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Home > Personal Care > Sleep Aids > Melatonin
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Melatonin
Melatonin is a natural hormone that regulates the human biological clock. Double-blind research with young adults shows that melatonin facilitates sleep. Another study of healthy, young adults reports that melatonin significantly shortens the time needed to go to sleep, reduces the number of night awakenings, and improves sleep quality. Other researchers report that the time needed to get to sleep is reduced with melatonin but other parameters of sleep do not improve.
Melatonin may be most effective as a sleep aid. Various studies of young and elderly adults indicate that in some people melatonin shortens the time needed to fall asleep and improves sleep quality by decreasing the number of times they awaken during the night. It may be beneficial when chronic pain or stress causes sleep disturbances. Melatonin can also help restore normal sleep patterns in people who do night shift work or in those suffering from jet lag as a result of crossing time zones. Moreover, it works without producing the addictive effects of conventional sleep medications.
Melatonin is a hormone secreted by the pineal gland that aids biorhythm regulation. Biorhythm is disturbed by stress, crossing time zones and changing work shifts. Melatonin production also declines with age. Vitamin B6 aids melatonin metabolism.
Melatonin is a natural molecule made by the pineal gland, which is located in the back of the brain. We produce this natural substance abundantly during our early years, but levels decline steadily as we age. Interest in Melatonin is based on years of solid research that supports its important role in the body. Studies show that Melatonin combats insomnia by regulating the circadian rhythm (sleep/wake cycle). Additionally, Melatonin has been suggested for insomnia, capable of relieving jet lag, used as a treatment for prostate enlargement, a combatant of cancers, weak immune system, high cholesterol, anti-aging properties, cardiovascular health, a positive influence on our hormonal, and nervous systems which extends ones life span.
Adding to the mounting evidence that melatonin is indeed important to the human lifespan, the hormone has also been shown to be effective in inducing healthy sleep. Studies have found that melatonin increases the speed of falling asleep and adds to the quality of sleep. Melatonin also has an affect on mood.
Benefits
Melatonin is a potent anti-oxidant
Melatonin promote natural sleeping
Melatonin improve your overall mood
Melatonin reset body clock from jet lag
Melatonin support healthy immune system function
Melatonin maintain proper function of your pineal gland
Melatonin is also helpful in relieving symptoms of jet lag. One double-blind trial, involving fifty-two international flight crew members taking either melatonin or a placebo for 3 days before and 5 days after an international flight, found that the melatonin significantly reduced symptoms of jet lag and resulted in a quicker recovery of preflight energy levels and alertness.
Less than 1 mg of melatonin has lowered pressure within the eyes of healthy people, but studies have not yet been published on the effects of using melatonin with people who have glaucoma. Melatonin might help some people suffering from depression. Preliminary double-blind research suggests that low levels of melatonin (0.125 mg taken twice per day) may reduce winter depression.
When some people take melatonin to treat sleep disorders, chronic tension headaches are relieved. Melatonin has also relieved cluster headaches in double-blind research, though how melatonin is helping these people remains unclear. Melatonin also regulates immunity. One group of doctors reported two successfully treated cases of sarcoidosis that it attributed to immune modulation. Also because of its effects on the immune system, melatonin has been given to people with cancer in many research trials. Low blood levels of melatonin are associated with an increased risk of uterine cancer. Melatonin has significantly reduced the level of prostate specific antigen (a marker for cancer) in prostate cancer patients. Melatonin inhibits breast cancer cells in test tubes and has put some women with breast cancer into remission in preliminary research. Melatonin supplementation has improved disease-free survival in people with melanoma and increased survival in people with brain cancer and lung cancer.
In a double-blind trial, people who had difficulty sleeping as a result of tinnitus were better able to sleep if given 3 mg melatonin per night for 1 month rather than placebo. Although melatonin did not reduce overall symptom scores for tinnitus, people in this trial with higher symptom scores did appear to obtain some benefit.
Where is melatonin found?
Melatonin is produced by the pineal gland, located within the brain. Levels of melatonin in the body correspond with the cycles of night and day, with the highest melatonin levels produced at night. Melatonin appears in foods only in trace amounts.
Who is likely to be deficient?
The body produces less melatonin with advancing age, which may explain why elderly people often have difficulty sleeping and why melatonin supplements improve sleep in the elderly. Adults with insomnia have lower melatonin levels. Frequent travelers and shift workers are also likely to benefit from melatonin for the resynchronization of their sleep schedules, though a melatonin "deficiency" as such does not exist for these people.
How much melatonin to take
Normally, the body makes melatonin for several hours per night-an effect best duplicated with timed- release supplements. Studies using timed-release melatonin have reported good results. Many doctors of natural medicine suggest 1-3 mg of melatonin taken 1 to 2 hours before bedtime. Studies with people suffering from sarcoidosis or cancer have used very high amounts of melatonin-typically 20 mg per night.
Such levels should never be taken without the supervision of a doctor who uses natural medicine. Melatonin should not be taken during the day.
Side effects
Melatonin is associated with few side effects; however, morning grogginess, undesired drowsiness, sleepwalking, and disorientation have been reported. Researchers have hypothesized that certain individuals should not use melatonin supplements, including pregnant or breast-feeding women, individuals with depression or schizophrenia, and those with autoimmune disease, including lupus, at least until more is known.
In a group of children suffering from neurological disorders, 1-5 mg of melatonin per night led to an increase in the rate of seizures despite the fact that sleep improved. Until more is known, children with neurological conditions should take melatonin only under medical supervision.
Although a wide variety of side effects have been attributed to melatonin, including inhibition of fertility and sex drive, damage to the eye, formation of rudimentary breasts in men, and even psychosis, these associations have not been supported by solid evidence. Because none of these claims have been well documented or independently confirmed, these problems were likely not due to melatonin.
Though most research reports that melatonin improves the quality of sleep, at least one trial has found that four of fifteen men given melatonin had their sleep patterns disturbed by supplemental melatonin.
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