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Text © 2019 Locke Hughes

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ISBN 978-1-4549-3767-8

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Cover design by David Ter-Avanesyan

Cover photography by Christopher Bain

Cover image of molecule by Leonid Andronov/Shutterstock.com

Interior design by Ashley Prine, Tandem Books

For picture credits, see page 143

“O sleep, O gentle sleep.

I thought gratefully,

Nature’s gentle nurse!”

—Elizabeth Kenny,

Australian nurse and health

administrator (1880–1952)

INTRODUCTION

Let’s start with a simple question: How’d you sleep last night? I’ll venture a guess that you probably mumbled “fine” in response, shrugged your shoulders, and took yet another sip of coffee. But I bet that sleeping “fine” isn’t cutting it—not for your health, productivity, or relationships.

Perhaps “fine” means that you got a decent night’s sleep—seven hours or so—with a few wake-ups or bathroom visits along the way. Actually, come to think of it, it was probably more like five or six hours.

Or maybe you got in bed early, but after a few minutes of tossing and turning, you reached for your phone and started scrolling through social media and video clips until the early morning hours. Or perhaps you’ve been traveling across multiple time zones, which can make it nearly impossible to fall asleep at an appropriate time, no matter how tired you might feel. Whatever your typical nighttime routine looks like, it’s probably not really “fine,” is it? After all, you did pick up this book.

I can relate. I too have experienced years of frustrating, fragmented, and fitful nights of sleep. In those days, I felt irritable, anxious, and distracted—just a few of the inevitable side effects of sleeplessness. Every day, around 3 p.m., whether I was at my desk or at home, a sense of heaviness and fatigue would set in, and it was all I could do to keep my eyes open. Sometimes, I didn’t. (My apologies to my coworkers; it wasn’t you—it was me.) I began to feel hopeless and burned out; I’d lost the energy to do things that brought me joy.

Put simply, I was exhausted—and it affected my entire life. But, like you, I was far from alone. Most people around the world aren’t getting enough sleep. In fact, two out of three adults in all developed nations don’t obtain the recommended eight hours of sleep per night, and our collective inability to catch sufficient shut-eye has become such an issue for our health and well-being that the World Health Organization (WHO) has declared a sleep-loss “epidemic.”

What’s more, countries where the average time people sleep has declined most dramatically over the past century—including the US, the UK, Japan, South Korea, and several countries in western Europe—have also witnessed an increase in rates of physical disease and mental disorders as a result of insufficient sleep. Forget our common humanity, it’s sleep deficiency that seems to be the international currency that unites us around the world. While the causes may be varied and complex, we all simply want to sleep.

The good news? We can.

It is possible to get a good night’s rest, without resorting to expensive medications that knock you out into oblivion. It is possible to feel rested and alert, not weary and drowsy, when you wake up in the morning.

It’s all possible, thanks to melatonin, a hormone that our bodies create naturally. We just have to learn how to harness its power, nurture its production, and if necessary, how to supplement it.

In the following pages, I’ll introduce you to the melatonin your body produces as well as the supplement. I’ll elucidate how both can help you fall asleep and bestow numerous other health benefits.

But there’s a catch. (There’s always a catch!) Melatonin alone isn’t enough to improve your sleep (nor your life) permanently. That’s why this book will also cover the importance of sleep hygiene as well as bedtime routines and how to figure out which one works best for you. Finally, you’ll find delicious recipes that are simple to make—and that can help deliver you to dreamland, quickly and calmly.

The information in this book has the potential to change your life—just as it has changed mine. Today, I no longer find myself dozing off or losing concentration every afternoon. I don’t dread the sound of my alarm in the morning. I’ve lost the weight I could never shake, transformed my relationships, and skyrocketed to success in my career. All thanks to knowing the secrets of sleep—and the hormone that controls it.

If you too would like to feel more energized, healthier, and happier—every day, and all day—keep reading. This book will show you how.