The Morning Myth

by Frank J. Rumbauskas, Jr.

  Melatonin, contrary to popular belief, is neither an herb nor a supplement; it is a hormone that’s naturally produced in the human body via serotonin, magnesium, and other chemicals in the body. (That’s why many SSRI antidepressants, that act solely by increasing serotonin levels in the brain, also cause drowsiness as a side effect.)

  Melatonin is also perhaps the most misused of sleep aids due to the fact that it’s sold in tablet form at supraphysiological dosages, or in plain English, much, much more than is necessary or even desirable to take.

  On a recent trip to my local pharmacy I was looking for 0.3 mg melatonin tablets, or 300 mcg. No luck! The lowest dose I could find was 3 mg, or 10 times the dose I was seeking. They even had 10 mg tablets in the store! And yet, nothing remotely near safe and recommended doses.

  Your body’s melatonin production is regulated entirely by light. It’s a big reason that night owls are night owls; due to our innate circadian rhythms, our bodies begin to produce melatonin later and also stop producing it later. That’s why we fall asleep late and get up late. During winter when the days are short, or during dreary days in general, much of the sluggishness experienced by people comes from the lack of adequate sunlight needed to shut off melatonin production. This is why sleep therapy lights are so effective for waking up, and to some degree, even shifting your rhythm and wake time, although we’ve seen that it’s not possible to make any drastic changes there. You have what you were born with, and only small changes are possible, say, getting up one hour earlier. Maximum.

  Likewise, melatonin is the reason why light can keep so many of us awake, particularly night owls. I use blackout curtains in my bedroom and make sure any light sources, for example, the power light on my air purifier, are covered up with black tape. I don’t recommend the wake-up strategy of leaving your curtains and blinds open so the sunlight can come in and wake you in the morning, due to the fact that even trace amounts of light coming in can mess with your sleep. This is particularly true when there’s a full moon, or when it’s overcast out and urban light is reflecting back down.

  Start with taking 0.3 mg, or 300 mcg, about two hours before bedtime. A common mistake people make is to take it at bedtime; however, the body naturally begins to produce it after dark or once you’re home for the night under artificial lighting.

  If you have the problem of waking frequently through the night, sublingual melatonin supplements are available that are absorbed instantly into the bloodstream when allowed to melt under your tongue, getting you back to sleep very quickly. Another option is time-release melatonin, commonly available in stores, if you’re someone who wakes frequently throughout the night.

  Check with your doctor or pharmacist, or use an online drug interaction checker, to make sure melatonin won’t interfere with anything else you’re taking. In particular, anticlotting drugs such as Warfarin, immunosuppressants such as corticosteroids (prednisone), diabetes drugs, and birth control pills can cause interactions with melatonin.

  Finally, despite cautioning you on using too much melatonin, it is a very powerful antioxidant and is very good for your overall health. However, that doesn’t necessarily mean that more is better, unless you want to feel like a zombie in the morning!

  Good Sleep Hygiene

  Myriad books, articles, and what-have-you have been written on the importance of so-called sleep hygiene, and I’ll give you the run-down here, especially what works well for me, a night owl.

  Proper Lighting

  As mentioned, even low amounts of stray light can keep a night owl awake for hours. That’s why it’s so important to make sure you do what needs to be done to control nighttime light in your bedroom.

  I use blackout curtains and also close the blinds behind them, while blacking out any power buttons or other extraneous electronic light sources. My clock has very dim red lighting, which I keep so dim I can barely read the clock when I wake up and am still in that blurry and groggy state of having just awakened.

  Sleep masks are recommended and you should try it out and see what works best for you. I used them for a long time and then stopped, because of two reasons. One, having something on my head all night was enough to give me sleep problems and frequently wake me up, despite spending a small fortune on a super soft and comfortable sleep mask. Second, I frequently found myself waking up way, way too late with a sleep mask on. Even with the blackout curtains, I can still tell when it’s daylight out, and will check the clock; as long as it’s not six or some other crazy hour, I get up. With the sleep mask I would routinely wake up as much as two hours past my usual rising time, and on top of that, the unnecessary extra sleep would leave me feeling so groggy and brain-fogged that I would’ve been better off just fighting through a toss-and-turn night! Hence why I suggest that you try it out and see if it works for you or not.

  Finally, if you must keep a smartphone on your nightstand, make sure it’s on airplane mode and do-not-disturb, unless you’re on call for work. Also use a feature such as Night Shift on iPhone or one of the apps that can dim your backlight and remove the blue light element from it (more on that later), and keep the phone’s brightness at the minimum level.

  Proper Sound

  You’re probably guessing that I’m going to recommend total and complete silence; however, that’s the polar opposite of how I sleep, and once again, you’ll have to try it both ways and find out what works best for you.

  Personally I have trouble sleeping in a quiet room because I have exceptional hearing—I don’t understand why, after playing in rock bands and sitting in the front row at dozens of concerts—but I do. I hear everything in the house, and my wife even marveled about this one time long ago when we were still dating. She was on the opposite side of the house, with the air conditioner running loudly (it was an older house in Phoenix), my noise generator was on in my room, the door was closed, and she was on the phone at a distance that should have been way out of earshot for me.

  When I got up, I said, “So, Frank will do …,” which was a comment on her phone call. And she was taken aback! So, yes, my seemingly supernatural hearing ability makes it tough for me to sleep in total silence.

  What I do is twofold. First, I have an air purifier, as mentioned previously. It’s big and it’s loud, and that’s how I like it—it blocks out any other sound I might possibly hear other than my Great Dane’s very loud bark. Second, I’ve used a noise generator on and off. In the past you had to buy one, but now there are endless free noise generator apps you can get on your smartphone. Just remember to follow my advice about smartphones on your nightstand if you go this route.

  If silence works for you, then perhaps heavier drapes and even acoustic foam in the right spots will really deaden it for you. You may also want to try earplugs, something I use particularly on weekends when the kids will have been up for a couple of hours by the time I get up, and of course the big dog usually manages to bark at something! I haven’t found any one particular brand or variety of earplugs to be any more comfortable than others—or very much comfortable at all for that matter—so I simply use the inexpensive ones that I keep in my range bag, that I carry to the shooting range and competitions.

  Foam earplugs are disposable, so dispose of them after one or two uses, otherwise you run the risk of ear infections due to mold, fungus, and bacteria. On the same note, if you are prone to ear infections at all, your ears need to breathe, so avoid them entirely.

  Proper Temperature

  This is one of the biggest mistakes people make: keeping their houses and/or bedrooms entirely too warm for deep, restful sleep.

  It happens to me all the time when I travel, so much so that I’ve gotten to the point of drop-shipping a cheap tabletop fan from Amazon to the hotel ahead of time; that way I don’t have to go hunting around for one, and I know which cheapie ones work well. Considering that they’re under $20 and most hotels charge a daily, bogus “resort fee” of at least $25, apparently for the “free” wifi, I see it as a cheap investm
ent in good sleep, whether the trip is for business or for pleasure. And heck, I’m sure at least a few members of hotel housekeeping staff have appreciated the free fan to take home!

  The best temperature for falling asleep is in the low- to mid-60s. Most people consider this “cold” but this is the body’s natural sleep temperature. Maintaining proper temperature helps ensure that your body will properly thermoregulate during sleep.

  I’ve found about 65 degrees Fahrenheit to be ideal. Any lower than that and getting up in the middle of the night can be uncomfortably cold, and any warmer than that and I find myself hot, sweating, and tossing and turning all night. Remember, if it’s too chilly, you can fix that with blankets, but too hot is too hot and there’s nothing you can do about it other than lowering the thermostat.

  I also like air moving around me. That means a ceiling fan, and, in summer months, a small table fan, like the one I use in hotels, aimed indirectly at the bed. Few things will keep you up all night like a fan blasting air directly at your face, so keep it indirect. Even when it’s cool enough, if the air is stagnant, that can be enough to keep me needlessly awake. And remember, while some of these recommendations go well above and beyond the usual sleep hygiene recommendations, I’m one of your fellow night owls who struggles with getting and staying asleep and these extra measures will be necessary for us more often than not.

  On a side note, if you’re worried about the cost of things, such as natural sleep aids, blackout curtains, sleep masks, fans, and all that—not to mention a slightly higher electric bill thanks to the air conditioner—think of the cost that lost productivity does to you when you don’t sleep well. It’s not only financially damaging in terms of job or business performance; it also takes a toll on your well-being and overall happiness. So just make the investments needed to get a good night’s sleep!

  Avoid “Blue” Light at Night

  By blue light, I’m referring to the light emitted by LCD and LED screens, found on everything from smartphones to tablets to computers to Apple Watches to your television to you-name-it. LED lightbulbs that emit a daytime light frequency, which most do, also fall under this category.

  If you doubt the validity of this, open your smartphone, put it on the floor, walk to the other side of the room, and turn off the lights. Obviously this is best done at night. What you’ll see is a big blast of blue light emanating from that screen!

  The reason why electronics light can keep you awake is because it’s the same light frequency as, well, daylight. Regular daylight on a sunny day, thanks to our blue sky, is not white light but actually a bluish hue, right around a light temperature of 5600 Kelvin. That’s why photographers, when wanting to augment outdoor lighting, or do an indoor scene that simulates the outdoors, will set their lights to 5600 K. On the other end of the scale, for softer and/or “late” lighting, they’ll drop way down to 2600 K to get that soft, yellowish hue.

  The most common advice you’ll hear is to avoid all screens for one to two hours prior to bedtime. However, this is more easily said than done in today’s world.

  I do agree with stopping work about an hour before bed, since it’s the work itself, and not the light from the computer screen, that will keep my mind overflowing with thoughts and therefore keep me awake. When I do use a laptop at night, I use both the Night Shift feature along with the free f.lux app to remove the element of blue light. Using both together produces a very noticeable yellow light, which looks unnatural, but I value my sleep more than how good my computer screen looks! I also have a thin, blue-blocking screen protector film on the laptop. Unlike the apps, it doesn’t look too far off from the natural screen light.

  The same goes on tablets and phones—use blue-light reducing features such as Night Shift, apps that can do the same, and screen protector films that are hued to block some degree of blue light.

  Since my wife and I have our handful of television shows we watch together, and there’s no Night Shift on the TV (yet), I use a pair of cheap blue-blocking glasses I got on Amazon for under $20. If you’re in your mid-forties like me and starting to use reading glasses, you can get over-the-counter reading glasses with the same blue-blocking tint. They do add some amount of yellowish tint to what you see, but once again, sleep quality is first and foremost with me and thus is far more important than any inconvenience it adds; having said that, I had to switch my Kindle highlights from yellow to blue because the yellow tint of the glasses combined with the yellowish light with the device turned to night mode was blocking them out completely to the point where I couldn’t see the highlights!

  Also, do not look at screens if you happen to wake up at night. This is especially important nowadays with seemingly everyone using his or her phones as nighttime clocks. Don’t look at it. In fact, hide the clock altogether. Nothing is going to give you sleep anxiety and keep you awake more than seeing that you have to get up in two hours but feel like you need at least that much more sleep. It will merely cause you to lie awake thinking and worrying about it, guaranteeing that you indeed will not fall back asleep.

  Avoid Daytime Naps

  Unless you literally didn’t sleep the previous night and absolutely require a nap to make it through the day, avoid napping. Even though it’s so common, and many people swear by it, the fact is that napping is considered to be a symptom of a sleep disorder by medical science.

  I for one cannot take the 20-minute “catnaps” people rave about and instead will fall into a regular, full 90-minute sleep cycle. This leaves me groggy for the rest of the day and feeling far more tired and sluggish than simply dealing with insomnia would have, so for me they’re not worth it.

  The more insidious part, however, is that daytime napping will interfere with your falling asleep and simply lead to more insomnia. It’s like how Xanax rebounds and, after it wears off, the original anxiety is back—and it’s worse!—and the user must take more frequent doses, and eventually higher doses, in order to get the same effect. Likewise, daytime napping can turn into rebound insomnia when you do try to get to bed on time, which leads to more insomnia, which leads to more napping, and you end up in the same vicious cycle as a Xanax addict.

  So, in summary, no napping. Fight through the fatigue and save it for a great night’s sleep!

  Get Daytime Exercise

  Many years ago I was experiencing insomnia and asked my then-doctor for sleeping pills. He said he will not prescribe them, and explains to patients that insomnia is more often than not due to lack of exercise and a sedentary lifestyle.

  Think about it: If your body doesn’t get enough exercise, it’s never tired out and of course falling asleep will be a challenge! I got my ass back in gear, got back to pumping iron at the gym, and, amazingly, I almost immediately began sleeping much better!

  One caveat, though, is to avoid exercise close to bedtime. Some light stretching as part of a nighttime routine is fine, but don’t lift weights or do cardio or anything else that’s going to elevate your heart rate and your body temperature with it. Remember the importance of keeping yourself cool in order to sleep well? If you do any kind of exercise that warms you up within three to four hours prior to bedtime, your body simply won’t want to shut down for the night. The same goes for any kind of heavy lifting or any other strenuous activity. If the furniture needs rearranging, save it for the next day.

  Get Daytime Sunshine!

  This one sounds counterintuitive, so bear with me here.

  You now know that your circadian rhythm, and the production and subsequent cessation of production of melatonin, are strongly tied to light. One of the issues night owls experience is that society demands we get up at a time when our rhythm is still stuck in the sleep phase and our bodies are producing melatonin. Hence why gloomy days and seasonal affective disorder can be especially problematic for night owls.

  While I say “sunshine,” what I really mean is any kind of daylight. Even many overcast, gloomy mornings will produce more natural outdoor light intensity than any t
herapy light can. It’s important to get this light as soon as possible upon rising. It serves to terminate melatonin production, which gives you a boost in energy. It also stimulates vitamin D and serotonin production, both of which are feel-good neurotransmitters (well, vitamin D is a hormone, specifically a secosteroid and not a neurotransmitter, but it works to make you feel good and happy, simulate growth hormone production, and in men, stimulate testosterone production).

  One myth about vitamin D is that you can get it from a supplement, and while true in theory, it is not the same substance that your body photosynthesizes during exposure to daylight. The vitamin D3 in pill bottles is called cholecalciferol, while the substance produced by your body is cholecalciferol sulfate. It’s the naturally produced, sulfated version that has far-reaching and superior effects to the bottled version.

  Just like the lipid hypothesis has been disproven and it’s now known to medical science that cholesterol is not responsible for clogged and hardened arteries, it’s also known that sun exposure in moderation, along with UVB-only1 tanning beds in moderation, increases natural production of vitamin D3 which in turn prevents a myriad of health problems. Most interestingly, it’s now known to prevent melanoma, the deadly form of skin cancer, which was previously blamed on sun exposure despite it most commonly appearing on areas such as the inner thighs and buttocks, which ordinarily get zero sun exposure.

  While the FDA’s daily recommended intake of vitamin D3 is well below what’s now known to be beneficial, and irrelevant anyway if you’re getting the natural form, it’s important to know that you can accumulate too much D3 in your body, which can lead to toxicity. Also, because it assists with calcium absorption, you may be well-advised to avoid calcium supplements along with calcium-based antacids like Tums and Rolaids.