Restoring Your Drug-Free Sleep Cycles Is Key To Better Sleep
Here’s another thing… Pharmaceutical sleep aids do absolutely NOTHING to restore the body’s drug-free sleep cycles and can actually make things much worse in the long term. For example, many prescription sleep aids prevent your body from cycling through the multiple critical stages of sleep. It’s hard to say what’s worse — the effects of not sleeping well or the effects of taking a pharmaceutical drug to “fix” the problem.
These are the reasons why I’ve devoted my life to helping people address sleep concerns using safe, effective and all-drug-free tools and strategies. I never recommend prescription sleep aids to my patients. The truth — that the pharmaceutical companies don’t want you to know about — is that there are simple, inexpensive, non-habit-forming and scientifically shown ways to get the restful, revitalizing sleep you need — and YOU deserve to know about them.
My Drug-Free Approach To Helping You Sleep
I have had great success using drug-free, non-pharmaceutical means to help my patients sleep soundly through the night. The key, I’ve discovered, is combining remedies that promote relaxation and help to mitigate the harmful effects of stress on the body with those that help to restore the body’s drug-free sleep cycles.
Here are the drug-free sleep aids that I’ve found to be the most effective with my patients:
- Ashwagandha: Ashwagandha is a powerful adaptogen that has played an important role in Ayurvedic medicine for thousands of years and is often overlooked as a drug-free sleep aid. Adaptogens are herbs that help increase the body’s resistance to stress and bring the body back into balance once it has been stressed, which is critical to restoring healthy sleep patterns17,18
- Magnesium: Replenishing the body’s stores of this essential mineral confers profound physical relaxation benefits. Magnesium helps to regulate lactic acid levels, which may increase muscle tension, anxiety and irritability if they are too high. Most people are actually deficient in magnesium and may experience difficulty sleeping as a result.19
- L-Tryptophan: The two main biomolecules that are involved in the production of normal sleep—the neurotransmitter serotonin and the hormone melatonin—are both naturally made from tryptophan in the body. That makes L-Tryptophan tremendously valuable in promoting restful sleep.
- Melatonin: Melatonin is a hormone that your brain produces every night when it is time to go to sleep. It helps to facilitate the transition between wake and sleep.20 What many people do not know about melatonin is that it is also one of your body’s most potent antioxidants, and has been associated with slowing the aging process.21
- Valerian, Hops, Chamomile and Passionflower: Western herbalists have relied on these four sleep and relaxation-inducing herbs for hundreds of years. Each one contains unique phytochemicals that help to regulate neurotransmitters, soothe nerves, calm the mind and promote deep, restful sleep.22,23,24,25
- GABA (100 mg): Gamma Amino Butyric Acid is a neurotransmitter that relieves anxiety, helps you get good sleep, relax, and wind down. A placebo controlled clinical trial confirmed that GABA has an effect of improving quality of sleep, easing stress and increasing duration of uninterrupted sleep. An added benefit, GABA appears to help keep cortisol at a lower level. This is great news for the weight conscious.
WARNING: Don’t Take Just Any Drug-Free Sleep Product
I’ve found in my clinical experience that a specific combination of the drug-free sleep aids I listed above, and at very precise dosages, is most effective. The problem with most sleep supplements is that they only contain a single ingredient (melatonin being the most common). And even worse, they often contain ingredients of sub-par quality and doses that are far too low to have any significant impact.
I’ve heard way too many times from new patients that they tried drug-free sleep products and they just “didn’t work.” However, in almost all cases, they just had not found the right product. My patients are always amazed when I put them on the correct regimen at just how effective these drug-free sleep aids can be, and how much better they feel within a matter of days.