Friday, April 3, 2009

Histamines Hits Again


Though I like to stay away from information gathered from websites since they seem to be mainly opinionated by the writer, I have however stepped onto some great information about histamines and histaminergic neurons involved in the process of sleep.

In the past I have touched on the subject that histamines play a great role into the process of sleep induction as they are today considered one of the most indigenous sleep inducers known to us today, however what other information is out there that supports this topic and what have we done so far to promote histamines as a helpful sleep aid?

The article posted on the website says it all, or at least more than I know about the histamines.

http://ura1195-6.univ-lyon1.fr/articles/lin/frenchcorner/sommaire.html

For those who don’t want to really read the article or have a life (unlike myself) I will do my best to sum up what Dr. Lin had to say.

Over the last few years researchers have started to understand that histamines are not just some by product of many of the histaminergic based allergy medicines that seem to promote you to fall asleep after reducing your itching burning feeling, no they are also a neurotransmitter that promote wakefulness and sleepiness. They do so in such great effects that the action of lesions of such receptors that react to histamines, has the reaction of hypersomnia. Anti histamines show the opposite effects as they promote sleep.

As said before it would not make senses that melatonin is the cause of our sleep, since nocturnal animals create more melatonin at night then during the day and seem to be more awake than ever. Research backs up the concept that histamines are the natural modulator for sleep and promoting the histaminergic production awake, and anti-histamine based chemicals at night, can help produce a positive transition between waking and NREM sleep. I would go as far as saying that supporting this transition would reduce the causes of NT and sleep paralysis, though no research has been conducted that I know about (I will look for some).

I highly suggest reading the above article and help that it might help some of you get positive and better sleep than you had before. In an age where we stay up late, get up early, stress out, don’t exercise, and eat very poorly (even for those who say they eat good)… we need all the help we can get to get better rest and promote whatever the reason we sleep to do whatever it is it does.

-L

1 comment:

  1. Dear L,

    In 2006 I was doing several experiments with the supplement L-Histidine as a way to improve lucid dream probability. I would take it during WBTB and it worked quite well in concert with other supplements like Galantamine. My theory is that it improves mental alertness during an LD making it a better experience. I could see a definite difference between dreams with and without taking it.

    Sincerely,

    Scot Stride

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