Silence, room tone, whisper…

And on to pillow talk, ‘cuz Babycakes, this is the hour our body clocks in for an affair with repair. Bedtime is when metabolic musings, cellular secrets, and hormonal murmurs open up for some hardcore tune-ups and resets. The night shift sees that every cell gets tended to, from top to bottom. It’s when our hormones get balanced and our immune system tends to the mess we made all day. Yes, EVERY SINGLE CELL IN OUR BODY THRIVES ON THIS NOCTURNAL AFFAIR. Starve it, and we don’t just feel older, we become it – and faster.

It’s not just how much we sleep, but WHEN. Since our circadian rhythm is tied to daylight, eight hours that start at 1pm isn’t the same as eight hours starting at 10 or 11 p.m. Our physiology evolved for dark-sleep and light-wake, to rise with dawn and to wind down with sunset. Researchers like Dr. Russel Reiter have long emphasized how much our body’s chemistry depends on this dark-light cycle, and how disrupting it (with artificial or blue light at night) can cut deep into melatonin production and recovery.

And so, Honeybuns, let’s tuck into all the ways TO OPTIMIZE OUR NIGHT SHIFT:

• AVOID blue light exposure before bedtime. Blue light is extremely stimulating to the brain and doomscrolling and checking the phones WILL stimulate cortisol, preventing melatonin from kicking in to do its job. Shut your phone off completely or keep it far from your bedside table. And should separation from your phone prove constitutionally impossible, at least dim the screen and wear a pair of amber/orange blue-light-blocking glasses.
• Eat dinner earlier, since big late-night meals force our body into digestion mode when really it should be repairing.
• AVOID caffeine, as coffee after 2 p.m. can steal the integrity of our sleep no matter how strong we think our tolerance is.
• RETHINK hard alcohol, which can be a challenge on nights out. But for the record, it rips the sheets off our sleep design. And those middle-of-the-night bathroom trips don’t help either.
• Instead of phones, power down that hour before bed, by reading, breathing, stretching lightly, meditating, or whatever feels natural to cue the body it’s bed o’clock.
• And something FUNDAMENTAL I learned: train yourself to SLEEP ON YOUR BACK. It might rob you of a a few nights of sleep, but it’s well worth it. Stomach sleeping can misalign and overstretch the spine and joints over the long hours and contribute to, not just tension, but inflammation. Sleeping on your side is not ideal either, but then again life never is.

And to the hero of the night: Melatonin. There are those who tout and those who condemn its supplementation. Some brand it as the hormone that makes us drowsy. And though this is true if taken at a higher dose than your body can handle, what is also true is that melatonin is a cellular repair powerhouse. It’s produced in the pineal gland at night but also in our mitochondria, where it acts as one of the most potent antioxidants our body can use. Dr. Reiter was one of the earliest champions of this view and for decades has not only studied but personally supplemented with melatonin, testing its safety and benefits in real time. His work charts the full spectrum of melatonin’s power, including the danger of “CHRONODISRUPTION,” or disruption of our internal clocks, as a major factor causing so many modern diseases.

More specifically, melatonin neutralizes free radicals at the mitochondrial level and shields our cells from oxidative stress. It protects our neurons, bolsters our immunity, and strengthens our immune response, ALL while CALMING INFLAMMATION (a bedtime act only melatonin can deliver). This cellular stud is our big DNA repair hero, invigorating our mitochondria and pulsating the very processes that slow aging and enhance our resilience. It does all these featful things and still coaxes our circadian swing. O Daddy.

Since melatonin production declines with age, we can consider restoring our natural rhythm not only with natural light (through bright morning sun and dark nights), but with supplementation when those signals aren’t enough. Try beginning with 1 mg and see how that works. There are some formulas that combine 1 mg of melatonin (1 mg released immediately to lull you to sleep and 1 mg released gradually throughout the night), together with valerian extract, California poppy extract, passionflower extract, and vitamin B6 – a winning combo to have you remembering your dreams.

Melatonin isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution. The best way to know what dose – if at all necessary – or which brand works best with your body is through energetic testing with a practitioner of DNFT (Directional Non-Force Technique) or EDS (Electro-Dermal Screening)

Some like physician Keith Nichols, health educator Dave Lee, and researcher Doris Loh advocate higher amounts, as high as 1000 mg – a real eye-popping promise for sure, but trying to play God with our bodies has a habit of backfiring. Better to keep things simple.

Other natural sleep-time darlings are lavender, chamomile, lemon balm, magnesium glycinate, CBD, and adaptogens like mushrooms and ashwagandha. Now on that note, cover those eyes and…

Go catch those dreams.