Scientists tested whether sleep hormone can be increased without pills
A small study found that weighted blankets affect melatonin levels. The findings are published in the Journal of Sleep Research.Researchers did a small study and found that using a weighted blanket before bed was associated with increased melatonin production. This is the main hormone of the epiphysis, the circadian rhythm regulator of all living organisms. It is known as the "sleep hormone."
According to a 2005 review published in the Journal of Biological Rhythms, melatonin production is influenced not only by light, but also by environmental factors such as meal times, physical activity and social interactions. So the researchers wondered if another sensory cue - the pressure of a weighted blanket - could regulate the hormone.
They asked 11 women and 15 men in their 20s to spend several nights in the lab. The first day was allotted for the participants to get used to the environment. Then they were asked to sleep first under a light blanket and then under a weighted blanket. None of the participants in the study suffered from insomnia and had not used weighted blankets before.
During the experiment, each participant ate lunch, sat in bright light for two hours, and then sat in dim light until lights went out at 11 p.m. One hour before bedtime, they were wrapped either under a light blanket or a heavy blanket. For 60 minutes, researchers took saliva samples every 20 minutes to monitor each participant's melatonin levels. It is usually about 30 percent of the amount present in the bloodstream.
On average, participants who lay under a weighted blanket had melatonin levels that were about 32% higher than when they were wrapped in a lung. However, this had no effect on the participants' sleep itself; they were equally drowsy before and after waking up in both scenarios, and their total sleep time was the same in both scenarios.
"This is a very interesting study, but it would be nice to repeat it in a second cohort," said Håkan Olausson, a neuroscientist at Linköping University in Sweden, in an interview with The Washington Post. If it confirms the results, it would help to stop taking sleep medications.
Melatonin helps the body go into sleep mode, during which body temperature drops, metabolism slows down and levels of the stress hormone cortisol decrease. It is also responsible for making a person feel sleepy a few hours before going to bed. Normally, melatonin levels increase in the evening, peak at night and decrease as morning approaches. This is due to a part of the brain called the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN). It is the main generator of circadian rhythms in mammals, controls the release of melatonin in the epiphysis and synchronizes the "biological clock."
Source: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jsr.13743