Sleep better with natural melatonin
SUPAWADEE INTHAWONG
Have you ever heard about "Bedtime Milk"?
Bedtime Milk is produced at night or in a dimly lit environment so it contains higher levels of melatonin than normal milk.
Melatonin is a natural substance that controls the body clock and helps us sleep. It is a natural hormone that plays a central part in regulating sleep patterns and, in the medical world, is often used as a drug to help people with chronic sleep problems.
Dairy Home Co Ltd, the only organic milk producer in Thailand, is expanding their product line and introduced "Bedtime Milk" almost a year ago. The milk is organically produced at night on a farm in Saraburi.
Nine years ago, Pruitti Kerdchoochuen and his wife, Porntida, decided to go organic for the sake of their daughter.
Most dairy farmers in Thailand use ready-mix stock feeds or "tablet foods", which are hormone-boosted feeds to increase milk production. Most feeds were imported, soyabean-based products, and were often GMO-contaminated.
"It's for mass production, which is easy for dairy farmers and the cows were producing a lot of milk. This, however, was not necessarily safe for consumers. This is the main reason that we and other dairy farmers formed a network of organic cattle farms," said Pruitti.
"The cows are healthier after we replaced their feed with fresh grass not treated with chemical fertilisers and they can roam freely in large fields, eating as much as they want. They are never overfed and are not sick because they digest better.
"Our organic farmers can now save the money that went towards the treatment of the sick animals," said Pruitti.
After producing dairy products for eight years, Dairy Home decided to expand their product line to Bedtime Milk after Pruitti found research on how on high melatonin milk boosts better sleep.
Finland was the first to produce high melatonin milk, followed by the UK. There are only two Asian countries which produce high melatonin milk - Japan and Thailand.
"We spent over a year and millions of baht in research, with the help of the Industrial Technology Assistance Programme, Suranaree University of Technology, to find the best way to produce this milk. The amount of melatonin in our bedtime milk is about four to six times higher than normal milk, while research show that only three times the amount is enough to help consumer sleep better," Pruitti, who is also managing director of Dairy Home.
He said after the launch of Bedtime Milk, their sales volume increased three fold. Customers are always pleased with the results after drinking the milk. "They said it helped them sleep better and they felt fresh in the morning," he added.
Initially, Dairy Home were targetting the elderly, but later found out that most the customers are office workers.
What is melatonin?
Melatonin is a natural hormone, sometimes called "hormone of darkness" normally produced at night.
When the sun goes down, our body will begin to actively produce melatonin, which is released into the blood.
As a result, melatonin levels in the blood rise sharply and you begin to feel less alert. Sleep becomes more inviting.
Melatonin plays an important role in human sleep regulation, regulates our body clock and triggers our desire to sleep. Our body will not produce melatonin unless the person is in a dimly lit environment. In addition to sunlight, artificial indoor lighting can be bright enough to prevent the release of melatonin.
The amount of melatonin is also related to age. Children on an average secrete more melatonin than adults, which decreases further with age.
"Melatonin tablets were used instead of the sleeping pill in many countries, but I think drinking natural melatonin is better as it's safer. The customers can drink our low-fat, malt-favoured Bedtime Milk every night," said Dairy Home's managing director.
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