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Anyone with sleep problems owes it to themselves to read Chronotherapy by Terman and McMahan (2012). Basically, for manipulating your circadian rhythm, light t
by realitygrill 12y ago
Anyone with sleep problems owes it to themselves to read Chronotherapy by Terman and McMahan (2012).
Basically, for manipulating your circadian rhythm, light therapy is recommended as the first line of treatment (possibly supplemented with low-dose melatonin). The timing and intensity of light relative to when your internal clock thinks it is in the day determines the amount of slowing or lengthening of your cycle. So bright light during when your body thinks it is 'morning' will slow down the cycle, and bright light at 'night' will lengthen it. That's why many people use f.lux. But how much, how long?
Your cycle's natural free-running cycle length (without zeitgebers, or cues, to entrain it) appears to be determined by genetic factors. This is hard to measure without doing some tracking and, ideally, actually free-running. Pretty inconvenient.
This paper, which I look forward to reading in-depth, claims to have figured out optimal ways [took another look: general principles] of calculating the correct exposure and absence of light to allow for rapid recovery from jet lag. If true, it will probably make all light therapy much easier to do and calculate.
- a8da6b0c91d 12y agoI'd be careful with melatonin. It appears to act like a stress hormone and has a bunch of significant effects. It boosts estrogen and lowers metabolism.
- realitygrill 12y agoLight therapy is the main thing (seems daylight simulation and negative ions may also work, but this is less researched). The melatonin option is indicated at the level of micrograms, and as far as I know is quite safe. I'm mostly drawing from gwern's analysis and the opinions of several doctors, though, for the safety profile: http://www.gwern.net/Melatonin http://www.gwern.net/Melatonin Care to share some references? It would be useful to add to the page above.
- a8da6b0c91d 12y agoThere's a bunch of easily found stuff on animal experiments where it shrinks gonads and brains. It clearly turns off fertility in animals. It's well understood as the "winter hibernation" hormone. It's not the "good circadian rhythm night of deep sleep" hormone like people seem to think. It rises to adapt the body to the stress of darkness of winter, it doesn't rise to make you get better rest. It makes the retina more sensitive to light and lightens skin. It's high in seasonally depressed people. Taking a sunny vacation lowers it, and makes you feel better. Nobody has a melatonin deficiency; you don't need melatonin levels to get restful sleep. If stress hormone levels are low you can fall asleep under bright lights with no melatonin. I can't say taking 5mg every now and then would be harmful to humans, but when you understand melatonin's essential role as the winter hibernation hormone, and consider the animal experiments, I think you might want to prefer other means to get to sleep. Personally, I find diphenhydramine (benadryl) pretty good for occasional help nodding off. And that's very clearly safe for occasional use.
- konstruktor 12y agoIf "stuff" is so easily found, why don't you reference it?
- quotient 12y agoI couldn't find any statements backing up your claim that Melatonin shrinks brains; in fact, I found allegations to the opposite: Melatonin appears to have neuroprotective properties.[0] I suggest you cite your sources, especially when making sweeping claims like "it's well understood as...", "easily found stuff", etc. [0] http://www.lef.org/magazine/mag2013/sep2013_Melatonin-The-Brain-Hormone_01.htm http://www.lef.org/magazine/mag2013/sep2013_Melatonin-The-Br...