By Robert J. Rowen, MD
Do you sometimes lay awake at night and struggle to fall asleep? Do you wake up in the middle of the night and can't fall back asleep again?
If you do, you're not alone. Millions of Americans sleep so poorly they feel exhausted during the day. And many say that poor sleep interferes with their daily activities.
You probably know that poor sleep can have a terrible effect on your health. Poor sleep raises your risk for many chronic conditions. It's even a factor in more than 100,000 car crashes each year.
So to solve your sleep problems, you may have tried popular natural sleep remedies like melatonin or valerian. But melatonin doesn't work consistently for everyone. It can cause daytime drowsiness, headaches, anxiety, and mood swings. As for valerian, it gives some people a morning "hangover" and has the added concern of potential liver toxicity.
If you really want to fall asleep quickly and sleep soundly through the night, you have to address the real reason behind your sleep problems...
The hidden reason you can't fall asleep or keep waking up
Very often, the real reason you can't fall asleep is because your body's natural "excitement" and "calming" mechanism is out of whack.
You see, your body produces chemicals that excite your brain and nervous system. And it also produces chemicals that calm your nerves down.
For example, if you're under stress or a sudden threat, your body releases hormones such as cortisol and adrenalin to speed up your heart and get your muscles ready for action. This is the famous "fight or flight" response you've heard about.
Fortunately, your body also makes chemicals to calm down your brain and nervous system and help it relax. Like the neurotransmitters GABA, serotonin and serotonin.
But if you have an imbalance in this system — too much of the "excitatory" chemicals and not enough of the relaxing ones — then chances are your body's not going to be able to calm down enough to fall asleep quickly or stay asleep all night.
The key is to find out what kind of imbalance you have, and correct it. Here's how...
Imbalance #1: too much stress and anxiety
It's hard to escape stress these days. With our 24/7, non-stop, always connected lifestyles, we're constantly having to deal with issues at home or at work. You may find it hard to switch off your worries about health, money, job security, retirement, or your children and grandchildren.
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Why getting a good night's sleep is essential for your health
Not getting enough sleep can have a big impact on your health including:
- Blood sugar imbalances. Many studies show that sleep loss is a factor in maintaining healthy blood sugar levels. In one study, patients getting less sleep were twice as likely to have difficulty maintaining healthy blood sugar levels.
- Weight gain. Studies have found that poor sleep patterns trigger metabolic changes that may contribute to being overweight. And this weight gain can start as early as childhood.
- Mood swings. Sleep disturbances have been identified as a major symptom of mood swings. In fact, people with sleep problems are 4 times as likely to suffer from mood swings than people who sleep well.
- Heart and circulation dangers. The latest research shows there's a significant connection between daytime drowsiness and heart health. For example, women who get less than five hours of sleep at night had twice the risk of difficulty in maintaining healthy blood pressure.
- Poor memory. Not getting enough sleep interferes with your ability to perform tasks involving memory, learning, and logical reasoning. This can affect your job, school work and family relationships.
- Accidents. Poor sleep can be extremely dangerous! The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates that more than 100,000 auto crashes annually are related to fatigue.
- In fact, one study shows not getting enough sleep is even worse than driving drunk! Tired drivers performed even worse on tests than drivers with a blood alcohol level of .08 percent – over the legal limit in many countries.
Don't let sleep problems put you at risk. Keep reading to find out how you can get a good night's sleep - naturally.
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The trouble is, this constant stress causes your body to release cortisol. That's the "fight or flight" hormone I mentioned before. But cortisol doesn't just get you ready to slay a wild animal. It can also cause sleep problems.
That's because cortisol is your body's "wake up" hormone. Your cortisol levels jump by 50 to 60 percent within minutes of waking up each morning. So the last thing you want is to have high cortisol at nighttime. Ideally, your cortisol levels should gradually decrease during the day, reaching the lowest point just before bedtime. But if you're constantly stressed or over stimulated during the day...
... your cortisol levels get stuck in high gear! Constant high cortisol can make it difficult to fall asleep. It can prevent you from getting deep, restful sleep. And too much cortisol can wake you up in the middle of the night.
In fact, studies show that people with sleep problems had the highest amount of cortisol in their bloodstream, especially in the evening.
So if you want to improve your sleep, you need to reduce your cortisol. Regular exercise helps. So do stress-reducing activities like yoga or meditation. But there's another way...
Nature's Stress Buster
You don't have to sedate yourself with drugs to lower your stress levels. Or dump hormones like melatonin into your system.
What I prefer to do with my patients is to give them the nutrients the body needs to manufacture its own "natural sleep medicine." That way, it supports your body's own ability to regulate your excitatory and calming mechanism.
And one of the best ways to do that is with niacinamide ... also known as vitamin B3. Niacinamide is a potent sleep inducer. It directly affects the "benzodiazepine" receptors in your brain. These are the same receptors that are targeted by a well-known anti-anxiety medicine. Niacinamide has been shown to induce a feeling of calmness.
So niacinamide can help you relax, sleep better and lower the anxiety caused by stress. You also want to address...
Imbalance #2 — Aching muscles
and cramps that keep you awake
Many people take calcium to help maintain strong bones. Some people take it at bedtime. That may sound like a good idea, since your body loses calcium at night, but it's not.
That's because calcium can make you feel anxious, and it causes your muscles to contract. Calcium can also contribute to restless leg syndrome and leg cramps that can wake you up in the middle of the night and keep you up.
Fortunately, there's a simple solution for aching muscles and cramps: magnesium. Magnesium is a natural muscle relaxer and sedative. In fact, magnesium often reverses restless leg syndrome and cramping in both your legs and feet.
Of course, achy muscles and cramps aren't the only thing that can keep you up at night...
Imbalance #3: What to do if
your mind keeps racing
Do you sometimes crawl into bed feeling drowsy and ready to sleep? But then lay awake, eyes staring at the ceiling, as your mind races over details from your day ... or worries about tomorrow?
There's a natural solution for this problem, too. And it comes from a surprising source. In fact, it's why a lot of people feel so relaxed after drinking a cup of green tea, despite the fact that green tea has caffeine.
Green tea also contains the amino acid L-theanine. L-theanine can blunt the stimulating effects of caffeine, and has an overall calming effect.
A number of studies, including double-blind clinical trials, show that L-theanine calms you down and reduces the stress and anxiety caused by everyday life.
Studies also show that L-theanine helps increase "alpha-wave" activity in your brain. Alpha waves correspond to the same state of calm relaxation that you feel with meditation and yoga.
So taking L-theanine is like getting a mini-dose of meditation for calming down your mind and promoting deep, restful sleep!
Aside from dealing with stress, anxiety, and a mind that just won't quit, you also have to make sure your body isn't lacking its natural "sleep aids", including...
Imbalance #4: Not enough serotonin
Serotonin is your body's natural "feel good" neurotransmitter. It helps regulate your mood and appetite as well as your sleep.
If you crave sweets and high glycemic carbohydrates like cookies, crackers and potato chips, then you might have a serotonin deficiency. You are also more likely to have a serotonin deficiency if you're a woman.
A serotonin deficiency can cause you to struggle with worry, anxiety, obsession, winter blues, and low self-esteem. People with a serotonin deficiency often have sleep problems. Here's why...
During the day, your body slowly converts serotonin into melatonin. Your body stores this melatonin inside your pineal gland. When daylight turns to night, it signals your pineal gland to release the melatonin. The melatonin then helps you fall asleep.
But if your serotonin levels are too low during the daytime, your melatonin levels will be too low at night. But you don't have to take melatonin to correct this...
A simple, natural way to increase
your serotonin and melatonin
One of the best ways to reverse a serotonin deficiency is to take a natural amino acid called 5HTP (5-hydroxytryptophan). 5-HTP is the "precursor" to serotonin. That means it's the final step in your body's production process for serotonin. So by taking 5-HTP, you bypass the conversion of other molecules and directly produce more serotonin.
Several double-blind studies show 5-HTP decreases the time needed to fall asleep and reduces the number of nighttime awakenings.
5-HTP also improves the quality of your sleep. 5-HTP increases REM sleep by about 25 percent and boosts your deep, restorative sleep. And 5-HTP does this without increasing total sleep time.
Build up your B vitamins
Supplementing with B vitamins helps boost your serotonin, too. Your body can’t make neurotransmitters like serotonin without them. That's why you need the vitamin B3 (niacinamide) I mentioned before. Plus, you need vitamin B6.
Vitamin B6 is involved in thousands of reactions in the body. It's essential for the creation of serotonin. Vitamin B6 also helps your body minimize the effects of stress. It helps you feel comfortable and prepares you for a good night's rest.
There's one more neurotransmitter deficiency you need to address...
Imbalance #5: You may be suffering from a GABA deficiency
Do you sometimes feel anxious or have panic attacks? Do you ever feel over-stressed or burned-out? Then you might have a GABA deficiency.
GABA (Gamma-aminobutyric acid) is your body's most abundant "inhibitory" neurotransmitter. That means it's the cornerstone of your body's "calming" system.
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Restore your body's sleep cycle naturally
- Calm your mind as well as your body.
- Relieve the anxiety caused by stress.
- Feel more relaxed and ready for sleep.
- Fall asleep faster and stay asleep all night.
- Improve the quality of your sleep.
- Wake up feeling refreshed and full of energy.
- Say goodbye to daytime drowsiness and afternoon energy crashes.
- Cut down on mood swings, irritability and anger.
- Support your body's natural sleep cycle.
- Sharpen your memory and mental focus.
- And much, much more!
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Without enough GABA, you can feel out of balance, prone to anxiety and sleep problems. You may also feel stiff, tense, and unable to relax or loosen up. Without enough GABA, it's hard to unwind after a busy day.
Think of GABA as the “brakes” when it comes to neurotransmitter activity. When stress triggers a spike in adrenaline, causing the "fight or flight" response, GABA slows down the response by blocking the signal. GABA relaxes, sedates, and reduces overstimulation.
The obvious way to increase GABA is to supplement with GABA. But it’s important not to take too much. So in addition to an appropriate amount of GABA, you should also supplement with the building blocks of GABA, which are amino acids.
These amino acids are able to cross the blood brain barrier. That means they go right to the brain where GABA is created.
Taurine is one of these important amino acids. Taurine helps increase GABA without any adverse side effects. Taurine is also an excellent stress buster. Taurine inhibits the release of adrenaline, the stress neurotransmitter I mentioned before.
So which of these sleep nutrients
is right for you?
I've used each of these natural sleep aids to help my patients relax, ease stress and sleep better. You can experiment and see which ones work for you, too.
But since these nutrients are all perfectly natural and what your body should be producing, I thought to myself: why not combine them? That way it will fill any "gaps" you might have in your system.
So I spent some time with the folks at Advanced Bionutritionals. Together we came up with a formula that combines all 7 of these essential calming nutrients into one formula. It's called Advanced Sleep Formula.
Plus, Advanced Sleep Formula has one more nutrient that's been widely used for improving sleep for years...
An age-old secret for calming jittery nerves
You can't always rely on one method of treatment. That's why I tell my patients to combine herbs with vitamins and nutrients.
But rather than use the herb valerian, with its day-after grogginess, I suggest you try Oatstraw powder (avena sativa).
Oats have been used for medicinal purposes since the Middle Ages. Oatstraw is one of my favorite herbs for people struggling to sleep well, especially if you have a lot of stress or tension in your life.
Oatstraw has a substance called gramine, which has calming properties. Gramine has been shown to relax smooth muscles and has a sedative action on the nervous system. This calming action is also useful for treating headaches, mood disorders, tension, anxiety, and feelings of sadness.
Get a good night's rest and save money, too
With all 8 of these nutrients, Advanced Sleep Formula will help you drift off to a peaceful night's sleep and sleep soundly the whole night. What's more, you'll wake up feeling refreshed, full of energy, ready to face the day.
That's because Advanced Sleep Formula doesn't just "knock you out." It replenishes your body's own natural sleep inducers ... like healthy levels of serotonin and GABA. While it naturally calms down your jittery nerves, soothes anxiety and gets your body relaxed and ready for sleep.
With Advanced Sleep Formula you have another big advantage, too. Rather than trying to figure out which natural sleep nutrients work best for you by trial-and-error ... you get all the nutrients your body needs in one convenient capsule.
In fact, if you were to buy all 8 nutrients found in Advanced Sleep Formula at your local health food store, chances are you would easily spend over $85 a month. But Advanced Sleep Formula costs just a fraction of that. As little as $21.65 a month. That's a big savings. And it means fewer pills to take.
Feel the difference or you pay nothing
To try Advanced Sleep Formula, simply click here to fill out the secure order form. Or call toll-free at 1-800-791-3395 (24 hours a day, 7 days a week). Once they receive your order, Advanced Bionutritionals will rush it right out to you. You should receive it in 5-7 business days.
To save money and enjoy deep, natural sleep, day after day, I suggest you go for the 6-month supply of Advanced Sleep Formula. You'll pay just $21.65 per bottle, the lowest price per bottle. PLUS shipping is FREE.
And remember, with every Advanced Bionutritionals product, you are completely protected by a "Down-to-the-Last-Pill" guarantee. If at any time you are not satisfied with Advanced Sleep Formula, just return it for a full refund of every penny you paid. Advanced Bionutritionals will even pay the shipping charges!
What would you give for a good night's sleep?
Wouldn't it be great to fall asleep faster ... without tossing and turning? And to sleep right through the night?
Wouldn't you love to wake up in the morning feeling refreshed and energized. Instead of having to drag yourself out of bed, feeling groggy and yawning throughout the day?
And wouldn't it be comforting to know that you are finally getting the deep, restorative sleep your body needs for good health? Without having to rely on artificial chemicals that could harm your health or create a dangerous dependency?
You bet it would. Just remember ... your body has the ability to balance its excitatory and calming mechanism. All it needs is a little help. And that's exactly what you get with Advanced Sleep Formula.
Click here or call toll free right now 1-800-791-3395 to take advantage of this no-risk way to finally enjoy night after night of deep, restorative sleep!
Yours for better health,
Robert J. Rowen, MD
PS: Don't let sleep problems ruin your day and your health. The 8 ingredients in Advanced Sleep Formula help you drift off to a peaceful night's sleep and wake up feeling refreshed and energized the next day. What's more, they do it naturally, without the grogginess of sleeping pills. Don't you owe it to yourself to give it a try? Remember, if you're not absolutely thrilled with the results, you can take advantage of the "down-to-the-last-pill" money-back guarantee and return the empty bottle(s) for a full refund of every penny you paid. Try Advanced Sleep Formula today!
Please follow this link to order, or call 800-791-3395, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Dr. Robert Rowen is compensated by Advanced Bionutritionals for his work in formulating and endorsing this product.
This product has not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, cure, mitigate, treat, or prevent any disease.