Nothing’s better than a good night’s sleep. A proper sleep cycle is crucial for healthy living, however achieving a good night’s sleep is difficult for many. Getting a good night’s sleep with melatonin requires some good advice.
A lot of people have tried to enhance sleep with melatonin and have been dissatisfied with the results. Strange dreams, short sleep cycles, grogginess the next day, even lethargic conditions that last several days are all common complaints from people who have tried melatonin.
The majority of complaints relating to melatonin can be easily avoided. Understanding the proper dosage and the proper timing is critical for its successful use. The first crucial piece of information one must know about melatonin is that it is released in a cyclical pattern on a daily basis. Every night the brain releases a certain amount of melatonin that peaks for 3 to 4 hours and then slowly reduces throughout the night. Any residual melatonin gets diminished when you are exposed to light.
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It is crucial that the timing of the melatonin dosage does not conflict with what your body releases naturally. The only time you want to do this is if you were traveling to new time zone for more than a few days and want to reset your internal clock. This is a common way to reduce jet leg symptoms. What people don’t know is that taking melatonin at the wrong time can cause jet lag symptoms.
The second consideration when taking melatonin is dosage. The natural release of melatonin occurs slowly throughout the night. Looking at this plotted on a graph appears like a gentle sloping hill. When taking a standard dosage of melatonin, this graph looks like a high mountain peak. This peak is much higher and faster than what happens naturally. It is assumed that this high peak is what causes restless sleep and strange dreams, and the rapid decline from this peak is what causes many people to wake after 4 hours of sleep. Exposure to light, both natural and man made, will reduce the amount of melatonin.
[threecol_two]Reducing the amount of light you are exposed to at night may really help maintain healthy melatonin levels. Being consistent with exposure to light may be as important as the brightness of the light. Having a bathroom nightlight is preferred over momentary exposure to a bright light.
If you wake up in the middle the night, never take melatonin to help you go back to sleep. There are many natural supplement items that are helpful for this situation, melatonin is not one of them. A timed, low dosage and controlled released approach should result in the successful use of melatonin. This may take some trial and error to find the right mix, but it will be well worth the effort.[/threecol_two]
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I take 2-3 drops before bed and then read for a while. When I put my book down 30 to 60 minutes later, I’ll either fall right to sleep, or take anther 2-3 drops. Taking melatonin at two intervals like this will better match what’s produced naturally in the brain. Starting with two drops is 1/20th of the 3 mg dosage that most products supply. Taking 2 drops twice will be 1/10th that dosage. Start with that for the fist few days and see what happens.