My deep rest cocktail (minus melatonin)
And week two of resensitization training
Howdy doody, frens!
Let’s get to it. For paid subscribers, scroll down for week two resensitization training!
My late afternoon/early evening relaxation cocktail — minus the melatonin
Recently, I’ve had more and more friends tell me about the crappy quality of sleep they’re getting… and how they’re trying to combat it.
My first question: Are you using melatonin?
The answer is almost always “yes.”
My reply is 100% always, “Shut that sh*t down.”
Frens, melatonin is great at helping you fall asleep. But so is a cast iron skillet to the head.
In fact, just about the only other thing worse for preventing quality deep rest cycles is alcohol.
Again, enough alcohol — as I can attest - will knock you out, but the next morning you’ll feel you got knocked out… by Mike Tyson. If you must drink, keep it to one drink before 6 p.m. but it is very dangerous to mix melatonin with alcohol.
Back to melatonin.
It’s in nearly every sleep product out there (including for calming pets) and doing way more harm than good.
When I lived in Sweden you needed a medical prescription for melatonin and the dose would never be as high as you can buy on the shelves along with your Oreos in the U.S.
Melatonin is a HORMONE, folks. And the dosage sizes in the U.S. are waaaay supersized.
Always remember that supplements are the Wild West in the States… there is no oversight for these products. You can thank the departed Sen. Orrin Hatch (R) for that one.
The odds are rarely in your favor when it comes to vitamins and supplements.
In 2015, the New York Attorney General found that 80% of the herbal supplements sold at GNC, Target, Walmart, and Walgreens didn’t contain what their labels indicated.
It is a known secret in the fitness world that many supplement manufacturers use fillers like sawdust, salts, sugars, starches, and much worse for their miracle products.
I lost the plot again.
Back to melatonin and why you shouldn’t take it if your goal is deep rest vs. falling asleep.
Why is eight hours of sleep the default recommendation? Because the normally coordinated functioning of human homeostatic and circadian processes work optimally at eight hours of sleep and 16 hours of wakefulness.
Melatonin is not sedation but a reduction in the evening circadian arousal.1
The Psychiatric Times writes:
“A darker side of both endogenous and exogenous melatonin has been emerging in recent years with investigations of circadian rhythms and metabolism, specifically examining glucose tolerance, insulin release and sensitivity, weight gain, and the timing of food intake.2
Even very low doses result in blood levels hundreds to thousands of time higher than the normal endogenous circulating amount.”
A 2017 study published in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine analyzed 31 melatonin supplements and found that the amount of melatonin they contained often varied wildly from what was listed on the label. The hormone serotonin was also detected in 26% of the samples analyzed. This could be potentially harmful for some people, particularly those who are taking selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), antidepressants that increase serotonin levels in the brain.
Even if you get a legit product, the 3-6mg you’re taking is exponentially more than what you would need to adjust circadian rhythms to coerce your body into thinking it’s sleepytime.
Finally, the reason my friends still feel wrecked after taking melatonin is because it wears off… you may fall asleep but you will more than likely have disruptive sleep or end up waking up more often, thus reducing your deep sleep.
I’m not saying to never take melatonin (especially if blind, a shift worker, extremely jet lagged, etc), BUT much less is more effective and I would really talk to a sleep doctor first. Too many contraindications to be messing around with that stuff. And this is coming from someone who messes around with way too much stuff.
Check any sleep supplements you might be taking for melatonin. In the meantime…