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"Need a Good Night’s Sleep? Line
Up the Signals"
by Margaret Gedde, MD, PhD
A good night’s sleep counts among life’s sweetest
blessings. But poor sleep is incredibly common – it’s
discussed during seventy percent of visits to primary
care physicians.
Extreme sleeplessness, where a person can’t sleep for
days and weeks on end, is a truly desperate situation.
Pharmaceutical drugs can seem like the only option. Not
so! Drugs have their place, but we can do better by
looking for the root of what has gone wrong, and aiming
first to fix that.
Disturbed sleep can be from imbalance in any of three
major body systems involved in sleep – your nervous
system, endocrine (hormone) system and immune system –
and the cause of your wakeful nights can be complicated.
So this article is the first of a series that goes deep
into why poor sleep happens and how to fix it. This
first article looks at some nervous system issues that
can block sleep.
If you’re not sleeping well, here’s where to start:
1. Engage your natural sleep-wake switch.
Light is the number one signal telling our bodies and
brains when to be awake and when to sleep. So be sure
your sleeping room is dark. If it’s not, wear a
black-out eye mask (or just lay a favorite sock over
your eyes, if you sleep on your back).
Specifically, blue light entering our eyes is what
triggers the “wake up” signal to our brains. So, another
tip is to wear goggles that block light wavelengths
below 530 nm for several hours in the evening to prime
your system to be ready to sleep at bedtime.
2. Take relaxing minerals.
Muscle tension can keep you awake, and muscles can't
relax without enough calcium and magnesium. To be sure
you’re getting enough of these minerals when you need
them, take calcium 1000 mg and magnesium 500 mg on an
empty stomach at bedtime. The citrate form of these
minerals is a good choice. If you already take a mineral
supplement, check that it has about this much magnesium
and calcium, and take your entire dose at bedtime.
3. Boost your supply of serotonin.
A solid supply of serotonin is needed for good sleep.
There are two reasons for this.
First, your brain uses serotonin as a messenger to send
“close down and sleep” signals to your body and brain.
Second, serotonin is converted by your pineal gland into
melatonin, the hormone that sends its own strong “close
down and sleep” signal.
So when serotonin is low, your brain’s sleep signals are
weak. You can putter along between sleep and
wakefulness, never resting deeply.
This is why anti-depressants that recycle serotonin (the
SSRIs, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors) can help
you sleep. But, you can deliver serotonin to the places
in your brain that need it, without the toxicity of
synthetic pharmaceuticals, by working with your body’s
own machinery.
To boost your brain’s serotonin supply, take the body’s
serotonin precursors in supplement form - either L-tryptophan
or 5-HTP (5-hydroxytryptophan). These amino acids both
are naturally present in your body.
Take L-tryptophan 500-2000 mg plus vitamin B6 50 mg on
an empty stomach at bedtime. (It’s okay to take this
with your calcium and magnesium.) Vitamin B6 ensures the
L-tryptophan is efficiently converted to serotonin.
Adjust the amount of L-tryptophan you take to let you
fall asleep easily without being groggy in the morning.
Or, take 5-HTP 50-200 mg on an empty stomach at bedtime.
5-HTP is converted directly into serotonin, and can have
strong effects. So start at the lowest dose, and adjust
up to find an effective level.
4. Add melatonin.
When triggered by the light-dark circuits in your brain,
your pineal gland releases melatonin to send a powerful
“close down and sleep” signal to your brain’s main
wakefulness center.
If your pineal gland doesn’t make enough melatonin to
get a strong signal through, adding this hormone
directly can help.
Try adding melatonin 3-10 mg at bedtime.
Does it make a difference? Melatonin does the trick for
many people. If taking melatonin does nothing to help
you sleep, that may be a clue that stress and/or
inflammation messengers are blocking your sleep signals.
Still not resting well?
The next article covers how to boost effects of GABA, a
core sleep messenger, and takes a first look at dealing
with effects of stress on your sleep.
Disclaimer: Remember, this article is not medical
advice. It is for your information, and the suggestions
here may not fit your situation. Be sure to consult a qualified health
practitioner about your health concerns.
© 2005-2009 Gedde Whole Health LLC.
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