Dr. Oz: Going to Bed Too Early
Dr. Oz has been talking to Keisha, who has a serious melatonin supplement addiction. Dr. Oz wanted to help her learn healthy ways to get to sleep so he introduced her to sleep expert Dr. Michael Breus. Dr. Breus said a big mistake people make with sleep is they go to bed too early. He asked Keisha to go to bed later in the night so she could try to get five and a half hours of sleep only. Keisha’s only getting three hours of sleep a night, so she was excited about this plan.
Dr. Breus said, rather then take all that melatonin at night and in the middle of the night when she wakes up like she’s doing now, he wanted to have her go to bed much later so her natural sleep drive starts to grow.
Dr. Oz: Last Cup of Caffeine at 2 p.m.
Dr. Oz helped Keisha learn how to have better sleep. She’ll go to bed later, take only 1 milligram of melatonin, limit caffeine after 2 p.m., and get some sun immediately after waking up. (Evgeny Atamanenko / Shutterstock.com)
Dr. Breus said the absolute last cup of caffeine that we should have is at 2 p.m. Caffeine inhibits sleep and lots of people with sleep issues drink lots of caffeine. That’s why he recommended 2 p.m. as a cut-off time.
Dr. Oz: 1 mg of Melatonin
Dr. Breus also recommended Keisha take just 1 milligram of melatonin. Right now, she’s taking 35 milligrams. Dr. Breus’s plan called for 1 milligram about an hour and a half to two hours before bedtime. The reason why is because melatonin is a sleep regulator, not initiator. It helps to change the internal biological clock so your body can get to sleep. It’s not a sleeping pill, but if taken the right way, it can help promote healthy sleep.
Dr. Oz: Practice Progressive Muscle Relaxation
Dr. Breus said if you wake up in the middle of the night, don’t look at the alarm clock. You’ll do the mental math to figure out how much sleep you have left and it’ll stress you out. He also says you shouldn’t take a sleep aid, because when you do wake up, you’ll be groggy. Instead, he recommended Progressive Muscle Relaxation, where you tense your muscles and relax them, starting at the top of the head and moving slowly downward. It’ll distract you to not think about how you’re not sleeping and it’ll help relax your body.
Dr. Oz: When You Wake Up, Stay Up
When you wake up, make sure you stay up. Also, on this program, there’s no sleeping in. It only takes 24 hours to 48 hours to adjust your circadian rhythm. This plan wants your biological clock to know exactly what it’s supposed to do. The anchor of the program for Keisha was waking up at 6 a.m. every morning.
After waking up, Keisha should immediately get some sun to help her wake up. Alternatively, she could try a blue light, which helps shut off melatonin in the body and help us wake up.
Dr. Oz said that sleep issues is the most overlooked health problem in the U.S. Sleep issues age us, put weight on us, and it ruins our vitality. But luckily, we can fix it. Dr. Oz promised we would hear more from Keisha later on about her sleep journey.
Enid Barrett says
Does trace mineral help with sleep? I take it and it seems to work for me.