Integrative Psychiatry & Longevity Blog in St. Louis, MO & Washington DC 

Sleep isn’t just “something we do at night.” It’s a biologically essential process that repairs the brain, consolidates memory, balances mood, regulates appetite, and clears the brain’s metabolic waste. When sleep goes sideways, everything  else goes sideways: mood, focus, resilience, and yes, health. It's fairly common to rely on substances to “hack” sleep, and while these may feel  helpful in the short term, they throw your brain’s natural sleep architecture out of whack. L

Lately, more and more people are turning to melatonin to help them fall asleep. You can find it on every pharmacy shelf, marketed as the natural solution for restless nights. And while melatonin does have a role to play in regulating sleep, the idea that it’s a shortcut or substitute for good sleep habits is where many people go wrong. As an integrative psychiatric nurse practitioner , I work with patients every day who struggle with sleep. And the truth is, good sleep doesn

We’ve built a mental health culture where every hard experience becomes a label—and every label leads to a prescription. That’s not...