Why is melatonin instead healthier and more efficient at ending insomnia than sleeping medications?
If you suffer from insomnia, it is likely that your worst nightmare begins before you sleep.
You lie down and can't fall asleep. Turning around in bed, you look at the clock and turn around again. Insomnia beat you again.
You have tried so many prescriptions without success that the idea of taking medication has been in your head.
But before appealing to chemicals that harm you in the long run, we invite you to find out why melatonin is a more efficient and healthier option than drugs, which could help you a lot to solve the root problem.
An epidemic of modern life that does you no good
Millions of people suffer from insomnia and its main reasons lie in modernity.
The hectic pace of modern life, omnipresent stress, anxiety, long work hours, artificial light, worries and many more.
All together they are upsetting your biological clock which affects the quality of your sleep, your rest and how you perform in your daily activities.
Not sleeping has immediate and long-term consequences:
- For your health. It increases the risk of high blood pressure, heart disease, stroke, kidney disease, and diabetes.
In addition, during sleep, the body produces hormones that help children grow and adults build muscle mass, fight disease, and repair damage. If you sleep little, these functions are not fully performed.
- For your appearance. It makes you look worn out, dark circles, expression lines and bags under the eyes appear. To make matters worse, since it causes you hunger pangs during the day, you gain a few extra kilos.
- For your mind. It negatively influences your mood, causing you frustration, bad mood, stress and over time it can trigger depression.
Why is sleep so important for the body?
Basically, because it is a biological necessity that allows you to restore the essential physical and psychological functions of your body.
Quality sleep helps you perform fully and achieve maximum recovery to continue your daily activities.
It also allows you to process new information, stay healthy, and rejuvenate.
How long do you need to sleep for all this to happen?
It all depends on age:
- Newborns: between 14 and 17 hours.
- Preschool-age children (3-5 years): between 10 and 13 hours.
- Adults: between 7 and 8 hours. In general, younger people and those who make intense physical or mental efforts need more sleep.
- Older adults: they tend to sleep between 5 and 6 hours because they secrete less melatonin (sleep hormone).
But more than counting the number of hours you sleep, it is important that you get quality sleep without fragmentation.
Otherwise, you will not rest properly or release the tensions of the day before.
With five hours of deep and restful sleep you can rest more than with eight hours suffering from nightmares or discomfort.
And if you maintain very short sleep patterns for too long or uninterrupted sleep is impossible for you, you should see a doctor.
He will help you determine if you have a biological disorder of the organism, such as insomnia or sleep apnea.
The riskiest way to attack insomnia
The desperation of spending sleepless nights leads millions of people to cross the border of health to enter the territory of sedative-hypnotics.
This is the name of the drugs that are commonly known as sleep medications, tranquilizers, antidepressants, anxiolytics, or relaxants.
And they are chemicals that depress the central nervous system.
Its effects show two faces.
On the one hand they offer calm, relaxation and reduce anxiety. On the other, they can cause drowsiness, speech difficulties, reduced breathing, critical judgment, and slow reflexes.
They have more contraindications than benefits. Therefore, only a doctor can prescribe them and supervise their use.
When the dose is abused or exceeded, they cause unconsciousness or even death.
And if they are used chronically or for long periods of time, they cause physical and psychological dependence that can lead the patient to become addicted.
So much so that when a person with a dependency decreases abruptly or stops treatment, withdrawal symptoms appear: inactivity, insomnia, cold sweat, anxiety and seizures.
In contrast, melatonin has no side effects.
The healthiest and most effective option for deep sleep
Betting on 100% healthy, safe and effective alternatives to consolidate a better sleep habit should always be the first option.
It is known that exercising, not taking naps after 3 in the afternoon, relaxing, getting rid of distractions such as noise, bright lights, televisions, computers and cell phones before bed, is very beneficial.
Also avoid smoking, alcoholic beverages, caffeine, heavy meals and drinks at night.
And if you need an extra boost, supplementing with melatonin will surely help you.
What is melatonin, what are its functions and health benefits? Let's go in parts.
It is a hormone found naturally in the body, also known as the sleep hormone.
It is produced from the essential amino acid tryptophan, which allows the production of serotonin, a neurotransmitter responsible for the production of melatonin.
Its production and release increases when the environment is dark and decreases when there is light. Therefore, it causes sleep at night and by decreasing in the morning, it makes you wake up.
Take the melatonin and go to sleep
A diet that includes eggs, dairy products, legumes, nuts, and fruits is ideal for giving your body a little melatonin because they are rich in tryptophan.
In addition, nuts, bananas, kiwi, banana, tomatoes, cherries, oats, corn and rice contain small amounts of the hormone in question.
The other option to ingest it safely and naturally, but more potent, is as a dietary supplement.
Studies show that people who supplement with melatonin sleep 10 to 30 minutes longer.
Of course, it is not recommended to consume it during the day, since it interferes with the circadian cycle, making the person feel very sleepy during the day and little at night.
Do you wonder how much dose to take?
Science has shown that a small dose is more effective than a large one.
In fact, the recommended intake is 1 to 5 mg, half an hour before bedtime.
It has been detected that if more than 5 mg/day is consumed, the effect on sleep is less, and can even cause drowsiness the next day.
And despite being a natural hormone produced by the body, overdoing it can cause side effects, including headache, nausea, dizziness, drowsiness, and even depression.
Poor night sleep can be a temporary episode or become a long-term problem that threatens your quality of life and your health.
Therefore, it is worth giving your habits a twist to overcome it as soon as possible. And remember that melatonin does not have side effects.
You lose nothing by trying.
The best thing that could happen to you is that you start to rest as you deserve and be a more energetic, productive and jovial person.