She says patients with disrupted rhythms have worse overall survival rates than patients who maintain more regular cycles. Liz Cash, an assistant professor at the University of Louisville, studies circadian rhythms in people with cancer. Some commercially-available supplements have issues with quality control as well.īut keeping our circadian rhythms regular can have important health implications. The hormone may not actually induce better sleep, though, and the effects are modest at best. It has become popular among those looking for a good night’s rest. Melatonin signals our brains that it’s dark out, and to prepare for sleep.
Melatonin is produced by the body, and it’s part of our circadian rhythms, internal cycles of alertness and drowsiness that operate on a roughly 24-hour timetable. Other people opt for a different route with melatonin, a hormone that tells our brains it’s time to sleep. Feeling sluggish the next day might lead people to consume more caffeine, making sleep difficult and perpetuating the cycle. These hypnotic drugs can actually restrict the deeper brain waves produced during REM sleep, leading to grogginess and forgetfulness the following morning. While taking drugs like Ambien may help you become unconscious, sedation is not the same as sleep. As neuroscientist and “sleep diplomat” Matthew Walker explains in his 2017 bestseller Why We Sleep : “Sleeping pills do not provide natural sleep, can damage health, and increase the risk of life-threatening diseases.” Low levels of GABA have also been linked to insomnia and anxiety.īut sleeping pills might not be the best path to a healthier relationship with sleep. Almost every drug that makes you drowsy, from barbiturates to benzos to valerian root to alcohol, utilizes this chemical. GABA helps to quiet down the activity of neurons in our brains, and it’s an important part of our sleep cycles. The New SandmanĪll sleep aids work in essentially the same way, by boosting production of a neurotransmitter known as GABA. But whether they actually help is a different question. Contemporary drugs like Ambien, an insomnia drug, or melatonin, a sleep-related hormone the body naturally produces, make up an industry generating $70 billion per year. Home remedies like extracts of valerian root, a pinkish-white flower, have existed in North America since the mid-19th century. Naturally, there are medications that aim to fix this problem. But good sleep is increasingly a privilege, as stress, workloads and the trappings of a modern lifestyle squeeze out valuable shut-eye. Poor sleep is linked to all-cause mortality, which means getting too little or too much sleep are “significant predictors of death,” according to a 2010 meta-analysis study. The importance of a good night’s rest cannot be overstated.
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