The Super Health Benefits Of Melatonin
Studies on melatonin have shown the numerous amount of health benefits. The hormone melatonin has been shown to increase the immune system and have anti-cancer benefits. It not only inhibits proliferation of cancer cells, but also triggers cancer cells to self destruct .
Melatonin is also a potent antioxidant, it decreases your bodies level of oxidative stress and reduces inflammation.
Its A Powerful Antioxidant
Melatonin increases the production of antioxidant enzymes in the body that protect against oxidative stress and support mitochondria function. Its potent action inhibits cellular atrophy and also protects against toxins that can disrupt mitochondrial function, leading to a plethora of neurodegenerative diseases
Start Dimming Lights Early
Most people make the mistake of thinking melatonin starts when they turn off the lights to go to sleep, but this is not true. Melatonin levels increase when your body starts to sense there is less light.
What you can do to aid this process is by dimming the lights in your house and bedroom earlier. At least one hour before bedtime, start to turn off the lights in the house that you do not need and only leave on the ones that are crucial.
If you only have one light in your bedroom, consider getting a desk lamp or installing a light dimmer so you can control the amount of light you can have in your room. By reducing the intensity of the light in your house way before bedtime, youll be signaling to your body to get ready for bed and this should help the chemicals going.
If you can, add red lights in place of the white lights in areas you use prior to bed.
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How To Take Melatonin
If youre considering trying melatonin, starting with a lower-dose supplement is recommended. However, its important to talk with a healthcare professional before adding over-the-counter melatonin to your treatment regimen.
For instance, start with 0.5 mg or 1 mg 30 minutes before going to bed. If that does not seem to help you fall asleep, try increasing your dose to 35 mg.
Taking more melatonin than this likely will not help you fall asleep faster. The goal is to find the lowest dose thatll help you fall asleep.
However, its best to follow the instructions that come with your supplement.
Melatonin is widely available in the United States. Youll need a prescription for melatonin in other places, such as the European Union and Australia.
Summary
If you want to try melatonin, start with 0.5 mg or 1 mg 30 minutes before bed. If that does not work, try increasing it to 35 mg or follow the instructions on the supplement. If youre considering melatonin supplementation, talk with a healthcare professional first to find out if its right for you and whether there are any medication interactions.
The effectiveness of melatonin in children and adolescents is still being investigated.
One literature review looked at seven trials of melatonin use in this population.
Overall, it found that children receiving melatonin as a short-term treatment had a better sleep onset than the children receiving a placebo. This means that it took them less time to fall asleep .
72 ).
Keep Your Bedroom Dark
Those who work night shifts can appreciate the connection between sunlight and sleep. Trying to go to sleep in the early hours of the morning is a daunting task. Only when their bedroom is dark enough to naturally increase melatonin production, can they fall asleep.
Keep all blinds closed and do not use night lights. When there is too much light in the room, your body thinks its daytime and will not produce melatonin.
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Take A Break From Technology
The best way to repair your circadian rhythm, experts say, is to stop using technology for a prolonged period of time. One week was found to be the perfect amount of time to normalize sleeping patterns for a group of participants who were asked to go camping for a week.
You can try to not touch any technology at home for a week but lets face it, in todays world it is nearly impossible to avoid technology at home. Even if you dont want to watch TV, your spouse or your children might and thatll tempt you to watch too.
The best solution is to plan a getaway for the whole family and turn off all the technology. If you must use it, designate only one or two hours in the middle of the day for it. Plus, leaving technology behind is a great way for the family to bond face to face.
Skip Melatonin For Sleep If
Do not use melatonin if you are pregnant or breastfeeding or have an autoimmune disorder, a seizure disorder or depression. Talk to your health care provider if you have diabetes or high blood pressure. Melatonin supplements may also raise blood-sugar levels and increase blood pressure levels in people taking some hypertension medications.
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How Does Melatonin Make You Feel Sleepy At Night
After dark, melatonin preps your body for sleep by lowering your body temperature, blood pressure, stress hormones, and alertness. This time of night, which usually falls 2-3 hours before you go to sleep, is known as dim light melatonin onset . It marks the start of what the RISE app calls your Melatonin Window, the period when your brain produces its highest levels of melatonin that it will all night. Going to bed during this window will give you the best chance of falling asleep quickly and staying asleep through the night. The RISE app can tell you your ideal bedtime each day based on your Melatonin Window.
How To Increase Your Melatonin Naturally
When melatonin levels are high, you start to feel sleepy. But when levels are low, it can be almost impossible to fall asleep. Thankfully, there are ways to boost your melatonin levels and regain control of your sleep cycle. Lets take a look at our list of the top 12 natural ways to boost your melatonin levels.
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No Artificial Lights At Night
Computer screens, cell phones, light bulbs, and televisions give off what is called blue light. Blue light blocks the production of melatonin. Watching TV or checking your emails in the morning help wake you up, but doing this at night will prevent you from falling asleep.
Try reducing your exposure to artificial lights 2-3 hours before you go to sleep. This will ensure a high melatonin production by the time you go to bed.
Boosting Melatonin Production Naturally
Several factors can throw off the bodys natural melatonin production. These include a time change, jet lag, shift work, and even poor vision. And, as stated, it generally decreases in production as we age.
Melatonin supplements are made with synthetic ingredients in a lab or with cow urine.
And though the supplements may have slight benefits, especially for people suffering with occasional insomnia, they dont always offer long-lasting or significant results for those who struggle with sleep on a nightly basis.
There are several foods, however, that can naturally increase melatonin production, eliminating the need for a supplement.
According to GreenMedInfo, researchers with Thailands Khon Kaen University found that some tropical fruits have significant effects on melatonin production.
The scientists gave study subjects a variety of fruits and then measured the amount of melatonin circulating throughout the body by looking at 6-sulfatoxymelatonin .
The researchers found pineapples, bananas, and oranges were able to increase melatonin presence significantly.
Pineapples increased the presence of aMT6s over 266% while bananas increased levels by 180%.
Oranges were able to increase melatonin by approximately 47%.
While supplements are often thought of as the natural alternative to prescription drugs, they are made to mimic those things we find naturally in foods.
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How To Increase Melatonin Levels Naturally Final Thoughts
More often than not, sleep problems are the result of certain lifestyle habits and/or external stressors. Addressing these causative factors is often enough to find relief from insomnia, disturbed sleep, and other types of sleep issues. Knowing how to increase melatonin secretion in your body can further improve your chances of catching your forty winks. By combining good sleeping habits and some natural ways to increase melatonin levels, youll be snoring off in no time.
Ways To Increase Melatonin Naturally
A little nighttime reading
Today’s post is from Maria Quintana-Pilling, a certified nutrition consultant, natural chef and founder of UrbanSpice Nutrition — a web site with holistic women’s health and digestive solutions. In her guest post, Maria shares practical advice for increasing your levels of natural melatonin — the “sleep hormone.” Without pills!
3 Ways to Increase Natural Melatonin By Maria Quintana-Pilling
There is nothing more annoying than not being able to fall asleep. Youre exhausted so why cant you fall asleep? Its frustrating.
There are many factors that go into sleep. Your daily schedule, your nighttime routine, your external environment and your internal environment all play big factors. It usually takes changing a combination of these over a period of time to really feel the effects.
Like all living creatures, you have circadian rhythms that allow all the physiological functions of the body to occur. Your circadian rhythm is your body clock. Your wake-sleep cycle is a circadian rhythm that follows a 24-hour day and night pattern and is governed by lightness and darkness.
The control center for your circadian rhythm is your brain. More specifically, its your pineal gland. The pineal gland can be found in the area between your eyes and is often called your third eye.
So, for women in particular, it is a powerful hormone affecting not only your sleep but also your monthly cycle, fertility, menopause, and even your ability to fight off breast cancer.
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Cut Down On Caffeine Intake
Although we all love a warm cup of coffee in the morning, drinking coffee late in the day actually block melatonin production. Caffeine triggers the bodys fight or flight response and increases the stress hormone, cortisol. Drinking too much caffeine can make you irritable, nervous, and unable to fall asleep. These symptoms mimic anxiety symptoms, even in a healthy person.
If you still want to sip on something warm in the evening, try making the switch to caffeine-free drinks. Chamomile, chai tea, and even lemon water contain natural antioxidants that wont give you the jitters.
Cut Back On Social Media
Similar to point number three, social media is one of the reasons why many people are addicted to their cell phones and computers. If you find yourself scrolling through social media for hours before bedtime, stop.
Its harder said than done but some ways to do this is to turn off notification settings, put the icons in specific folders, or delete the icons completely so you can only check them on a computer.
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Natural Ways To Boost Melatonin Production
You already know melatonin is a great natural sleep aid. But thats not all this hormone is good for. Getting more melatonin can help reduce your risk of prostate cancer. And its a safe way to adjust your sleep pattern when you travel to a different time zone. Its antioxidant activity may even help fight aging.
Here are five natural ways to boost your melatonin levels:
1. The Mineral That Feeds Melatonin
One of the easiest ways to support your bodys ability to produce melatonin is to consume more magnesium. Start by adding foods like almonds, avocados, shrimp, and spinach to your shopping list. This mineral relaxes your muscles and keeps cortisol levels in check. It also helps regulate your blood pressure.1 These can all help lower stress levels And keeping stress low may help add years to your life.
2. Increase Your Levels in Only 10 Minutes
We werent meant to stay indoors all day It only takes a few minutes in the sun to start seeing the benefits. Exposing your eyes to bright light when you wake up can help you produce more melatonin later at nightwhen you need it most. This makes it easier to fall asleepand stay asleep.2 And spending as little as 10 minutes in the sun can help reduce your cancer risk by up to 50%.
3. After-Dinner Sweets You Should Indulge In
4. This Juice is Better Than Fresh Fruit
5. Common Trap Sabotaging Your Sleep
In Good Health,
May Help Increase Growth Hormone Levels In Men
Human growth hormone is naturally released during sleep. In healthy young men, taking melatonin may help increase HGH levels.
Studies have shown that melatonin can make the pituitary gland, the organ that releases HGH, more sensitive to the hormone that releases HGH .
In addition, one small study showed that both lower and higher melatonin doses are effective at stimulating HGH release .
Another study found that 5 mg of melatonin combined with resistance training increased the levels of HGH in men while lowering the levels of somatostatin, a hormone that inhibits HGH .
Summary
Melatonin may support eye health, ease tinnitus symptoms, treat stomach ulcers and heartburn, and increase growth hormone levels in young men. Speak with a healthcare professional first if youre considering melatonin supplementation to help treat any of the conditions mentioned to learn if its right for you and whether there are any medication interactions.
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Melatonin Metabolism And Melatonin Metabolites As Indicators Of Melatonin Synthesis
Melatonin is catabolized in the liver by cytochrome P450 enzymes.156-161 6-Hydroxymelatonin is conjugated to form the 6-sulfatoxy and 6-glycuronide derivatives. In humans and many other species, the main product is 6-sulfatoxy melatonin. Although the daily rhythm in melatonin is regulated by melatonin production in the pineal gland, reflecting the activity of AANAT, degradation of melatonin is an often overlooked essential for the rapid translation of changes in melatonin production into rapid changes in melatonin in the circulation. Without rapid destruction of melatonin in the liver, the marked daily dynamic changes in melatonin would be blunted.
A productive method to estimate melatonin production is by detection of 6-sulfatoxy melatonin or 6 hydroxymelatonin in urine.162,163 Urinary 6-suflatoxy melatonin measurements are attractive for clinical investigations because 24-hour collections of urine can be obtained routinely from a range of subjects in nonclinical settings and can provide a useful indication of melatonin production during large blocks of time. This allows estimation of both total melatonin produced and day versus night production. Whereas this approach does not provide an indication of rapid melatonin dynamics, the information it provides can be valuable.164-167
Jorge H. Daruna, in, 2012
Not Getting Enough Sun During The Day
In order to naturally increase melatonin, your body needs a certain amount of natural sunlight. This is because sunlight makes serotonin, which is the precursor of melatonin. Once the sun goes down, leftover serotonin converts into melatonin, which is why you need ample sunlight during the day to make sure enough serotonin was created.
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Natural Vs Synthetic Melatonin
Melatonin sleeping tablets are a synthetic hormone that exactly mimics the melatonin hormone our bodies produce.
Whilst melatonin tablets absolutely have their benefits for jet lag and circadian rhythm sleep problems, they should always be prescribed by a doctor who can advise how to take them correctly.
Synthetic tablets often contain more than 20 times the level of melatonin we actually need, therefore, we dont recommend taking them over the counter .
Further reasons are outlined here in our article is melatonin making your insomnia worse?
How To Boost Your Serotonin And Melatonin Levels Naturally
If you want to improve your mood, regulate your pain perception, regulate your sleep cycle and improve your sleep quality, boosting your brains production of serotonin and melatonin should be at the top of your list. And by now you know the best way to do itgo outside!
Timing is important: Being exposed to natural light in the morningwithout sunglassesadvances our circadian clock, stimulating melatonin production earlier in the evening and making it easier to fall asleep at night. Daylight exposure later in the day has not been shown to have the same positive effects on circadian rhythms. In addition to regulating our sleep-wake cycle, our circadian rhythms also regulate hormone production, appetite, core body temperature, brain wave activity, and cell regeneration. Keeping our circadian clock properly set is important for our overall health.
How much time should you spend outdoors? Well, consider that humans evolved living completely outdoors, so the systems of our brains and bodies are built to function best with a lot of natural light. And until relatively recently, much of the worlds population was involved in farming and spent much of the day outdoors. The shift to indoor living is recent, and its a big contributor to chronic disease. Most of us live our lives deprived of the bright, natural light that is essential for our health. So, the more the better, as long as you take steps to protect against skin cancer.
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Factors That Increase/activate Melatonin Receptor Activity
Agonists are agents, usually drugs, which bind and increase the activity of a receptor. The following are melatonin activators.
- Agomelatine binds MT1 and MT2 receptors .
- Tasimelteon also has a high affinity for MT1 and MT2 receptors .
- Ramelteon is a selective MT1 and MT2 activator. Its binding affinity to melatonin receptors is higher than melatonin itself. It is used to treat insomnia .
- TIK-301 is a melatonin receptor activator .