Hi, I am Joe Graedon. I am a pharmacologist. I write the people’s pharmacy syndicated newspaper column and co-host the radio show. Have you ever had a hard time getting a good night sleep? Well, you are not alone. There are 70 million Americans who have trouble sleeping. One out of five of us suffers from chronic insomnia, and we cant sleep well it affects your immune system, it affects your reaction time, your ability to think clearly. People gain weight, they have higher blood pressure. So sleeping is really important for good health, but what do we do. Well, a lot of times, people turn to the pharmacy and ask because the antihistamine in Benadryl, diphenhydramine, it makes people drowsy is also found in a lot of this products. Like Somnex or nighthowler?. It’s the key M in Tylenol PM and it does make you drowsy but if your use it night after night, you may loose some effectiveness in some people wake up with the morning hang over they have a hard time thinking clearly. So what can you do. Well, how about a hot bath an hour before bedtime, it resets your body’s thermostat and helps you get a descent nice sleep. You might find a high carb snack also helps just before bedtime, a little cereal, a little milk, some honey may do the trick. Some other natural approaches, well, kind of like melatonin, less than 1 mg as to your body’s natural sleep hormone if you like, and a lot of people tell us that it work quite well helping them fall asleep. A drop or 2 of lavender may also help. It kind of changes the way the brain processes it and kind of slows people down and helps them go to sleep. And one final thing, I really like this, it goes back for centuries, to ancient china, it is an acupressure point. This little bee that somehow used for motion sickness, when it is put just on the right place of the risk, it helps a lot of people fall asleep. One other thing, magnesium can also be quite effective. You know grandma had it right, we all need a descent night sleep to stay healthy.
