CLEVELAND, Ohio. (Ivanhoe Newswire) — Sleep allows not only for your brain to rest, but your body as well. For example, did you know that blood sugar regulation happens during sleep, and therefore people who don’t get enough sleep have a higher risk of Type 2 diabetes? About 36% of adults report not getting enough sleep. This lack of sleep can harm multiple bodily functions, like muscle growth, hunger response, stress relief, immune system restoration, and more. But are the sleep aids meant to fix your problems causing more?
If you have a hard time falling asleep, you may be looking for a solution outside of the bedroom. But do these aids actually work? Many people use melatonin as a sleep aid, but Brian Chen, MD, Sleep Specialist at the Cleveland Clinic Sleep Disorder Center, says it’s only minimally effective.
“If you’re trying to fall asleep and you’re using melatonin, I don’t know if it’ll be too effective,” he said.
If you’re going to take melatonin, Dr. Chen recommends taking small doses to signal when you want to go to sleep, as that’s what the chemical does to the brain. What about magnesium?
“Maybe it helps you relax, especially if you’re deficient on magnesium,” Dr. Chen explained.
If you fear your magnesium deficient, Dr. Chen recommends 100-200 milligram doses. One way to take it is in the viral sleepy girl mocktail. While the tart cherry juice in the drink won’t knock you out, he says it does have some other health benefits.
“Cherries themselves have a lot of antioxidant anti-inflammatory benefits, and so that can be helpful in your overall health and maybe even relax your body and kind of get you to be more sleepy,” Dr. Chen said.
One surprising sleep aid that Dr. Chen says works? Lying on your kitchen floor. Yes, really!
“Distract your brain. Get it set on anything other than the frustration that you feel of trying to fall asleep. Hey, I’m not trying to fall asleep now. I’m just laying on my kitchen floor and your brain says, oh, but it’s nighttime. I’m tired. Let’s go to sleep,” he explained.
Dr. Chen recommends that any distraction is better than lying in bed wide awake.
You may also not be able to fall asleep based on your daily habits. Dr. Chen recommends not exercising three to four hours before bed and not eating one to two hours before bed. And while a nightcap may help you fall asleep, drinking alcohol before bed reduces the quality of sleep, meaning you still wake up feeling tired. And sleep quality is very important for your brain health. Deep sleep flushes out amyloid proteins, which cause dementia.
Contributors to this news report include: Marcy Wilder, Associate Producer; Chuck Bennethum, Editor.
Sources:
https://www.sleepfoundation.org/how-sleep-works/benefits-of-sleep
https://www.cdc.gov/sleep/data-research/facts-stats/adults-sleep-facts-and-stats.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/25/well/mind/deep-sleep-rem-brain-health.html
* For More Information, Contact: Beth Hertz
Senior Manager of Corporate Communications at Cleveland Clinic
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