Sleep

Sleep and Cognitive Health
Here’s a good article from the NYT on how to deal with awakening during the night and being unable to get back to sleep.

Melatonin
Melatonin is produced by a tiny gland, the pineal gland, in the brain. Production is triggered by dimishing light as the day ends and this fosters sleep. As the sun rises, light will hit our eyelids and enough penetrates when bright enough to stimulate the pineal gland to stop producing melatonin, and we awaken. This is why air port hotels have black out curtains to help jet lagged guests sleep longer into the day to readjust.
Melatonin is available as an over-the-counter supplement from many resources and none are regulated by the FDA. A study in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine by two researchers, Eland and Saxena of 2017 at the Univ. of Guelph, Otarior found variability in the amount of melatonin (by about 10%) among 30 different manufacturers and they also found other products like serotonin in about 25% of the 30 pill samples. Laura Lillie of WebD (04/19/22) advises checking the bottle for a USP verified check mark indicating the product meets U.S. Pharmmacopeia Convention standards for purity.

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