Natural ”sleep hormone” helps you wake up rested

Melatonin, a natural substance that gets produced in the human brain at night, is now available over-the-counter. This is great news to people who suffer from recurrent insomnia or individuals who do cross-Atlantic travelling all the time and tend to get jetlag.

People who routinely have problems falling asleep at night may find tremendous relief in melatonin, a natural “sleep hormone” that is now available in tablet form over-the-counter. The substance installs a restful and natural sleep, allowing you to wake up feeling fresh and invigorated. Unlike conventional sleeping drugs that can be habit-forming and tend to make you feel drowsy, melatonin stimulates the body’s natural sleep pattern and actually succeeds in making you sleep solidly through the entire night.

Great for jetlag and nightshifts

Melatonin is not only useful for people who have trouble sleeping at night, it even helps induce fatigue at periods where it would not normally feel natural to sleep, for instance in the daytime. This is very convenient for people who do a lot of cross-Atlantic travelling and suffer from jetlag, or for those who work nightshifts. In both cases, they upset their body’s built-in “clock” – the so-called circadian rhythm – which is why they have sleeping problems, in the first place.

Tricks your body

When you take melatonin, you produce fatigue by “tricking” the body into thinking that it is time to go to sleep. You are actually mimicking the natural process that causes you to yawn and feel like going to bed. At night, the human brain excretes melatonin in response to the darkness outside, and it is the melatonin release that causes you to feel sleepy. If, however, you confuse your regular rhythm by travelling across several time zones, or working at night, where your natural melatonin is inhibited due to exposure to artificial light, you may have to raise your melatonin levels artificially with a supplement.