Latest news with #JadeWu
National Geographic
24-07-2025
- Health
- National Geographic
Is it possible to take too much melatonin? We asked the experts.
Melatonin is a widely used supplement, touted for its sleep inducing effects. However, experts say the benefits only apply in certain situations—and as a result, it has been banned from being sold over the counter in various other countries including the United Kingdom, where it is only available as a prescription medication. Photograph by Rebecca Hale, National Geographic If you've ever taken a melatonin supplement as a last-ditch attempt to save your sleep, you're in good company: Research suggests people in the U.S. have steadily reached for more melatonin over the past couple of decades, and an American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM) survey estimates that roughly two-thirds of U.S. adults have used some form of melatonin to help them drift off. The appeal is undeniable: Your brain naturally makes this hormone to regulate your sleep-wake cycle. The synthetic form of melatonin usually found in supplements is a relatively low-risk substance for adults, plus it's available over the counter. Package this into a trendy bottle brimming with colorful gummies (with plenty of endorsements from 'wellness' influencers), and you're giving the chronically exhausted a glimmer of hope for better rest. 'People can become quite desperate,' says Jade Wu, a behavioral sleep medicine psychologist and the author of Hello Sleep. 'I don't blame them for trying whatever they can. And they're trying really hard to not abuse prescription medication.' (What's in melatonin—and is it giving you nightmares?) When a low dose of those melatonin gummies doesn't actually stop them from tossing and turning, many of these sleep-deprived people are mainlining higher and higher doses. But Wu, among other sleep experts, says melatonin is a widely misunderstood hormone. Taking it as a supplement night after night doesn't necessarily translate to better sleep—and for most people, neither does taking larger amounts of it. Which begs the question: Are we taking melatonin too often, and at too high of doses? Here's what the science says so far. How melatonin influences sleep Your body relies on two systems to help you sleep, says Joshua Tal, a clinical psychologist specializing in sleep therapy in New York City. The first is your homeostatic sleep drive, or sleep pressure, a physiological process that kicks in after you wake up. As the day progresses, it drives your need for sleep, a bit like hunger drives your need for food, Tal explains. Melatonin influences the second system: the circadian rhythm, or your body's internal clock. The average adult needs about eight hours of sleep each day; your circadian rhythm organizes when you achieve this rest. (Are you a 'lark' or an 'owl'? Your body clock holds the answer.) 'While the homeostatic drive promotes how much sleep we need, the circadian rhythm optimizes our ability to achieve that sleep at nighttime,' says sleep medicine specialist David Nelson Neubauer, an associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center. As you get closer to your typical bedtime, a small part of your brain—the suprachiasmatic nucleus, or 'the master timekeeper,' per Neubauer—regulates the release of melatonin into your bloodstream via your pineal gland. This suppresses your alertness, which indirectly helps you doze off because your body is being told it's time to be less active. Your melatonin levels stay high throughout the night, and then start to subside in the early morning hours. What we often misunderstand about melatonin Prescription sleep medications, including benzodiazepines like Valium and 'Z' drugs like Ambien, are sedatives; they have a deeply tranquilizing effect. They're easy to misuse and notoriously habit-forming when taken long-term. (Your brain 'washes' itself at night. Sleep aids may get in the way.) By contrast, a melatonin supplement may facilitate the processes that help you fall asleep, but it won't make you stay asleep. 'A lot of people think of melatonin as a kind of sleeping pill, but it is not sedating,' Neubauer says. 'It is more of a signal to your circadian rhythm.' Taking melatonin can work 'phenomenally well' if you have to get to bed at odd hours—say, if you're a night shift worker trying to sleep during the day or a traveler suffering from jet lag, says James K. Wyatt, director of the Section of Sleep Disorders and Sleep-Wake Research at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago. It can also be effective for people with a circadian rhythm disorder or delayed sleep phase who have trouble falling asleep early enough to wake up during typical morning hours. Otherwise, for the average person, Wyatt says a melatonin supplement probably won't do much to improve sleep. While studies have yielded mixed results, Tal notes their findings suggest melatonin likely works no better than a placebo for insomnia (when you have trouble falling asleep, staying asleep, or both). Both the AASM and the American College of Physicians also maintain there's not enough evidence to recommend melatonin supplements as a safe or initial treatment for insomnia. Can you take 'too much' melatonin? Much of the data scientists have on melatonin is based on a low dose of around 0.3 to 1 milligram, which is close to what our bodies naturally produce. The average supplement claims to offer between 3 to 5 milligrams, which may seem high at first. 'Nearly every drug has a 'dose response curve.' The bigger the dose, the bigger the effect,' Wyatt explains. But melatonin's curve is pretty flat because it doesn't work like a typical sleep medication in the body. Taking 3 milligrams versus 0.3 milligrams of melatonin, for instance, is 'mostly irrelevant from a clinical point of view,' Neubauer notes. So taking a higher dose likely won't make a difference in helping you fall asleep. (Some exceptions: Studies suggest higher doses may be beneficial for children with autism and folks with Parkinson's disease.) (More parents are using sleep aids for their kids. Experts say they shouldn't.) Yet supplements can pack a lot more—or less—melatonin than their bottles claim. One 2023 analysis found that, of 25 melatonin gummies on the market, a majority were stuffed with much more melatonin than what was listed on the label. One brand claimed to offer 3 mg per serving, but actually contained 10 mg; another melatonin/CBD hybrid contained no melatonin at all but exceeded its proposed level of CBD. A slightly larger dose of melatonin (think: a serving size difference in the single digits) likely won't be harmful for most adults, but people also tend to have a more-is-more mentality with supplements, Wu notes. All the sleep experts interviewed for this article say they've had patients who came to them after taking high doses of melatonin, sometimes upwards of 30 mg a night, which can up the risk of unpleasant side effects like headaches, grogginess, nausea, dizziness, and vivid dreams or nightmares—not exactly soothing. As for whether it's possible to 'overdose' on melatonin? There's no scientific consensus on what that exact amount would be for adults. Taking a high dose like 30 mg and up probably won't make you feel great, but it's very rarely life-threatening. (The story is different for children, who can end up in the hospital due to more serious toxicity risks.) Given a lack of longitudinal data, we also don't know whether there are negative long-term effects of taking melatonin, Wyatt says. Ideally, scientists would regularly give the same group of study participants melatonin or a placebo, follow them over decades, and document the effects. But funding this research is expensive and tough to pull off even for strictly regulated prescription medications, let alone a supplement, he notes. What to keep in mind if you're melatonin-curious It's never a bad idea to support your body's natural production of melatonin, Neubauer says. To do that without supplements, opt for dim and warm lighting at nighttime, avoid screens before bed if they're overstimulating to you, and do your best to get a dose of natural sunlight shortly after you wake up, as well as throughout the day. (Light pollution is harming our health.) If taking a supplement makes sense for your situation because you travel a lot or work the night shift, know that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration doesn't regulate melatonin in the same way it rigorously regulates drugs, which opens the door for flashy marketing claims that aren't scientifically up to snuff, according to Pieter Cohen, an associate professor of medicine who researches the safety of supplements at Harvard Medical School. That's why he recommends looking for a product that's been independently tested by a third-party lab, like USP or NSF. The good news is, melatonin supplements don't pose the same risk for physical dependency like sleep medications do, Tal says. So you could try melatonin without experiencing physical withdrawal symptoms or rebound insomnia when you stop taking it. But there's a flipside to be aware of: Experts agree that you can become psychologically dependent on having a gummy each night (or doing any pre-sleep ritual, for that matter). Many sleep problems are rooted in anxiety about falling and staying asleep, Tal explains. So when you take something that promises to ease that process—whether it be melatonin or another 'natural' sleep aid—you give yourself the mental greenlight to relax and doze off, creating a positive association between that behavior and snoozing away. This powerful placebo effect is not necessarily harmful unless it's potentially masking a bigger problem. If you have undiagnosed sleep apnea, for example, you could be delaying a more effective treatment plan if you head for the supplement aisle before your doctor's office, Neubauer says. The same goes for insomnia: The gold-standard treatment is cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia, not medication or supplements, Wyatt notes. 'Melatonin is not a panacea for all sleep problems, and it could even backfire depending on what your actual sleep problem is,' Wu says. 'So let's slow down from the quick fixes and figure out what the issue is in the first place. That's where a sleep professional can be really helpful.'
Yahoo
05-03-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Resistance training is the right way to tire your brain and body for better sleep, according to a study
Sign up for CNN's Sleep, But Better newsletter series. Our seven-part guide has helpful hints to achieve better sleep. Want better sleep in your older years? Time to grab some weights. Exercise, but particularly those workouts that incorporate resistance to improve muscular strength, can be helpful for older adults with insomnia, according to a new study. Insomnia can be a big problem, especially as you get older. 'Between 30% and 48% of seniors complain of sleepiness, while 12–20% have insomnia problems,' said the authors in the study published Tuesday in the journal BMJ Family Medicine and Community Health. And sleeplessness has been linked to conditions including depression, anxiety and metabolic syndromes, the study added. The research was a meta-analysis that looked at 25 studies between 1996 and 2021. The analysis investigated exercise and sleep data from 2,170 people who were at least 60 years old, according to the research. 'The outcomes of this study indicate that strengthening exercise is the most efficacious among others, followed by aerobic exercise and combination exercise,' the authors wrote. 'Nevertheless, all these types of exercise improve sleep quality.' When it comes to giving advice on how to get the best sleep, a meta-analysis-style study has both strengths and weaknesses, said Dr. Jade Wu, a sleep psychologist and founder of Thrive Sleep Clinic in Durham, North Carolina, who was not involved in the research. The researchers aggregated data from many studies, ending up with a larger pool of people, so the results are less likely to be biased or a fluke, she said. But because each study has a different methodology, it's difficult to get specific on the exact impact each exercise has on sleep. However, it would make sense that older adults who do resistance training would sleep better, Wu said. 'Sleep is essentially recovery for wear and tear on the body that has occurred during the day,' she said. 'Resistance training puts literal wear and tear on muscles, so sleep is needed to repair and grow those muscles. 'Learning new movements also builds new pathways in the brain and encourages sleep, because we rehearse new things we learn during certain stages of sleep. In short, resistance training very effectively 'earns' sleep,' Wu said. Resistance exercise has also been shown in previous studies to reduce blood pressure, improve blood sugar, improve cholesterol, increase leg strength, reduce depression and anxiety, and improve quality of life, added Dr. Shalini Paruthi via email. Paruthi is an adjunct professor at the Saint Louis University School of Medicine and sleep medicine attending physician at the John Cochran VA Medical Center, also in St. Louis. She was not involved in the study. That said, it might not be the kind of exercise you are doing that makes the difference for insomnia, but more so if you can find a form that you can do consistently, said Dr. Rachel Salas, sleep neurologist at the Johns Hopkins Center for Sleep and Wellness in Columbia, Maryland. She was not involved in the research. 'Resistance training may be a good option for many people, because it's not intense. There's not a risk of falling,' she said. 'There are caveats that we think about in older adults.' Paruthi added that as long as you are getting activity, you should see improvement in your sleep. 'Exercise works out the mind just as much as it works out the body, and this has a positive effect on improving the ability to fall asleep and stay asleep, as well as sleep quality,' she said. Insomnia isn't a problem reserved for older adults, Paruthi said. Most people will likely find themselves having difficulty with sleep in some or many periods of their life. Exercise is one of many strategies you can focus on to improve your sleep. 'There are several strategies to start with, the first being to make sure the environment is conducive to sleep, ie dark, quiet, cool bedroom and electronics put away 30-60 minutes before turning off the lights,' Paruthi said via email. Sticking with a schedule also can help regulate your circadian rhythm, or internal biological 24-hour clock, Salas added. 'We always talk to patients about having a consistent bedtime and a consistent waking time, but I tend to go even further and really encourage patients to eat a consistent time and exercise at consistent times on a daily basis,' she said. Light stretching before bed can be a great idea to relax stiff muscles and signal to your body that it's time to wind down, she added. Some sleep problems might indicate a medical problem, such as obstructive sleep apnea or restless legs syndrome, Paruthi said. 'If sleep continues to be a problem after 2 weeks, it is important to seek out the advice of your primary care physician or seek out a board certified sleep physician who can help you figure out what is going on with your sleep and recommend appropriate effective, evidence-based treatments,' she said in an email.
Vox
19-02-2025
- Health
- Vox
Is our sleep getting worse?
It's a biological fact of life. The birds do it. The bees do it. Even we do it. No, not that . I'm talking, of course, about sleep, that vital state that lets us recharge and even cleanses the day's toxins from our brains. But what happens when it doesn't come easily? And why do some people have an easier time falling and staying asleep than others? Those are just some of the questions we answer on this week's episode of Explain It to Me , Vox's go-to hotline for all the questions you can't quite answer on your own. To get to the root of what's keeping you up at night, we spoke with Jade Wu, a sleep psychologist who specializes in helping people with insomnia. So what constitutes a good sleeper? 'It's more complicated than you would guess, ' Wu says. 'We think of getting enough sleep as important for good sleep. But believe it or not, recently some big studies have found that the timing of your sleep can maybe matter even more.' 'If we follow middle-aged people into older age, those who sleep more at more consistent times from day-to-day have lower risk of cancer, heart disease, dementia, and overall mortality,' Wu says. 'So it's about timing, it's about quality, it's about quantity, and a host of other factors.' What are those factors? That's what we tackle this week . Below is an excerpt of our conversation, edited for length and clarity. You can listen to Explain It to Me on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get podcasts. If you'd like to submit a question, send an email to askvox@ or call 1-800-618-8545. What are the big sleep dysfunctions? The most common problem I see is insomnia, which is just trouble falling asleep or staying asleep. And that can be from a variety of sources. A lot of times it's a life stage issue. For example, a lot of women experience sleep disruption during perimenopause and menopause. And if you go through a job loss or you move or you go to a really fun bachelor party and you don't sleep for three nights in a row, then you find you can't get yourself back on track with sleep. Insomnia is really in the eye of the beholder. There's not a number cutoff, like say, you take an hour to fall asleep or you have to be awake for two hours during the night to qualify. It's really if you feel like you're taking a long time to fall asleep or back to sleep, or you feel like your sleep is very restless or non-restorative. If it's been happening for more than a few weeks and it's really interfering with your functioning, then it's insomnia. If it's been happening for more than a few weeks and it's really interfering with your functioning, then it's insomnia. Another big issue is daytime sleepiness. This is kind of the opposite problem, where it's not that you can't fall asleep: It's that you can't stay awake really well during the day. And this can be from a variety of sources, too. The most common is probably sleep apnea, which is a sleep disorder characterized by repeated episodes of breathing cessation or shallow breathing during sleep. And this affects everybody. It's not just older folks. It's not just people who are overweight or obese. Women actually are under-diagnosed by a significant margin — something like eight or nine out of 10 women with sleep apnea are not diagnosed. That can cause daytime sleepiness, and be a burden to your heart health and brain health. It's a really important topic that people don't pay enough attention to. And then there are kind of more colorful sleep issues, like sleep paralysis, sleep hallucinations, sleepwalking — more of unusual things that happen at night. We got a call from a listener named Skylar who is curious about sleep chronotypes — the time of day your body naturally winds down and falls asleep. They're a night owl and they want to know if there's a trend toward being more accommodating to people who aren't early birds. I feel you, Skylar. I am a night owl, too, by nature. And I absolutely agree that society should be more understanding towards us night owls, because there is nothing inherently wrong with it. We all have our own chronotype: It's like height. It's kind of a bell-shaped curve. Mostly people are in the middle, and then some people are extreme morning people. Some people are extreme night owls. But society is designed by and for morning people. Those of us who are night owls struggle and we don't get to sleep at our optimal time; we often don't get enough sleep. If you think about it evolutionarily, a tribe of early humans needed a diversity in sleep timing for everyone to stay safe. Let's say everybody fell asleep at the exact same time, slept through the night, and woke up at the same that's easy pickings for a saber-toothed tiger. We night owls should be saying, 'You're welcome' for keeping watch so the rest of you can sleep safely and soundly. What makes someone like Skylar a night owl? What determines where on that bell curve of sleep people land? A lot of it is genetic. Melatonin is a time-keeping hormone that our brains release. It usually ramps up in the evening, stays high through the night, and then kind of goes away in the mornings. It signals to the whole body that it's time to shut down the factories and rest and sleep, or that it's time to ramp up and get started for the day. We night owls should be saying, 'You're welcome' for keeping watch so the rest of you can sleep safely and soundly. For those of us who are night owls, our melatonin curve starts later and then goes away later, too. So when other people are already soundly asleep, our melatonin curves are still acting as if it's still daytime. And then in the early mornings, when other people are ready and raring to go, our melatonin is still high in our system, telling us it's still nighttime. On an individual level, there are things we can do to shift our chronotypes to better kind of fake it as a morning person and to have an easier time waking up. What advice do you have for people like Skylar, who are night owls living in a world that's very 9-to-5? Well, Skylar, if you can swing it, live on the East Coast and work for a company on the West Coast remotely. That's the ideal situation. I've had patients actually do that. But if you can't swing that, the best thing is to get lots of bright light first thing in the morning. Ideally, as soon as you wake up, either use a light box or go outside. It's not enough to just open your shades or curtains. You have to actually be in broad spectrum — full sunlight for about 20 minutes. And that really helps your brain wake up and teach your circadian rhythm to start the day earlier, and to also release that melatonin earlier in the evening too. The thing about sleep is that it's universal. Everybody needs it. But so many people have sleep problems. Why do you think it is? What is it that's so tricky about sleep? There are so many reasons. I think we probably don't have enough time to do the whole thing. But I'd love to get on a soapbox sometime and talk about capitalism — and how that has shaped … I love soapboxes. Yes. Climb on up there, girl. When the Western world at least industrialized, we took on this, eight hours for work, eight hours for sleep, and eight hours for whatever you will kind of slogan. And so we started taking on expectations and constraints around our sleep that we didn't have before. Do we sleep worse than we used to now? I think of all the screentime we have. I imagine that we probably are a little bit worse at sleep because of everything from the 24/7 access to information we have, to little dopamine hits, to bright lights in the middle of the night, to all of these technology-enabled distractions that can really keep us up when we ought to be sleeping. Why is getting good sleep so important? What does that do for us? I consider it equivalent to nutrition in terms of how much it impacts our health and well-being. We really can't function well without this basic biological drive satisfied. And when it's not well satisfied, it impacts our physical health, our mental health, our performance, our functioning, our relationships, our sense of creativity, our connections with other people. It just impacts everything. See More: Even Better Explain It to Me Life Science Sleep
