So… if it’s naturally found in my body – it’s okay to take as a sleep aid, in pill form.
Right?
Right…?
Not necessarily.
And definitely not when it comes to melatonin, according to some studies.
Thing is, while melatonin is associated with sleep cycles and is made by our own bodies, ushering a surplus of it in isn’t necessarily good thing. In fact, it can be detrimental to dreamtime and wake time. And that, unfortunately, is possibly what’ll happen if you take these tablets in 5 mg amounts. Right about now, you’re probably pondering HTF these things found in an aisle beside vitamins can possibly land you a hormone OD, aintchya? And that’s normal. It’s normal for our opposite-of-holistic culture where “some being good means more must be better” and “for every deficit there’s one panacea”. The problem with that is, that when it comes to stuff like melatonin, it’s more than just something we attribute to circadian cycles. In fact, recently, I just came across a camp of scientists who believe melatonin’s actually among our stress hormones. It may sound counterintuitive, but I was game to listen. Because, while some levels of stress hormone are totally necessary, all that extra junk effs up your system in the long run. So, could melatonin’s alleged stress effects be to blame for the repercussions it’ll sometimes cause? (“Yeah, but I feel tired when I take it. How can it be a stress hormone? Your move, Ashley!”) Yes. You raise a great point, imaginary character who lives in my brain and battles me all day. I wondered that too. But, according to this newer camp, there’s a reason for this. Indeed, you might take that tablet and feel tired. But that’s just because you’re doped out on the tiring effects of stress. (The idea being that some stress puts you into fight or flight mode, while too much fatigues you.) The end result? That mayhaps a nap will happen to you now, but when you wake up and try to function like a normal human creature tomorrow, don’t be surprised if you have a shiz ton of fun side effects to deal with.
(Though, hopefully, falling asleep while your hand’s still awake isn’t one’a them.
I mean, just try to keep your hand open like this chick’s doing all night.
I’ll put five dollars in it – if you can reenact this impossible stock photo.)
And those side effects were something I myself had to learn about the hard way.
When I was first quitting anti-anxiety scripts and pain meds and all that fun stuff, I was looking for any way I could to naturally nab a nightly recharge. Before I settled on a few good teas for a few good Z’s, melatonin was part of my journey. Granted, I was grateful for the onslaught of sweet blankness in my brain… but less grateful was I for how I felt come morning. Headaches. Grogginess. Mood swings reminiscent of that one time when Legion inhabited my body and the priest had to come to extract it with an uneven, wooden plus sign. And why was it doing that? Because our hormones (many of ’em, at least) tend to work on a sort’ve feedback loop. Which is why the way some people explain the downside to hormone therapy – is by comparing it to a space heater in a home with a thermostat:
Most of the hormones in the body are governed by negative feedback, which works like your household thermostat. Say you set your thermostat to 72 degrees and the room temperature is 69 degrees. The heater kicks in to warm the room up. When the temperature reaches 72 degrees, the heat shuts off until the temperature drops again. Administering hormones can actually shut off our body’s hormonal negative feedback loop. It’s like heating a room by a space heater and the furnace shuts off because it isn’t needed. In this case, the “furnace shutting off” translates to the hypothalamus-pituitary connection becoming dysfunctional. When communication between the hypothalamus and pituitary – the master hormone-regulation center in the body – becomes compromised, it leads to many other hormone imbalances.
(Other people always put it so much more eloquently than me…. Or is it “eloquently than I”? See?!)
Whether or not melatonin’s a stress hormone became irrelevant to me. All I knew was that it wasn’t the answer. It was an answer – and a bad one – yet I tend to shoot for the best when it comes to rest. And once I opted for the less invasive types of wind-down cures, things became better. But you want to know when they truly improved? When I started looking at it from a different angle. You see, melatonin’s dubbed the “dracula of hormones” because it only rises at night. However, as we covered before, there’s got to be a good body balance happening in order for the Bram Stroker hormone to make its great debut. And because melatonin’s regulated by our exposure to light and dark, this means something important: the more natural light we get during the daytime, the more likely our photon-phobic chemical will be ready and on deck come bedtime. Learning this was a game changer for me. Or… more like gam changer. Because my legs started changing when it was that they’d hit the trail for their daily run: early, and under lots of light. I promptly started doing an A.M. jog outdoors instead of an evening run. And I slept like a log. (Then I started doing an A.M. and evening run – and I slept like a log on qualudes. But my early and late habits’re neither here nor there.) The point? Thinking outside of the box of exacerbating palliatives that weren’t working on a “bigger picture” level (and about as helpful at fulfilling my slumber prayers as Wes Craven’s Wishmaster), I found a legit (not to mention free) cure: to quasi-literally seize the day. (Meaning all its rays – not, ya know, the intangible albeit quantifiable concept of the time that transpires between sunrise and sunset). Get some’a that sunshine early. Like hormonal money in the bank. And that way, I could release the natural chemical kraken once the sun dipped under the horizon again.
So, what’s missing from your days that makes your nights so miserable?
Are you willing to tweak it for the sake of sleep – and overall well being?