Tag: Melatonin

What Depletes Your Melatonin Levels?

Actually, quite a lot of things.

Why should you care?

Because Melatonin is a neurohormone that supports sleep at night.  If you don’t have enough of it, you might have to resort to being sedated or exhausted in order to sleep.

In addition, Melatonin improves the quality and depth of our sleep.  Hours and hours of light sleep are seen in a “club” nobody wants to belong to:  patients with dementia!  The research on the benefits of high quality, sustained sleep with sufficient periods of deep sleep is piling up as we speak.  We aren’t certain that poor sleep causes dementia.  We know that no one with dementia displays healthy sleep, even if they seem to sleep all day long!

Nobody thinks that being sedated, exhausted, or demented sounds like a good deal. 

Here is an incomplete (but still impressive) list of the ways that Melatonin can be depleted:

  1. Age.  The pineal gland produces the Melatonin that supports sleep (your gut produces Melatonin too) and it calcifies in most of us as we age.  
  2. The prescription drugs we take:  Cardiac meds, NSAIDs for pain, SSRIs and SNRIs for depression and anxiety all decrease the production of or the accessibility of Melatonin for sleep.
  3. The recreational drugs we take:  Caffeine, alcohol, and tobacco suppress and therefore decrease Melatonin.  You don’t get a rebound once you sober up or put out your smoke.
  4. Sleeping with the lights on.  Even a dim light will reduce your Melatonin.  This is why every article mentions blackout curtains as a sleep strategy, and why eye masks work.

What can you do?

Well, you can reduce the risks above by discussing your prescriptions with your healthcare providers.  Relying on medications when there are non-pharmaceutical strategies to manage symptoms is a mistake.  Try to build out your toolkit so that you get relief from a number of sources.  Reconsider your recreational drugs.  And replace your lights with motion sensor lighting that eliminates blue light.  Turn the devices with lights away from your bed.  Or plug them into a strip that you can turn off in one motion.

Small amounts of Melatonin supplementation aren’t dangerous for most adults.  Not all.  And definitely children need special considerations from a licensed provider.

If you are also taking a sedative like Lunesta, have a medical condition that causes you to awaken very groggy or even dizzy, or are taking blood thinners or daily steroids, please discuss the use of Melatonin supplements with your healthcare providers.

Time-release formulations have the potential to be more effective for getting a deeper full night’s sleep for adults that can get at least 6-7 hours of sleep per night.  Less than 6 hours of sleep risks excessive grogginess on awakening.

Want more help with YOUR sleep?  Contact me for a complimentary consultation to determine if online sleep therapy, on your schedule, is right for you!  Go to the Contact Me section on the Menu, and send me a message today!! 

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How to Dim Your Screens to Reduce Blue Light at Night

guy on phone

 

Change your nighttime screen settings now to improve your sleep tonight.  It is simple.  It only has to be done once.  Ever.

My favorite sleep strategies are the ones I call “crockpot solutions”.  Set it and forget it.  Things that you don’t have to remember and prioritize.  You take an action and it’s done.  Willpower is overrated.  It is hard work.  Easy habits and crockpot solutions will triumph over willpower all the time.

Altering your screen settings is easy and effective.  Reducing the amount of full spectrum light hitting your eyes in the evening will help your brain secrete Melatonin, the neurohormone that induces sleepiness.  Leaving the lights on will delay Melatonin secretion and make it harder to fall asleep.

Is it as effective as turning the screens off or being many feet away from them?  No.  But lots of people will need some time and creativity to alter their screen use habits.  This can start them off on the path with a few clicks.

Yes, viewing a screen that isn’t using full spectrum light looks slightly strange.  Particularly for skin tones.  If your goal is to sleep better, the less-than-desirable coloring should make viewing less enjoyable and help you turn it off and go to sleep.  These settings automatically revert to full spectrum light after dawn if you use the auto settings.

For Macs/iPhones/iPads:

  • Go into System Settings.
  • Click on Displays.
  • Select Night Shift.
  • Make your choices for timing and appearance.  These include custom settings.  The warmer your screen, the less full spectrum light you receive when looking at your screen.  

 

For PCs/Android devices:

  • Select Settings.
  • Now select System.
  • Click on Display.
  • Select Night Light.
  • Turn on Schedule Night Light.
  • Select Sunset to Sunrise or Set Hours for custom times.

 

sunset