While the Spring does bring in a lot of good things, sleep is something that tends to be affected. No thanks to extended daylight, teenagers find themselves coping with the extended daylight exposure and hence incurring some sleep problems as supported by researchers over at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute’s Lighting Research Center (LRC).

Over time when coupled with having to rise early for school, this delay in sleep onset may lead to teen sleep deprivation and mood changes, and increase risk of obesity and perhaps under-performance in school. The new findings detail the impact of early evening light in spring on melatonin onset and sleep times.

Read

Image Credits

a

Sleep deprived people who rely heavily on melatonin may want to change their reliance on such pills. Though they may help, the question is how long. And if you want something better to act as a substitute, here is one called a Melatonin Skin Patch which can aid you even better.

The patch may be more effective than melatonin pills because oral melatonin wears off quickly while the dose from the patch lasts longer. The study, published this week in the journal Clinical Pharmacology & Therapeutics, only involved eight people. They were given a patch containing either 2.1 milligrams of melatonin or no drug. The researchers measured their sleep performance and the melatonin levels in their blood.

“And, importantly, melatonin levels rose gradually, such that the peak concentration occurred in the early evening, during the latter part of the bed rest. We know — and shift workers know — that this is a time during which it is particularly difficult to remain asleep,” Aeschbach said in a news release.

(Source) LA Times

a