褪黑素不是安眠药，如何正确使用它？

Melatonin Isn’t a Sleeping Pill. Here’s How to Use It.

Most people think of melatonin as a natural nod-off aid, kind of like chamomile tea in pill form. Even the name of the popular dietary supplement sounds sleepy — that long o sound almost makes you yawn mid-word. But melatonin is also a hormone that our brains naturally produce, and hormones, even in minuscule amounts, can have potent effects throughout the body.

大多数人都认为褪黑素就是一种天然助眠剂，就好比做成了药片的甘菊茶。这种流行膳食补充剂连名字都听起来让人犯困——长长的o音几乎让人在说到一半的时候就想打哈欠。但褪黑素也是我们大脑自然产生的一种激素，只要是激素，哪怕极少量，也可能会对人体产生巨大的影响。

There are some clinical uses for it, but not the way that it’s marketed and used by the vast majority of the general public, said Jennifer Martin, a psychologist and professor of medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles.

褪黑素是有一些临床用途，但那跟营销里说的，以及绝大多数公众的用法不一样，加州大学洛杉矶分校的心理学家、医学教授詹妮弗·马丁表示。

Experts strongly urge people to consult their doctor or a sleep specialist before taking melatonin, in part because the supplement does not address many underlying health problemsthat may be disrupting sleep.

专家强烈建议在服用褪黑素之前咨询自己的医生或睡眠专家，部分原因是这种补充剂不能解决很多可能影响睡眠的潜在健康问题。

Anxiety can cause insomnia, as can a host of other potentially serious ailments, such as sleep apnea, restless legs syndrome or mood disorders like depression, that may require medical treatment.

焦虑和其他许多可能变得非常严重的疾病都会导致失眠，包括睡眠呼吸中止症、不宁腿综合征或抑郁症等情绪障碍，而这些问题可能都需要就医。

Melatonin, however, is relatively inexpensive and readily available at local pharmacies in the United States (in other countries it typically requires a prescription), and many people will go out and buy it on their own. So what’s the best approach to taking melatonin? Here’s what experts had to say.

然而，褪黑素价格相对便宜，在美国的地方药店也很容易买到（在有些国家通常需要处方），很多人都能出门自行购买。那么，服用褪黑素的最佳方法是什么？以下是专家们的看法。

How does melatonin work?

褪黑素是如何起作用呢？

During the day, the brain’s pea-sized pineal gland remains inactive. A few hours before our natural sleep time, as it starts to get dark outside and the light entering our retina fades, the gland switches on to flood the brain with melatonin.

白天，人脑中豌豆大小的松果体处于不活跃状态。在自然睡眠时间的前几个小时，天色开始变黑，进入视网膜的光线逐渐减弱，松果体就会开始分泌大量褪黑素。

Melatonin is sometimes called the ‘hormone of darkness’ or ‘vampire hormone,’ because it comes out at night, said Matthew Walker, a professor of neuroscience and psychology at the University of California, Berkeley, and the author of the book Why We Sleep. As levels of melatonin rise, levels of cortisol, the stress hormone, fall. Respiration slows. Soon, our eyelids begin to droop.

因为在夜间出现，褪黑素有时被称为‘黑暗激素’或‘吸血鬼激素’，加州大学伯克利分校的神经科学兼心理学教授马修·沃克表示，他是《我们为何要睡觉》一书的作者。随着褪黑素水平的上升，应激激素皮质醇的水平会下降。呼吸放缓。很快，我们的眼皮开始打架。

Instead of a lights-out trigger, melatonin acts more like a dimmer switch, turning the day functions off and switching night functions on. So taking a melatonin supplement is sort of like taking a dose of sunset, tricking your body into feeling like it’s nighttime. It doesn’t put you to sleep as much as it tells the body that it’s time to sleep.

与其说是熄灯按钮，不如说褪黑素更像一个灯光调暗器，关闭了白天功能，打开了夜间功能。因此，服用褪黑素补剂就像是吸收了一点夕阳，帮助你的身体感觉到夜晚。它并不会让你入睡，而是会告诉身体该睡觉了。

It may take several hours, said Dr. Ilene M. Rosen, a sleep medicine doctor and associate professor of medicine at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, which is what I think is the misconception about how melatonin is used.

这个过程可能需要几个小时，宾夕法尼亚大学佩雷尔曼医学院的睡眠医学博士兼医学副教授艾琳·M·罗森表示，而这在我看来就是公众对于褪黑素使用方式的误解所在。