The Secret to a Good Night’s Sleep
By Dr. Mercola
The hormone melatonin plays many important roles in your health, from helping you sleep better to strengthening your immune system, slowing down brain aging, reducing migraine attacks, protecting bone mass, and preventing cancer.
Lack of sun exposure during the day combined with artificial lighting late into the night disrupts your biological clock and hence, your melatonin production, and this disruption can provoke a number of adverse health effects.
In fact, melatonin has been the subject of preclinical research on over 100 different disease applications, many of which go hand in hand with your need for sleep.
Remember, when your circadian rhythms are disrupted, your body produces less melatonin, which means it has less ability to fight cancer, and less protection against free radicals that may accelerate aging and disease. So if you’re having even slight trouble sleeping, I suggest you review my “33 Secrets to a Good Night’s Sleep” for more guidance on how to improve your sleep-wake cycle.
If you’ve made the necessary changes to your sleep routine and find you’re still having trouble sleeping, a high-quality melatonin supplement may be helpful.
The amount of melatonin you create and release every night varies depending on your age. Children usually have much higher levels of melatonin than adults, and as you grow older your levels typically continue to decrease. This is why some older adults may benefit from extra melatonin.
The same goes for those who perform night shift work, travel often and experience jet lag, or otherwise suffer from occasional sleeplessness due to stress or other reasons. Start with a dose of about 0.25 to 0.5 mg, and increase it as necessary from there. If you start feeling more alert, you’ve likely taken too much and need to lower your dose.
Sources and References
- 1 New York Times December 30, 2015
- 2 Medicinenet.com November 24, 2015
- 3 JAMA Psychiatry November 18, 2015. doi:10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2015.2235
- 4 Epoch Times December 22, 2015
- 5 Time November 18, 2015
- 6 Forbes November 19, 2015
- 7 Reuters November 19, 2015
- 8 Cell September 10, 2015: 162(6); 1338-1352
- 9 Scientific American September 23, 2015
- 10 Science Nordic June 1, 2015
- 11, 19 Life Extension Magazine January 2004
- 12 GreenMedInfo Melatonin and Breast Cancer
- 13 Epidemiology January 2001;12(1):74-7
- 14 Cancer Causes Control 2010 Dec;21(12):2059-68
- 15 J Natl Cancer Inst August 2001: 93(20); 1563-1568
- 16 Epidemiology 1998 Sep;9(5):490-4
- 17 Washington Post February 20, 2008
- 18 ASCO University 2014 Meeting
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