Melatonin The Sleep Hormone

Melatonin is a hormone your body produces. This hormone is essential for good sleep. It promotes the transition from wakefulness to sleep. Melatonin is produced by the pineal gland in the middle of the brain and it functions with the rhythm of the sun. This helps regulate your circadian rhythm as well.

Not enough sleep can affect your overall health and can put you in harm’s way of developing insulin resistance, weight gain, and can affect your focus throughout the day.

Melatonin supplements are available if you feel like you need extra melatonin at night to get a good night’s rest. The problem with supplements though is they can cause side effects such as headaches, nausea, drowsiness, and dizziness. They can also interfere with other prescription medications that you may be taking.

Age, gender, genetics, and lifestyle factors all play a role in your melatonin levels.

Melatonin is not just helpful in getting a good night’s sleep it also helps detoxify you, rebuild you and rejuvenate you while you sleep. Boosting melatonin levels doesn’t have to be done with a supplement, it can be done with some natural lifestyle changes.

Good Sleep Tips:

Get Outside

One of the things that has shown to boost melatonin levels that seems a little counter active is to go outside and be in the sun. Especially if you are stepping into the morning sun first thing after you wake up. The sun stops melatonin production in the morning allowing you to become more alert. It also boosts your serotonin which is needed to produce melatonin in the evening. The morning sun has shown to help melatonin production to begin earlier in the evening helping you fall asleep easier.

Eliminate Electronics Before Bed

Eliminate screens before bed. How possible this is to actually do depends on you. But studies have shown that blue light emitted from our electronics stops melatonin production. Screens such as TVs, phones, LED lights, and computers should be limited in use 2-3 hours before bed. If you do need to check your phone or computer before bed wear amber colored glasses. There are settings on your phone to lower the blue light, or switch it to red. Doing these things may help prevent your melatonin production to halt. Any use of blue light at night will compromise your melatonin production.

Increase Melatonin Rich Foods

Eat melatonin rich foods. The most rich melatonin food is Montmorency cherry also known as tart cherries, sour cherries, or sleep cherries. You can find this cherry in juice form, or as a supplement. Other melatonin rich foods are turkey and chicken. Asparagus, tomatoes, pomegranate, olives, grapes, oranges, broccoli, and cucumber. Rice, barley, oats, walnuts, peanuts, sunflower seeds, mustard seeds, and flaxseeds are all high in melatonin.

Increase Tryptophan In Your Diet

Foods high in tryptophan help produce serotonin. Serotonin binds with enzymes to produce melatonin. Increasing your serotonin levels can help increase your melatonin as well. Foods rich in tryptophan are chicken, turke, bananas, peanuts, potatoes, cod, salmon, trout, tuna, eggs, spirulina, and garbanzo beans. Vitamin B6 foods can also help increase your melatonin. These foods are turkey, chicken breast, beef, tuna, pistachios, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, and avocado.

Take A Warm Bath

Taking a warm bath in the evening can help as well. Your body has to cool off before it will fall asleep. So the initial body temperature drop as you get out of the warm water helps your body think it is ready for bed and production of melatonin will start. A warm bath is also very relaxing which can drop your cortisol levels.

Reduce Stress

Cortisol is the stress hormone that can keep the body awake, so lowering these levels can help you have better melatonin levels allowing for easy sleep.

Add Fragrance

Smelling lavender can also help relax the body.

Practice Meditation

Meditation to help calm and settle the body and mind has also shown to help increase melatonin levels in the early evening. This is also in response to the body’s cortisol levels decreasing while the body is destressing.

Reduce Caffeine

If you are a caffeine drinker throughout the day you may need to switch your caffeinated beverages for a non caffeinated option. Caffeine interferes with melatonin production. Having a cup of coffee first thing in the morning can stop melatonin production which can help wake you up. Drinking coffee throughout the day though can interfere with melatonin production even hours later which could affect your sleep later on especially if you are sensitive to caffeine. Over time increased caffeine drinking may lower your natural melatonin production.

Melatonin Is Essential For Sleep

Melatonin is essential for our body’s rest, detoxification, rebuilding, and rejuvenating while we sleep. It helps us transition from wakefulness to sleep. Some studies have shown people who take a weekend away camping and use no unnatural lighting have been shown to come home with a huge boost of natural melatonin. Lifestyle factors can play a role in your body’s production of melatonin. Changing some things can help boost your melatonin levels, helping your overall sleep.