Melatonin

Melatonin for Anxiety: Promising New Applications for a Familiar Sleep Supplement

Many people all over the world take melatonin to help them sleep. However, new research suggests that some may benefit from taking melatonin for anxiety as well.

Around one in five adults suffer from anxiety. While certain types of therapy and medications such as SSRIs can help, many people struggle to manage their symptoms. The loss of daily function and lack of sleep can severely interfere with the lives of people who suffer from this concern. As a result, many people are on a search for safe, natural remedies that will help manage their anxiety and the often-associated occasional difficulty sleeping once and for all. Several new studies suggest that taking melatonin for anxiety may be the answer many have been looking for.

Deciphering the Underlying Causes of Anxiety

Scientists and doctors do not understand why some people suffer from anxiety on a daily basis while others do not. However, there is a lot that we do know about this condition thanks to a great deal of research. PET scans show that the root cause appears to be an imbalance of certain neurotransmitters such as serotonin and epinephrine. The autonomic nervous system, which controls instincts such as “fight-or-flight” behavior, also appears to play a role. People with anxiety appear to have a smaller temporal lobe volume, reduced numbers of serotonin receptors and increased blood flow in areas of the brain that mediate emotions such as fear. While people once thought that anxiety was a personal weakness, we now know that it can have very real physical causes.

The result is that people with anxiety suffer from excessive panic and fear compared to other people in similar situations. They also have a wide range of physical symptoms such as sweating, tremors, rapid heart beat, dilated pupils and insomnia. The constant presence of anxiety in one’s life can make it difficult to function normally both at work and with loved ones. Doctors currently treat anxiety with therapy as well as a range of pharmaceuticals that quiet physical symptoms and increase serotonin levels. Sedating medications are also a popular treatment as they quiet a mind and body that are on edge.

Melatonin for Anxiety: A Natural Treatment with Potential

Melatonin may be a potential treatment for helping to soothe anxiety, especially anxiety that comes with occasional difficulty falling asleep and other sleep concerns. Melatonin has long been noted to decrease anxious behaviors in research animals, even as far back as 1984. Researchers noted that animals who had higher levels of melatonin showed less of the hallmark behaviors of anxiety while also performing better on tests, making fewer errors. They also slept better at night. Part of this was believed to be due to melatonin’s slightly sedating effect as well as the fact that these lab animals were getting better sleep. After all, sedatives of various kinds are already used successfully in treating anxiety. In addition, melatonin is a hormone that helps us to fall asleep at night and stay asleep, so it is no surprise that we will generally be better rested while taking a melatonin supplement.

However, more recent research suggests that melatonin may have a calming effect on people with anxiety even outside of its sleep benefits. People who take melatonin before and after surgery—times when physiological and psychological stress run high—have less anxiety and also fewer instances of postoperative delirium. This is significant because many anesthetics, such as Propofol, reduce plasma melatonin levels. This may actually be contributing to high levels of anxiety in patients undergoing surgical procedures. This is more significant when you consider that Ramelteon, a drug that increases melatonin, has already been shown to be effective in treating anxiety associated with insomnia.

More Sleep and Less Stress

Anxiety is one of the most common mental afflictions in the world, while occasional difficulty falling asleep also affects millions of people. Could these disorders be somehow linked? Scientists are still studying the connections between difficulty sleeping and anxiety, but the remedies for these two disorders remain very similar. Whether you are suffering from anxiety, occasional difficulty sleeping, or both, cognitive behavioral therapy, lifestyle modifications and increasing melatonin are promising treatments. Whether you increase melatonin levels by taking a melatonin supplement or taking a drug such as Ramelteon, you may find that you are less anxious and more able to handle the stresses of daily life without unpleasant physical symptoms.

Melatonin may help anxiety simply by sedating sufferers, increasing sleep or even by a mechanism that is not yet known. The research is clear that taking melatonin for anxiety appears to help treat many of the symptoms. It is important to talk to your physician before adding any medication or supplement to your regimen, especially if you are already being treated for anxiety or insomnia with pharmaceuticals. However, the evidence behind melatonin indicates that it may have a very beneficial effect for people with a variety of health concerns.

Are Your Holiday or Christmas Lights Causing You to Lose Sleep?

Dec 06 by Ewcopywriting Leave a Comment

Tis the season for holiday decorations including stockings, sleighs and lots of lights. If your neighborhood is like most in the Western world, there is a good chance that your own home, as well as those around you, is trimmed with holiday or Christmas lights. These twinkling lights may have a positive effect on your holiday spirit, but a very negative effect on your physical health.

Light Pollution and Sleep

Do you have trouble sleeping when lights are on? If so, you are not alone. We all may feel a bit better in well-lit areas but science suggests that just the opposite should be true. When your neighborhood is bathed in light, your eyes sense this and send messages to the suprachiasmatic nucleus of your brain. From here, hormones such as melatonin and cortisol are released to let your body know what time of day it is and coordinate important activities such as cell repair. The problem is that so many people are trying to sleep in the winter even as Christmas lights are blazing in our neighborhoods. As a result, they are suffering from a disturbed circadian rhythm.

The light pollution from these lights can cause problems that we do not even realize. We may feel tired but be unable to sleep simply because we are bathed in light. Studies have linked Christmas lights to insomnia in children, but there is a good chance that we all suffer the biological consequences of sleeping in a world bathed in light, even if we don’t even realize it. Our brains perceive this light pollution as a legitimate reason to stay awake even while we are desperate for sleep and release hormones that promote wakefulness and productivity.

Christmas Lights: Bad for Your Health?

While a disrupted sleep-wake cycle can lead to health problems, this is not the only way that Christmas lights can harm your health. Three percent of people with epilepsy have a type of epilepsy called photosensitive epilepsy, in which bright or flashing lights can induce seizures. For these people, the holiday season can be a real challenge requiring stronger prescription medication or even abstaining from holiday events. Light perceived by the eyes can have a larger effect on the brain than most people realize.

Melatonin Deficiency: More Than Sleep

The melatonin deficiency caused by constant light can have a variety of health effects. Difficulty sleeping is the most obvious and noticeable effect but you also may see more nonspecific issues. Immediate effects include hypertension, decreased memory and depression. If you are chronically deprived of melatonin over a long period, you may have a higher risk of serious life-threatening diseases such as type 2 diabetes and heart disease. This is especially true if you use white or blue holiday lights, which have been proven to depress melatonin production more than other colors. Even worse, children and the elderly, two groups that need their sleep badly, are more likely to have their sleep disrupted by low melatonin production.

Not only are holiday lights bad for your health, but they are bad for the environment as well. The electricity used to keep Christmas lights aglow is often made from fossil fuels. In addition, the light pollution from these lights can have negative effects on the small animals and wildlife that live in your neighborhood. This is a choice that enlarges your carbon footprint measurably while directly affecting the creatures around you.

Dealing With the Season of Lights

The holiday season may be too well-lit, but this does not mean you have to go without sleep until Santa has come and gone. Experts suggest that you turn off Christmas lights as well as other lights a half-hour before you go to bed to allow your body to produce enough melatonin to support good sleep. If your neighbors and community have lights near your home that may interfere with sleep, consider using blackout curtains or other means of blocking light. Last, if you still struggle to get the sleep you need, consider taking a melatonin supplement before bed.

Holiday decorations are a great way to brighten up the cold winter nights. While these can cause negative health effects, there are ways to protect yourself. It’s important to take care of your health so you can enjoy many holiday seasons to come with your family and friends.

Turning the Clocks Back This Weekend Could Be Detrimental to Your Health

Oct 31 by Ewcopywriting Leave a Comment

Couldn’t most of us use an extra hour of sleep? Many people look forward to the fall time change, which occurs on November 6 this year. Unlike the spring changing of the clocks, which equates to lost sleep, turning the clocks back in the fall, or “falling back,” gives us a much-needed extra hour of slumber. It also means waking up to a little more sunshine, even if we pay for that sunshine with an earlier sunset. However, the fall time change can impact your health in a variety of negative ways.

The History of Daylight Saving Time

The tradition of turning the clocks back in the fall and forward in the spring began in World War II. Seasonally adjusting the clock in this way allowed people to enjoy maximum sunlight during the day, thus lowering the amount of resources used in lighting homes and businesses. Fuel was at a premium during the war, so this tactic had a measurable impact on how much fuel citizens used. When the war ended, the United States and Europe made Daylight Saving Time (DST) a local option.

Some communities continued the twice-yearly change in clocks while others did not. As the country became more mobile and well-connected, this inconsistency led to a great deal of confusion. This spurred the creation of the Uniform Time Act of 1966, which made changing clocks mandatory for the entire nation (except in the case of special exemptions). Since then, most Americans and a great deal of Europe as well changed clocks one hour forward in spring and one hour backward in the autumn.

The Effects of Time Change on Your Circadian Rhythm

Our bodies run according to a series of internal clocks known as our circadian rhythm. When our sleep-wake cycle changes suddenly, we suffer from the mixture of fatigue and clouded thinking that we call jet lag. Our bodies are suddenly out of sync with our environments and must adjust to the new time, a process that happens slowly.

In the spring, a switch to Daylight Saving Time means that many people lose an hour of sleep and must adjust to waking up significantly earlier. The effects of this change in time have been well-documented, including an increase in strokes, heart attacks and even car accidents. Until recently, much of the research on the effects of time change has centered on the spring change in clocks, as this involves losing sleep. However, it has become increasingly evident that the fall time change may also have a variety of negative effects on your health.

How Is Turning the Clocks Back Bad for Your Health?

While getting an extra hour of sleep is better than losing one, it still has an effect on the circadian rhythm. Many scientists believe that any change in the circadian rhythm can have long-term effects on health, including an increase in cancer risk. The decrease in light during the day also can have an effect on health. Children are less likely to play outside during the long dark hours of winter evenings, increasing the risk of obesity and the many other health risks associated with it. Adults are similarly less likely to go for a jog or otherwise get exercise when it’s dark out.

In addition, the decrease in light during waking hours can affect mental health, worsening mood disorders and increasing depression. Many people are affected mentally by a change in light, even among those who haven’t been diagnosed with seasonal affective disorder (SAD). We rely on light to regulate our circadian rhythms. A lack of light can throw metabolism into disarray and disrupt the internal clocks.

Healthy Ways to Deal With a Time Change

If you are concerned about how turning back the clocks affects your health, there are a few things you can do to soften the blow. Begin by slowly changing your schedule in the week before the time change, so it has a less-abrupt effect on your sleep-wake cycle. Maximize outdoor time and access to sunlight, even adding light therapy if you feel you can’t get enough sunshine. Take a melatonin supplement before bedtime if you aren’t feeling sleepy. Last, be sure to get enough exercise even if this means switching to indoor activities. Caring for your health and replacing the light stolen from your day can mitigate many of the effects of turning the clocks back.

Our circadian rhythms are essential to our health and well-being. There are many ill effects, both short-term and long-term, when we disrupt our internal clocks. However, there are ways to make Daylight Saving Time easier on our bodies and minds. Caring for your circadian rhythm is an important part of leading a healthy lifestyle.

Health Dangers of Smartphones Include Insomnia and Male Infertility

Oct 27 by Ewcopywriting Leave a Comment

Unless you live under that proverbial rock, you are likely familiar with the purported health dangers of smartphones. Although these devices make it easier to manage our busy lives and stay in contact with loved ones, more and more studies indicate that they may also pose health risks, even when not in use.

The Effects of Electromagnetic Radiation

Even when your phone is not in use, it’s still in contact with cellphone towers. It maintains this contact using a frequency known as electromagnetic radiation, allowing your phone to make its distinctive chime as soon as you receive a text or email. Electromagnetic radiation is very similar to microwaves. There have been conflicting studies regarding whether this type of radiation affects your health, but more recent research shows that the suspected health dangers of smartphones are likely a reality.

Exactly what are these health effects? Rats exposed to constant levels of this frequency of radiation develop brain tumors. There are also specific dangers for men who keep cellphones on their person or in a pocket, including infertility and potential testicular cancer. While our brains are partially protected by a skull, male reproductive organs have few defenses against the electromagnetic radiation, which can mutate sperm and make them unable to fertilize an egg. This is particularly unfortunate when you consider how many men keep their cellphone in their pants pocket.

Smart Phones and Sleep

Smartphones can affect not just our long-term health, but our daily lives. They emit a blue-tinted light that is easy to read in almost any setting, much like computers and tablets. However, this light can affect our circadian rhythms and make it more difficult to get the sleep we need. Blue light has a huge effect on melatonin production, and can even shut it down completely. When you read on your smartphone or another device before bed, you are stopping your brain from making the hormone it needs to induce sleep. This is especially true for adolescents.

However, blue light is not the only way that a smartphone may interfere with your sleep. Electromagnetic radiation also may interfere with sleep. Children appear to be more affected, as their growing brain tissues absorb four times as much of this radiation as adults. In addition, children often lack the self-discipline needed to turn off these devices and go to sleep. It is important for children to go to sleep in a room free of televisions, tablets and other devices that could have long-term effects on both their circadian rhythm and whole-body health.

Mitigating the Health Dangers of Smartphones

This news may be shocking to people who always have their phone in hand. However, most of us either cannot or will not eschew our electronic devices completely. We need them not just for work and time management, but for much-needed recreation and fun. If you plan on keeping your smartphone in your pocket despite these health dangers, there are a few ways that you can lessen the potential damage to your body.

Use a headset or speakerphone. Moving a source of radiation away from your body significantly reduces its effect on your cells.
Keep your phone out of your pants pocket. Stash it instead in a bag, on your desk, or in a shirt pocket.
Don’t sleep with devices in your bedroom. Smart phones are not the only sources of radiation; wireless modems and other devices also emit it. By keeping these in another room, you can reduce your exposure immensely.
Avoid using your phone when it has a low signal. It has to send out more radiation to continue making contact.
Limit your children’s usage of devices. Children are especially prone to negative effects from radiation because their bodies are still growing and their cells multiplying quickly.

It may be difficult to break the smartphone habit, but it will likely have a beneficial effect on your health. There are many ways to reduce the health dangers of smartphones, but simply putting it away may be the most effective.

Children and Sleep: The Effects of Sleep Deprivation on Behavior and Health

Oct 21 by Ewcopywriting Leave a Comment

As the old saying goes, you can lead a horse to water but you cannot make them drink. Putting children to bed is a similar experience for many exhausted parents. You can go through a bedtime routine and tuck the little ones in at an early hour, but there is no “off” button. Some children lie awake for hours or get out of bed repeatedly asking for glasses of water and other diversions. This can lead to sleep deprivation for the whole family. Unfortunately, studies on children and sleep show that sleep deprivation can create behavioral issues and even affect children’s future physical health.

Children and Sleep: Is Lack of Sleep a National Epidemic?

There are hundreds of books on the market instructing parents on how to get their children to sleep. Many of these are focused on infants, who notoriously keep their parents awake at night. However, sleep deprivation is an issue for older children as well. Six out of ten middle-schoolers and almost 90 percent of teens do not get the sleep they need, according to pediatricians. School-aged children also are missing out on the valuable shut-eye that they need in large and ever-increasing numbers.

This sleep deprivation can have devastating effects on physical health and even behavior. American pediatricians have called for a variety of measures to remedy this, including later school times and earlier bed times. However, the problem appears to be worsening. Children are getting less sleep than ever in the U.S. and throughout the Western world. This is worsening to the point where some pediatricians have called sleep deprivation a public health crisis.

The Effects of Sleep Deprivation on Growing Minds and Bodies

Unfortunately, sleep deprivation does not come without a cost. Going to bed late, even in the preschool years, is tied to obesity. Because having a healthy circadian rhythm is necessary to a variety of metabolic processes, children who grow up consistently getting lower than recommended amounts of sleep later are more prone to unhealthy weight gain. This is especially true for children who come from low-income households, who are minorities, or who have less educated mothers—in other words, children who are already statistically at a higher risk of health problems than their peers.

The effects of sleep deprivation do not merely affect weight, but behavior as well. Adults who get less than adequate sleep are more emotionally labile and this appears to be true for children as well. In children, this may manifest as poor behavior. In addition, children who do not get enough sleep are at higher risk of depression and anxiety later on in life. For many families, this creates a downward spiral in which sleep deprivation creates bedtime behavior problems, which in turn create more sleep deprivation for both parents and tots.

Natural Solutions to Bedtime Drama

While melatonin helps many adults to nod off at bedtime, the jury is out as to whether it can be effective in breaking the link between poorly-behaved children and sleep deprivation. Melatonin appears to help children fall asleep faster, but it also has more side effects in those who are young, including headaches and appetite loss. It has been shown to help children with ADHD fall asleep, but these results are preliminary and will have to be further studied. Because its long-term effects on children have not been adequately studied, parents should talk to their pediatrician about whether this is the right choice for their family.

There are other ways that parents can help children to get enough sleep. Experts recommend turning off screens and dimming lights well before bedtime. Having a relaxing and unchanging bedtime routine also can help children to fall asleep. Light therapy during the day may be helpful for children who suffer from a delayed sleep phase, in which children have a circadian clock that runs a bit late. Last, avoid exposure to caffeine and nicotine, which is present in secondhand smoke. These stimulants are always bad for children, but they can have the additional effect of keeping them awake well after they’re tucked into bed.

Getting children to bed in time for a restful night of sleep may not always be easy, but the alternatives can be devastating to physical and emotional health. There are a variety of healthy, natural ways to help children get the sleep they need to be healthy and happy throughout their days and well into adulthood.

Melatonin for Jet Lag: Reset Your Body Clock Naturally When Travelling Across Time Zones

Oct 20 by Ewcopywriting Leave a Comment

Modern life requires travel. Americans and Western Europeans have become more mobile than ever, which means that seeing family and building a career often means some type of travel is involved. As a result, jet lag is not just a problem for executives anymore. Millions of people find their circadian rhythm is disrupted by the busy schedule of modern life. Luckily, there are safe, natural ways to get your internal clocks back on track.

What Is Jet Lag?

Jet lag, or desynchronosis, is a state in which your inner clocks are not aligned with the external time. People can get jet lag from traveling across time zones. There is also a phenomenon called social jet lag, in which people have to be awake for work or other obligations during hours that don’t sync with their circadian rhythm.

Regardless of the reason for jet lag, it can have devastating effects on health. People with jet lag feel fatigued, yet often have trouble sleeping. They can feel mentally fuzzy and suffer from lower cognition and memory. Jet lag also puts people at higher risk of suffering from adverse health events such as infections. Despite the huge number of physical and psychological effects of jet lag, modern medicine offers very few solutions to this common problem.

Factors That Can Make Jet Lag Better… Or Worse

You may have noticed that you do not get jet lag every time you step on or off a plane. This is because there are a variety of factors that can make jet lag better or worse. For instance, researchers have found that traveling east causes worse jet lag symptoms than traveling west. It ends up that our natural internal rhythms are actually set for slightly longer than 24 hours, so it is easier to add time to our day by moving to an earlier time zone than to subtract hours in the day. Staying hydrated and eating healthy also can keep jet lag from being as severe. The healthier your body is, the more likely it will be to adjust to challenges such as travel quickly and seamlessly.

Even if you are traveling east, there are several ways that you can mitigate the effects of jet lag. Drinking lots of water helps, as travel is dehydrating and this can make jet lag symptoms worse. Avoiding caffeine, alcohol and other substances also help your body to get back on track more quickly. Ensure that you eat a wide variety of healthy foods to get the vitamins your body needs and that you get plenty of exercise. Last, do things that help your body to adjust to your new time zone. Make sure you get plenty of light exposure during the day and eat at set times.

Melatonin for Jet Lag: A Safe, Natural Treatment

Research on melatonin for jet lag has found that this supplement can make a huge difference in helping people to get both the quality and the quantity of sleep they need. Melatonin is naturally produced by your body in preparation for sleep. If you are planning to travel, scientists recommend trying to slowly adjust to the new time zone before you leave by either going to bed progressively later or taking melatonin so you can go to bed earlier. Our bodies take approximately one day per time zone to adjust, but this process can be done before travel to make the transition easier.

There are also other safe, natural remedies besides melatonin for jet lag. Stanford researchers have developed a mask that can be controlled by your smartphone intended to help treat jet lag. It uses light to help your body adjust to changes in time zone. There is also a Stop Jet Lag app that can guide you in preparing for and undergoing a large trip without being devastated by fatigue and other symptoms. The Anti-Jet Lag Calculator is a similar app that helps you to align your circadian rhythm with a new time zone by carefully planning when you eat meals and perform other daily tasks.

Unfortunately, jet lag is a fact of modern life. However, you do not have to live with the fatigue, clouded thinking, insomnia and other effects of this disorder. There are many different ways of helping your body to adjust to a new time zone with as few physical effects as possible. Taking charge of your circadian rhythm is taking charge of your health.