How Do Sleep Supplements Work?

How Do Sleep Aids Actually Work?

Sleeping supplements are big business right now. If any of you have taken a look at our sleep aid reviews on VAGA.org, you'll know that there are dozens of products on the market now all promising to enhance your sleep.

Some of them promise to help you stay asleep for longer.

Others claim to boost recovery during sleep.

A small but sizable number are designed to promote lucid dreaming. 

Most of them simply say that they will help rectify your sleeping issues and allow you to get a good, solid night's sleep without causing serious side effects. 

There is no doubt that many of these supplements work. Natural sleep aids are extremely effective at improving various different aspects of sleep. 

But how do they work exactly?

Here is a quick overview of some of the main benefits of sleep aids, and how they go about dleivering them. 

Curing Jet Lag

This is one of the most common reasons why people use sleep aids. 

It's little wonder why - jet lag can be horrible. 

Individuals who travel a lot for work can often find that their sleeping cycles get completely ruined; even when they're back in their normal environment, it can take weeks for them to fall back into a healthy sleeping schedule. 

Many sleep aids contain melatonin. This is the hormone which regulates your sleeping patterns. Higher levels of melatonin make us sleepy - spikes keep us in deep sleep - and low levels leave us feeling fresh and awake. 

Supplementing with melatonin shortly before you want to sleep can bring on sleep at exactly the right time. Consuming a relatively large dose of melatonin before you hit the sack can keep you in an unbroken, deep sleep for a solid few hours. This might be just what you need to break out of your jet lag!

Reducing Sleep Latency

Sleep latency is where you can't fall asleep when you'd like to. 

This is an extremely common problem - lots of us lie awake at night for hours, tossing and turning, thinking about problems, or just wondering why we're suddenly not tired!

There are some natural substances which help reduce sleep latency. 

Theanine, for example, has been found to drastically reduce the amount of time it takes for people to fall asleep at night (source). It seems to primarily work by relaxing the muscles and the mind. It is not a sedative - rather, it seems to be a very mild anxiolytic and pain reliever. 

Many sleep aids utilize theanine to help you fall right to sleep as soon as your head hits the pillow. 

How Does Ginkgo Biloba Actually Work?

Ginkgo biloba is an astoundingly effective cognitive enhancer. Many people are skeptical about its efficacy because it is a mainstay of traditional Chinese medicine. Rightly so; most of the plants and concoctions used in traditional medicines are placebos.

But Ginkgo biloba is one of the rare exceptions that has been shown by modern science to actually work as described. 

We now know that Ginkgo biloba supplementation improves multiple different facets of cognitive function - memory, focus, mental energy, and even mood. 

There is every indiciation that long-term, regular Ginkgo biloba supplementation might protect against cognitive decline. It seems to slow down memory loss and make the whole process of cognitive decline less severe; unfortuntately, nothing can prevent it entirely. 

Gingko biloba has been used in nootropic supplements for a long time. 

But now it is starting to be used more and more often as a standalone nootropic. Many people in the West now take Ginkgo biloba extracts to try to stave off age-related memory loss. Sales of these supplements are skyrocketing. 

Let's take a look at how Ginkgo biloba works, its mechanisms of action, and how this nootropic is best used for maximum cognitive benefits. 

How Ginkgo Biloba Works

Ginkgo biloba has two distinct mechanisms of action, brought about by two distinct compounds found in the plant.

The first class of compunds - called glycosides - trigger vasodilation. This is where your blood vessels dilate (or expand). This allows more blood to flow through your blood vessels per second, which means more oxygen is being delivered to your cells.

Many brain cells can become starved of oxygen when blood vessels become restricted or narrowed. Vasodilation can effectively revive these cells. The effect this would have on overall cognitive performance should be obvious!

The second class of compounds - called terpenes - also increase blood flow in the brain. But they go about it differently. Terpenes reduce the viscosity of your blood - they make it less 'sticky' and more 'runny'. This also allows more blood to flow to your brain cells per second, which increases oxygenation, nutrient delivery, and ultimately, performance. 

End Results - Ginkgo Biloba's Effects IRL

Lots of you will be much more interested in what Ginkgo biloba can actually do for you. The mechanisms of action - how it works - might be completely irrelevant to you, and that's fine!

Let's take a look at some of the ways Ginkgo biloba can actually improve your day-to-day cognitive performance.

There are lots of robust, independent, clinical trials showing that Ginkgo biloba supplementation leads to improved cognitive performance across a number of measurable parameters. 

In this trial, researchers found that giving Ginkgo biloba extract (10.7mg glycosides) to men aged 50-61 brought about considerable improvements in how the men performaned in working memory tests. 

Some other trials - such as this one - have looked at how Ginkgo biloba affected people struggling with Alzheimer's Disease. While Ginkgo biloba was unable to significantly affect AD per se, it was moe effective than plaecbo.

Here is what the researchers had to say: "In the meta-analysis, the SMDs in change scores for cognition were in favor of ginkgo compared to placebo (-0.58, 95% confidence interval [CI] -1.14; -0.01, p = 0.04), but did not show a statistically significant difference from placebo for activities in daily living (ADLs) (SMD = -0.32, 95% CI -0.66; 0.03, p = 0.08). Heterogeneity among studies was high. For the Alzheimer subgroup, the SMDs for ADLs and cognition outcomes were larger than for the whole group of dementias with statistical superiority for ginkgo also for ADL outcomes". 

For more info on nootropics, their effects, and how to use them, visit VAGA.org.