Furthermore, sleeping pills don't work. Called "dangerously over prescribed" by Ralph Nader's Public Citizen organization and "one of the biggest rip-offs in the drugstore" by The Berkeley Wellness Letter, still each year in the United States people take two to three billion doses of them. Thousands of deaths and far more illnesses and nonfatal accidents result directly from the use of these products or from their interaction with alcohol or tranquilizers. What's more, research conducted by the National Academy of Science's Institute of Medicine found that practically all sleeping pills lose their sleep promoting effectiveness after 3-14 days of continuous use. Ironically, sleeping medications do not produce real sleep. They interrupt natural sleeping patterns and, simply put, they knock the user out by deadening the nervous system. In the meantime, the FDA has pulled l-tryptophan, a miracle worker for some, off the market. What do you do if you can't sleep?

With millions of persons unable to get a good night's sleep since the disappearance of tryptophan, it was really only a matter of time until research scientists in the natural foods industry put their fingers on the pulse of this need and satisfied it. Recently a new, natural and totally safe sleep inducer appeared on heal food store shelves around the country. It is melatonin (mel a toe' nin). If the word sounds familiar to you, it should. Melatonin occurs naturally in our bodies as a hormone secreted by the pineal gland. Tryptophan is the raw material for this hormone. Tryptophan, an essential amino acid, becomes serotonin, the soothing neurotransmitter, which through enzymatic action becomes melatonin. For sleep, most people need 500-2000 mg of tryptophan. Melatonin is available in 3 mg tablets, and in most cases 3-6 mg is all that is needed to rest you gently. However, sleep is not the main job of melatonin. In fact, sleep could be considered a happy by-product. Through melatonin, the pineal conditions the internal environment, setting and maintaining the internal clocks that govern the natural rhythms of body functions. In fact, some researchers have suggested that melatonin be called a chronobiotic, a substance that alters and normalizes biological rhythms. The pineal gland itself responds to a larger clock: the sun. The release of melatonin follows a circadian rhythm, rising and falling in a 24 hour pattern. The enzymes that convert serotonin into   melatonin and inhibit that conversion are synchronized by darkness and light. Darkness increases pineal activity and melatonin is synthesized and released. Bright light depresses these activities and  melatonin   may be barely measurable. It is thought that high  melatonin levels may be the influence that causes babies and children to be such sound, even profound, sleepers. Nocturnal melatonin levels and the quality of sleep both decline at puberty. In the later years, levels are very low and the concomitant sleeping problems of the elderly are legend. It appears that supplementary melatonin may bring relief. Several studies have demonstrated that supplementary melatonin has tranquilizing and sleep-inducing effects. An article in Psychopharmacology describing sleep laboratory investigations of melatonin reported that high doses given to healthy subjects accelerated sleep initiation and improved sleep maintenance without morning "hangover problems." In other studies, volunteers experienced increased alpha brain wave activity and a feeling of well-being and elation which persisted for several hours.  Melatonin also increased REM sleep time and resulted in increased and vivid dream episodes. Researchers writing for Medical Hypotheses surmised that melatonin may induce slow-wave sleep. This is a deeply restful type of sleep during which repair of damaged tissue takes place. It is also a type of sleep which declines with age. Because the neurochemical and neuropsychological features of senile dementia resemble some effects of melatonin deficiency, nightly supplementary  melatonin   has been suggested for prevention of this disease. There is some evidence to indicate that melatonin deficiency can also cause sleep problems such as insomnia, nightmares, and disturbing nocturnal hallucinations, plus daytime difficulties, including lassitude, dizziness, and depression. It appears that in some cases these factors may serve as symptoms of melatonin deficiency. In one particular case, a very dear friend of mine actually felt tortured by nightmares and nighttime hallucinations. She was completely confounded by what she believed must be some kind of psychological manifestation. Someone recommended (I can't take the credit) that she try melatonin supplementation. She did. Normal sleep was immediately resumed and she began to awake to an unexpected and agreeable sense of well-being.        

This effect in conjunction with the increased levels of serotonin which accompany increased melatonin also have beneficial indications for the treatment of depression, including depressions that are related to seasonal light variations such as SAD, seasonal affective disorder. In 1985, scientists researching depression proposed the existence of a low melatonin syndrome, resulting an ongoing depression without cyclic variation in symptoms. Their study was particularly interesting, revealing as it did that depressed individuals who had lost a parent before the age of 17 had lower melatonin levels that those who had not suffered such a loss. An investigation using correctly timed melatonin ingestion as an experimental treatment could result in useful implications for people who had lost parents or suffered other adolescent trauma. At this point we have discussed only the direct effects of melatonin use. However, the reality is that since melatonin appears to manage and adjust the timing of the body, its effects are very broad. Other critical processes and biomolecules (hormones, neurotransmitters, etc.) directly related to melatonin in turn exert numerous peripheral actions. Among those associated with melatonin deficiency or circadian disorganization are glucose intolerance, atherogenesis (the beginnings of lesions leading to narrowing of the arteries), impaired immune function (including AIDS), and cancer. We will be talking about melatonin and its implications in breast cancer on women's health concerns in an upcoming issue. Space and topic limitations impede our discussing each of these subjects on its own merits. However, you will recognize that these health problems considered together constitute a profile of aging. Of course, melatonin supplementation holds the greatest interest for the greatest number of people in the area of anti-aging. True it is that none of us is going to get out of here alive. However, as a population we are coming closer and closer to our natural lifespan of 110 years. To quote one centenarian, "If I had known I was going to live this long, I'd have taken better care of myself." There is a large body of circumstantial evidence supporting melatonin as an anti-aging substance. Several interesting indications involve laboratory animals. In one, researchers observing tumor-bearing animals given melatonin as an experimental protector against tumor growth noted, "...[ongoing] circadian, night administration of melatonin resulted in a progressive, striking improvement of the general state of the mice and, most important, in a remarkable prolongation of life... astonishing differences in the fur and in the general condition of the [subject] groups (vigor, activity, posture) became increasingly evident." In another study, blind rats lived longer also, ostensibly because of the darkness stimulation of the pineal gland. Perhaps the most persuasive argument for melatonin as an anti-aging substance is that pineal secretion decreases with age almost to the point of complete disappearance. Since its health effects are very broad, its disappearance also has significant implications. Many of these, like disturbed sleep, poor immune response, and diminished tissue repair, are considered to be symptoms of old age. Besides the possibility of reestablishing balanced melatonin levels in older people, supplementation may have potential for long-term preventive and age-retarding application in younger, healthy individuals. The optimal formula for stress recovery, immune enhancement, DNA repair, antioxidant activity and general anti-aging effects would probably include melatonin and its synergists: pyridoxine, riboflavin, zinc, vitamin A, and high dose niacinamide (to be taken in the evening or before bed). Such a formula is not currently on the market but if I can formulate it, it is just a matter of time before the real brains will get it onto the shelves at your health food store.

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