise and frequent naps work best.

EDIT: If I have the time to relax then a strong cup of chamomile tea before bed has helped.

Ditto Simon,
Worked rotating shifts most of my working life. (Loved the job...hated the shifts). After almost 20 years of retirement, I'm starting to get back to standard sleep stuff. Still I do take Melatonin (suggested by physician) and guess it helps...don't hurt none.
No tea for me...not now, not ever. I can drink coffee at 11 and be asleep by 11:05. I love naps but they work best if I keep 'em to about 1/2 hour: More, and I feel logy the rest of the day.

Good sex the best sleep aid ever. Even better if you can get someone else to do it with you. EmbarrassedEmbarrassedEmbarrassed

Reply
#9
(12-21-2011, 11:48 AM)tvguy Wrote: The only time I've ever had trouble sleeping is when I wasn't tiredBig Grin

My issue is pain. If I wake after my medication has stopped working, I need to take more and then it takes 1 1/2 to 2 hours to get back to sleep. I would prefer not to wake until morning and lessen the amount of medicine.
Reply
#10
(12-21-2011, 10:51 AM)Valuesize Wrote: I have been thinking about trying this. Is there anyone here that currently takes melatonin? Any advice would be helpful. Smiling

My daughter and one son both have to take Melatonin almost every night to sleep. I take a tart cherry supplement in capsule form.
If you take Melatonin, you might have vivid dreams until your body get used to it.
It gave my other son nightmares, so he cannot take it.
Reply
#11
(12-21-2011, 12:25 PM)Yeshuah Hamashiach Wrote:
(12-21-2011, 10:51 AM)Valuesize Wrote: I have been thinking about trying this. Is there anyone here that currently takes melatonin? Any advice would be helpful. Smiling
Bad bad dreams.

Worse than codeine? I took a Tylonol/Codeine pill I had left over from strep throat awhile ago. Gruesome! Laughing
Reply
#12
Thanks everyone for your helpful advice. I just returned from the herb shop with some samples. I have some 2.5 mg melatonin and something called Curamin. www.curamin.com I need to read up oin the Curamin before I try it...
Reply
#13
I have trouble staying awake.
Reply
#14
(12-21-2011, 05:03 PM)bbqboy Wrote: I have trouble staying awake.

I used to date a gal who had that problem....during sex. She said it was only with me and I think it was the after-shave I was using. Embarrassed
Reply
#15
I have my nights.

Tried Guinness ... but wine is the sleepy stuff for me.

Might try that Melatonin, but I already dream like crazy ... a part of the problem sometimes.
Reply
#16
(12-21-2011, 04:54 PM)Valuesize Wrote:
(12-21-2011, 12:25 PM)Yeshuah Hamashiach Wrote:
(12-21-2011, 10:51 AM)Valuesize Wrote: I have been thinking about trying this. Is there anyone here that currently takes melatonin? Any advice would be helpful. Smiling
Bad bad dreams.

Worse than codeine? I took a Tylonol/Codeine pill I had left over from strep throat awhile ago. Gruesome! Laughing
No really , its a major side effect .

Reply
#17
(12-21-2011, 07:47 PM)Queue Wrote: I have my nights.

Tried Guinness ... but wine is the sleepy stuff for me.

Might try that Melatonin, but I already dream like crazy ... a part of the problem sometimes.
All true for me too.

Reply
#18
(12-21-2011, 05:22 PM)Wonky Wrote:
(12-21-2011, 05:03 PM)bbqboy Wrote: I have trouble staying awake.

I used to date a gal who had that problem....during sex. She said it was only with me and I think it was the after-shave I was using. Embarrassed

Did it smell like chloroform?
Reply
#19
(12-21-2011, 04:54 PM)Valuesize Wrote:
(12-21-2011, 12:25 PM)Yeshuah Hamashiach Wrote:
(12-21-2011, 10:51 AM)Valuesize Wrote: I have been thinking about trying this. Is there anyone here that currently takes melatonin? Any advice would be helpful. Smiling
Bad bad dreams.

Worse than codeine? I took a Tylonol/Codeine pill I had left over from strep throat awhile ago. Gruesome! Laughing
Aleister Crowley repotedly took those kind of drugs for the nightmares. So there ya have it.Wink
Reply


Forum Jump:


Users browsing this thread: 1 Guest(s)