It’s midnight, you’ve been in mattress for what appears like an eternity, and Mr. Sandman is ghosting you. Once more. However earlier than you attain for a sleep assist, know this: Consultants say there’s no single magic capsule or potion that’s routinely efficient in terms of getting good relaxation—and that you just’re higher off educating your physique to go to sleep by itself. (Although, as you most likely know firsthand, that may be actually arduous.)

Within the quick time period, a sleep assist—whether or not it’s melatonin, magnesium, weed, or one thing else—would possibly aid you cross out, however constantly utilizing that sort of shortcut could be fairly unhealthy for the standard of your sleep (and, generally, for different points of your well being, too). “While you’re utilizing one thing to get to sleep, you’re usually creating an affiliation with that factor, whether or not it’s a substance, or perhaps a sure motion or conduct,” Joshua Tal, PhD, a scientific psychologist in New York Metropolis who makes a speciality of sleep, tells SELF. Principally, you’re making it even more durable to go to sleep with out no matter it’s you’re leaning on to fall asleep. Enjoyable!

From there, as Jeremy A. Weingarten, MD, director of the Middle for Sleep Issues at New York-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital and affiliate professor of scientific medication at Weill Cornell Medication, tells SELF: Tolerance also can develop into part of that equation. “Over time, the sleep assist could also be much less efficient, so you’re taking increased doses, which can end in negative effects,” he says. Cool—so now you’re not sleeping nicely, feeling more and more depending on no matter you’re utilizing, and you could have extra issues to take care of if the “assist” causes different reactions in your physique.

What’s a drained individual to even do? For starters: Don’t over-rely on fast fixes that can solely make your sleep state of affairs extra difficult. Right here’s the take care of frequent sleep aids—and why, a number of the time, they’re sneakily bullshit.

The substances: alcohol and hashish

Sipping a glass of wine or popping an edible would possibly seem to be a simple street to dreamland…till you’re taking a second take a look at how they really have an effect on your sleep. We’re sorry to report that, whereas every factor might help you drift off shortly, they in the end simply tire you out much more.

Alcohol

Booze is misleading in terms of your valuable slumber. Alcohol depresses the central nervous system, which means, certain, it could make you drained, however even should you’re consuming carefully, it would screw along with your potential to truly relaxation. “Alcohol causes considerably elevated sleep disruption all through the night time,” says Dr. Weingarten. “You’ll have poorer sleep high quality with a number of awakenings—whether or not you’re conscious of them or not—leading to a nasty night time’s sleep.”

This occurs partly as a result of sleep occurs in distinct cycles. Booze wreaks havoc on two of them, particularly, which messes with the remainder of them total. For starters, consuming throws off slow-wave sleep, also called deep sleep, which is significant for restoring your physique’s capabilities and serving to you get up feeling refreshed. Alcohol additionally decreases the speed of REM sleep, which is finest recognized for its affiliation with vivid dreaming and serving to us course of our emotions, and is moreover believed to help reminiscence perform. All informed, a nightcap is barely going to make you are feeling worse within the morning (and all of the extra so should you’re additionally dehydrated and coping with a ugly hangover).

Hashish

1 / 4 of People use the world’s chillest flower to float off, based on a research by the American Academy of Sleep Medication (AASM). As loads of us know, weed could be nice for feeling much less keyed-up, however that’s not the identical as actual relaxation. “Whereas some individuals use hashish for leisure, its impression on sleep is advanced,” Kannan Ramar, MD, a pulmonary/vital care/sleep medication doctor on the Mayo Clinic and former president of the AASM, tells SELF. The half that will get you excessive, tetrahydrocannabinol (a.okay.a. THC) is the wrongdoer behind its not-great results on snoozing. “THC could scale back REM sleep,” says Dr. Ramar—and analysis displays that, too.