Natural Sleeping Aids: Do they Help?
If you’ve had insomnia for a long time, you have probably tried one or more sleep preparation. Some of these are addictive medications you can only get by prescription, while others are more natural medications you can get at a health food store or from a herbologist. The prescription medications work but are riddled with addiction and physical dependency; you can get daytime sleepiness, irritability and lack of memory during the day from these medications. Fortunately, there are many natural sleeping medications you can use in order to help you sleep without the dependence and addiction of the prescription medications. Think about trying some of these.
Melatonin
Melatonin can help you reset your biological or circadian rhythm around sleep by providing you with a hormone that is found in your pituitary gland. Normally your pituitary puts out this hormone based upon the amount of light you receive. If you are blind or if you are suffering from jet lag, then melatonin can reset your circadian rhythm and you’ll sleep better. You can get melatonin in sleep form at your local grocery store or health food store and you can take it when you want to go to sleep, mimicking the condition of darkness.
Tryptophan
This is an amino acid that acts like a precursor to serotonin. Serotonin, in higher doses, makes you feel tired and a lack of serotonin leads to depression, anxiety and irritability. You can eat more tryptophan in your diet in things like turkey, red meats, and fish, and in cottage cheese, milk, eggs, yoghurt, sunflower seeds, peanut and pumpkin seeds. You can also use tryptophan supplements to increase your serotonin stores in your body.
Magnesium
If you are a worrier or are excessively nervous, interfering with your sleep, you might be suffering from a magnesium deficiency. A lack of magnesium also causes leg cramps that interfere with sleep so you have more of a reason not to sleep. Taking magnesium sleep aids can help the leg cramps and can help you feel calm enough to sleep. You can also eat foods that have a lot of Magnesium in them, including nuts, beans, artichokes, pumpkin seeds and fresh tomatoes.
Grains also have a lot of magnesium in them and foods that contain buckwheat flour, barley, wheat flour, and oat bran also are good sources of magnesium. Foods containing these items in it will relax you and will calm your mind. A calm mind allows you to sleep better. If the foods are not strong enough, consider taking Magnesium supplements from the health food store.
