Natural Sleep Aids – Melatonin vs. Nitric Oxide

Dr. Lisa Shives, the founder of Northshore Sleep Medicine, wrote an article on CNN.com’s Health section entitled, Get Some Sleep: Melatonin’s a Great Solution – For Some, about the effectiveness of melatonin as a sleep aid.

Here’s my opinion on melatonin…

Fifty-eight percent of adults past age 59 report difficulties sleeping a few nights a week. Melatonin used as a sublingual liquid or tablet that dissolves in the mouth is more effective than swallowing a pill where the activity of melatonin reaches the gut, so late that the peak could be by morning, when one needs to wake up, resulting in a groggy feeling. It is also important to create a dark room, not even allowing a clock light to reach the eyes. Light depletes nearly 50% of the melatonin level, even if one turns the light on at night for less than three seconds!

Although higher levels of growth hormone can also assist sleep, the best way to augment sleep is to increase nitric oxide levels to overcome insomnia. According to the European Journal of Neuroscience, nitric oxide improves recovery sleep, if you were up too late the night before. Insomnia lowers nitric oxide levels. Low nitric oxide levels worsen insomnia. It is a vicious cycle. This process of aging impairs the way in which nitric oxide in the brain induces sleep. We can replace nitric oxide with specific ingredients in a supplement and nitrite rich food to restore nitric oxide on a daily basis. By the third day, the nitric oxide levels in your body will be increasing sufficient in my experience to improve sleep. The more time you go into deep sleep when rapid eye movement (REM) occurs, the more of the enzyme -neuronal nitric oxide synthase (nNOS)- triggers the production of more nitric oxide. Longer periods of REM will result in more nitric oxide production and better sleep, better sex, reduced blood pressure and lower fat triglycerides in the blood.