How do you feel when the lights go off and your room gets filled with darkness? How many of you knew that your brain produces a hormone when your body gets exposed to darkness? Also, how does your body know that it’s time to sleep and time to wake up? How does your body regulate to the sleep-awake cycle? So many questions, right? Let us decode them right now.
What Is melatonin?
Heard of this word before? Well, Melatonin is a hormone produced by the brain. This hormone is responsible for setting the body to the 24-hour internal clock of sleep and waking up. Naturally, the levels of melatonin are high during the night or otherwise darkness triggers the production of melatonin in the body.
We might have heard people say they have trouble sleeping at night. This could be because the body is producing less melatonin. Let us understand this hormone in detail.
How Does melatonin work in your body?
The melatonin level usually starts rising after the sun sets and stays high throughout the night. As the day arises, the melatonin level drops down and wakes the body up. Production of melatonin is associated with the amount of light in the space you usually sleep. If you have observed your winters or rainy days, you tend to sleep more when compared to other days. The reason for this is it is mostly darker outside. As we grow old, the production of melatonin also decreases and hence, the quality and time of sleep is low.
What are the health benefits after you take melatonin?
Melatonin is produced by pineal gland in the brain which is of a pea size. There are several benefits of melatonin to our body apart from regulating sleep and wake time. Let us understand the health benefits of melatonin in detail.
-Sleep Faster and Better
Another name for melatonin is sleep hormone. Melatonin supplement is the best and natural remedy for sleep disorders. It also supports faster and better sleep quality.
-Brighten Your Vision
Melatonin is present in the retinal never cell. It brightens the vision especially during the night time. Poor melatonin secretion results in poor vision. In cases of poor melatonin secretion, a melatonin supplement is recommended.
-Preventing Age-Related Macular Degeneration
What is AMD or age-related macular degeneration? It is a leading cause of severe visual loss in people who are aged. The researches show that melatonin has the capacity to control eye pigmentation and can regulate the amount of light reaching the photoreceptors and protects the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) cells from damage. Increasing the melatonin is the best way to treat AMD.
-Boosts Immune System
Experts say that melatonin has the capacity to boost the cellular immunity. Melatonin is secreted in the cells of the immune system and apparently it sends signals to the immune system. This itself has powers to guard the body against several pathogens ranging from viruses to cancer cells.
-Help Relieve Headaches
Migraine is one of the most common problems we face in today’s time. Migraine or headaches are prolonged pains that makes it very difficult for us to keep our daily activities going. For some people, migraine attacks are chronic and recurs very frequently and can last for about 72 hours. Imbalance in the brain chemicals can also be the reason for severe migraine and gets triggered either for no sleep, low sleep or more sleep. Medical tests on some people have shown people suffering from migraines usually have lower levels of melatonin. Hence, melatonin supplement helps treat or prevent headache or migraines.
-Potential in Alzheimer’s Prevention and Treatment
Alzheimer diseases (AD) comes with sleep issues. Well, as people age, they are deprived of sleep. But with dementia it gets even harder. They usually feel sleepy during the day and find it difficult to fall asleep during the night. This uneven sleep causes mental exhaustion, change in the sleep pattern, and disorientation. Doctors usually advice such cases with melatonin supplement to induce sleep and support people with Alzheimer’s.
Does Melatonin affect blood pressure?
Functioning of the blood pressure defines working of the heart. There are two types in it – high blood pressure and low blood pressure. High blood pressure otherwise known as hypertension causes severe heart conditions like heart attack, and stroke. It is also one of the reasons for headaches, dizziness, shortness of breath, and chest ache. Blood pressure levels usually varies several times in a day and this changes from one person to another. Subscribed melatonin supplement comes to rescue by reducing the blood pressure especially in hypertension cases.
What are the advantages of Melatonin over other sleep agents?
Why melatonin when there are so many other sleep-inducing agents available out in the market? Well, take a look at the reasons below.
- Melatonin does not cause addiction where as other sleep-inducing agents make people dependent on it to fall asleep every night.
- Sleep-inducing agents causes hangover or morning sickness, whereas melatonin has no such effects
- Melatonin does not cause withdrawals or headaches even if consumed on a daily basis
Conclusion
One of the best characteristics of melatonin is that it is a natural aid for sleep disorders and has no side or ill effects even if consumed on a daily basis. It is not a sleeping pill or has no such qualities of it, but it naturally activates our sleep hormones and regulates the sleep-wake cycle. It is advised to take a doctor’s opinion before consuming melatonin for the dosage and it is absolutely safe to include melatonin supplement in our daily diet.
