Insomnia and Melatonin

Insomnia or the difficulty of falling asleep is one of the common sleep disorders. It is so pervasive to the point that it has affected almost everyone at least once in their lifespan. The eye-bags and puffy eyes are the few signs that one did not get enough sleep or was not able to sleep at all either at night, morning or whenever her preferred regular sleep schedule.

Ideally, eight hours is the standard requirement for a good sleep. Today, it generally acknowledged that the amount of sleep depends on individual’s needs. Some people need twelve hours of sleep while others feel already refreshed, rested and revived with just four hours.

Sleep requirements also has something to do with one’s age and activities – growing children need more time to sleep while elderly need fewer hours of sleep. This explains the reason why grandparents are usually awake at the crack of the dawn aside from the fact that older people usually experience trouble in sleeping.

Still there are those who just cannot sleep especially people who work in the call center industry in Asia and the Pacific regions. People who work in this industry experience extra ordinary stress and this is something that they have to reckon daily. At this stage they are starting to lose one anti-stress hormone which is Melatonin, a natural sleep enhancing hormone.

A person loses her melatonin hormone as her biological clock keeps ticking thus the needs to replenish it with natural supplements arises. In a research conducted by Russel Reiter of the Center University of Texas Health Science Center, Reiter concluded that melatonin hormone is secreted cyclically from the pineal gland which is located at the center of the brain and this keeps us sync with the rhythms of the day and the season.

Melatonin level is at its peak at six years old and the first sharp declination is after puberty or about the age of 16. Adults 40-45 years old secrete only half as much as children do. When one reaches 80 and above, the melatonin production comes in trickles. This explains why we sleep less as we grow older.

The low levels of melatonin may very well explain why the elder people have increased number of pains and other illness. Melatonin which has been available in the local market for almost ten years now has gained raves for its efficacy both as a non-habit forming sleep-aid pill and as a natural supplement for sleep enhancing. Melatonin does not have the hang over of a regular sleeping pill.

Human beings like most animals produce melatonin throughout early stage of life but the levels in our blood wane slightly during or after puberty and gradually as we grow older, said an Italian Immunologist Dr. Walter Peirpaoli. In one of his experiments, he gave melatonin hormone to rodents and this restored its youthful levels and outlived its life expectancies by almost three times. Doctors William Regeson and Peirpaoli, in their book called The Melatonin Miracle, said: “Melatonin can stop the downward spiral that we have come to associate with aging.” Thus many believe that melatonin may also have an anti-aging and life-prolonging effect in human.

On the other hand – melatonin cannot at all eliminate the insomnia especially if it stemmed from psychological problems like worry. Chronic insomniacs worry too much about insomnia to the point that they are actually driven to it. Psychological insomniacs worry too much about the problems thus their mind is kept awake and alert, and sleep has no chance to comfort these people.

In some cases, insomnia may also be symptoms of health problems as explained in the book authored by Adelle Davies’ “Let’s Eat Right to Keep Fit,” where he cited some vitamin deficiencies as a cause of insomnia.

An insomniac person may also be anemic therefore if this is the case, it would be best to consult a physician to reduce the possibility of having more complicated symptoms. One may also try the following tips to put you to sleep:

• Refrain from taking stimulants like coffee, sodas that contain caffeine and cigarettes too before going to sleep
• Drink a glass of milk with amino acids which has been found as an important contributor in inducing sleep
• Forget about all that happened in the day and rest your mind
• Read a book and do not force yourself to sleep yet if you really cannot sleep for this will just result to migraine

We are all living in hard times, which put everyone in a lot of stress but still we must sleep or at least take a nap from the day’s work.