» Resolution to sleep

Remember this entry exactly 1 year ago?

I had trouble sleeping for weeks. Those herbal pills and doctor’s drowsy pills didn’t work. I was so bothered until Sean had to make an appointment with NUH Sleep Laboratory.

I didn’t go though, knowing that I have to go for an overnight polysomnography kinda freaked me out. The idea of having wires and channels hooked on my head and body and with a bunch of people constantly observing me sleeping in a cold white bed just wouldn’t help me to sleep.

So…how to monitor if I can’t even sleep? -_-

Anyway, I called up a friend of mine who worked as a pharmacist back in Penang. He said:”NO sleeping pills!” He advised me to take calcium and magnesium pills instead.

I was skeptical for the first 5 minutes. Then I remembered what I studied about calcium and neurotransmission back in college. Calcium helps to get the brain to produce melatonin faster. And melatonin helps to slows down the “traffic” in the nerves and hence, the brain could rest.

It is commonly known that drinking warm milk helps to sleep. Not because it is warm but milk contains tryptophan and calcium, which gives the same effect too.

So, when I know my brain is super active even 2 hours before going to bed, I will pop some calcium & magnesium pills (500mg) one hour before I sleep. And of course, magnesium promotes calcium absorption.

For the women who always have menstrual cramp, calcium and magnesium helps to relieve muscle and menstrual cramps,too.

So that was how I managed to fulfill my 2008 resolution!