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A molecule called ‘Sandman’ could help solve the ‘mystery of sleep’

washingtonpost.com

1–10 of 66 posts

Re: A molecule called ‘Sandman’ could help solve the ‘mystery of sleep’

#5
post #2

It would be great if this opened the door to sleep aids that activated the brain's natural sleep induction mechanisms, as opposed to today's sleep aids, which are basically just sedative/CNS depressant/muscle relaxers.

Well, this is what melatonin does and its OTC. My horrible insomnia was cured not by Ambien, but by .5mg of Walgreen's melatonin and even now I rarely take it.

Its also probably time we admitted human beings can't fit into lifestyles where they're bombareded with blue light, stress, etc right before bedtime. The Western lifestyle is fairly anti-traditional and old fashioned things like prayer/meditation/whatever before bed and calm family time of putting the children to bed or reading to them has been replaced with ipad usage/internet tomfoolery, or tv watching.

I doubt there will ever be a pill to fix this. If you're serious about fixing insomnia then you need to do the legwork of proper lifestyle change. Personally, the benefits I get from running flux on the desktop as well as daily meditation are incredible. Pharmacological solutions shouldn't be our first instinct.

Re: A molecule called ‘Sandman’ could help solve the ‘mystery of sleep’

#6
post #2

It would be great if this opened the door to sleep aids that activated the brain's natural sleep induction mechanisms, as opposed to today's sleep aids, which are basically just sedative/CNS depressant/muscle relaxers.

Well, this is what melatonin does and its OTC. My horrible insomnia was cured not by Ambien, but by .5mg of Walgreen's melatonin and even now I rarely take it. Its also probably time we admitted human beings can't fit into lifestyles where they're bombareded with blue light, stress, etc right before bedtime. The Western lifestyle is fairly anti-traditional and old fashioned things like prayer/meditation/whatever befo…

http://www.consumerreports.org/vitamins-supplements/does-mel...

Re: A molecule called ‘Sandman’ could help solve the ‘mystery of sleep’

#7
post #2

It would be great if this opened the door to sleep aids that activated the brain's natural sleep induction mechanisms, as opposed to today's sleep aids, which are basically just sedative/CNS depressant/muscle relaxers.

Well, this is what melatonin does and its OTC. My horrible insomnia was cured not by Ambien, but by .5mg of Walgreen's melatonin and even now I rarely take it. Its also probably time we admitted human beings can't fit into lifestyles where they're bombareded with blue light, stress, etc right before bedtime. The Western lifestyle is fairly anti-traditional and old fashioned things like prayer/meditation/whatever befo…

only thing that worked for me is counter intuitive 'sleep restriction'. Wake up earlier and earlier everyday until you naturally fall asleep at night. Hard part is waking yourself up in morning when you feel like sleeping more.

Re: A molecule called ‘Sandman’ could help solve the ‘mystery of sleep’

#8
"Sleeping animals are incredibly vulnerable to attacks, with no obvious benefit to make up for it — at best, they waste precious hours that could be used finding food or seducing a mate; at worst, they could get eaten."

It seems pretty obvious that sleep had an evolutionary advantage to conserve energy when the species couldn't be productive. For example, human sleep during the night because we can't forage / hunt / find a mate during the night because our vision requires light.

Re: A molecule called ‘Sandman’ could help solve the ‘mystery of sleep’

#9

"Sleeping animals are incredibly vulnerable to attacks, with no obvious benefit to make up for it — at best, they waste precious hours that could be used finding food or seducing a mate; at worst, they could get eaten." It seems pretty obvious that sleep had an evolutionary advantage to conserve energy when the species couldn't be productive. For example, human sleep during the night because we can't forage / hunt /…

>because our vision requires light.

doesn't that assume that requiring light came before sleeping at night. It could be the opposite, our vision requires light because we sleep at night?

Re: A molecule called ‘Sandman’ could help solve the ‘mystery of sleep’

#10

"Sleeping animals are incredibly vulnerable to attacks, with no obvious benefit to make up for it — at best, they waste precious hours that could be used finding food or seducing a mate; at worst, they could get eaten." It seems pretty obvious that sleep had an evolutionary advantage to conserve energy when the species couldn't be productive. For example, human sleep during the night because we can't forage / hunt /…

No, there is animals that sleep during the day and can see perfectly good during the night.
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