Medical

Melatonin: The Sleeping Aid

Before incorporating melatonin in your regime, it’s wise to know the benefits and risks involved. Yes, melatonin can wreck your sleep cycle too!

By URLife Team

11 May 2024

Melatonin is a hormone that regulates sleep-wake cycles, syncing with our body's internal clock or circadian rhythm. Melatonin, the supplement is helpful for adjusting to changes in sleep patterns, like jet lag. It helps reset our body's internal clock, which controls hormones and body temperature. Without enough melatonin, our internal clock might change by about half an hour each day. So, if you change your sleep schedule by an hour, it could take around two days to adjust. This gets harder as we get older.

Melatonin doesn't directly make you fall asleep like sleeping pills do. Instead, it tells your brain that it's dark outside, helping your body know when it's time to sleep. That's why it's sometimes used to help regulate sleep schedules.

The human body produces melatonin naturally. It doesn’t make you sleep, but as melatonin levels rise in the evening it puts you into a state of quiet wakefulness that helps promote sleep.

Nowadays, you can find melatonin in a lot of different things like gummies, probiotics, and even multivitamins. It's become really popular because it helps with sleep and makes people feel better when consumed for short-term. However, before incorporating melatonin into your diet it is necessary to consult your doctor.

Also, many individuals think melatonin is a safer choice because it's seen as more natural than other sleep aids you might find in a drugstore. So, it's showing up in all kinds of products because more and more individuals are looking for natural ways to sleep better.

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How Much Melatonin Should I Take?

There is no simple answer. Melatonin researchers themselves are yet to determine the optimum doses for various uses. Furthermore, the same dose of melatonin can result in widely differing blood levels in different individuals. In one study, five healthy volunteers took the same 2 milligram dose of melatonin. There was a 35-fold difference in the amount of melatonin that entered the bloodstream.

When it comes to taking melatonin, don’t assume that the higher the dose, the better it will work. Research published in the Journal of Biological Rhythms says that a low dose of melatonin (between 0.3 and 0.5 milligrams) is more effective than a higher dose. A lower dose of melatonin has been shown to show a bigger 'shift' in the circadian phase than larger doses of melatonin.

Another study published by the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism show that a maximum shift occurred 0.5 milligrams compared to a previous study with 3 milligrams when melatonin is four to six hours before heading to bed.

Benefits of Melatonin

Melatonin appears to help with jet lag and changes in sleep schedule. Melatonin helps reset the body’s internal biological clock. This is important to improving sleep quality and total time asleep when changing your sleep schedule. Melatonin, however, is not a sleeping agent. It only tells your brain that it is dark outside.

The internal body clock regulates the body's hormonal and temperature rhythms. Without melatonin, the internal body clock can change approximately one half hour per day. Thus an hour change in sleep schedule will take approximately two days. This ability to change decreases with age. If not given any time cues, the internal clock generally runs about 24.5 hours. This is why it is easier to travel west than to travel east.

As the hormone which helps tell the brain that it is dark, melatonin can help regulate the time to go to sleep than the traditional sleeping pills. There is some speculation that melatonin may help the sleep quality of older individuals. However this has not been uniformly demonstrated in studies.

Is It Safe To Consume Melatonin Regularly?

According to the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, USA short-term use of melatonin supplements appears to be safe for most adults and children. However, information on the effects of long-term melatonin supplements is limited.

Some studies have indicated that long-term melatonin use in adults may cause mild side effects when compared to a placebo. Because melatonin levels naturally decrease at the beginning of puberty, there’s some concern that long-term melatonin use in children may delay puberty onset. And in some cases, relying on melatonin could simply mask another problem.

So, it is always recommended that behavioural interventions and good sleep hygiene remain first-line for managing most forms of sleep disturbance. However, there can be instances where this approach is insufficient and pharmacological treatment needs to be considered.

A 2017 study published in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine analysed 31 melatonin supplements and found that the amount of melatonin they contained often varied wildly from what was listed on the label. The hormone serotonin was also detected in 26% of the samples analysed. This could be potentially harmful for some people, particularly those who are taking selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), antidepressants that increase serotonin levels in the brain. Combining medication or supplements that jointly boost serotonin can cause it to accumulate and reach abnormally high levels in the body. This can lead to a serious condition called serotonin syndrome, which can result in shivering, diarrhoea, muscle rigidity, fever or seizures.

Another study showed melatonin content found across 31 supplements ranged from 83% less than advertised up to 478% more than advertised. This shows that supplements are not accurate when it comes to the percentage content of melatonin.

Melatonin For Children

While some parents occasionally give melatonin supplements to their children, most health professionals don’t recommend its use in this age group. The major reason behind this is that The Food and Drug Administration has neither approved its use nor evaluated its safety in children. According to a 2012 study published by the Canadian Pediatrics committee, there are no good data showing melatonin for the management of sleep disorders in children and adolescents.

Instead of using melatonin supplements as a treatment, optimisation of bedtime behaviour and routines should be emphasised as the first step for sleep problems in most young patients, especially kids. According to a 2022 study published by the JAMA Pediatrics, interventions (non-pharmacological) simply focusing on earlier bedtimes have been shown to increase total sleep time by almost 50 minutes in healthy children.

In most cases, it's best to try other methods to help kids sleep better before using melatonin. Some research suggests that melatonin can help kids with chronic sleep problems fall asleep faster and sleep a bit longer. But it doesn't seem to improve how well they sleep overall or how they feel during the day. Plus, there's a chance of side effects like headaches or feeling sick, although they're usually not serious.

According to a 2023 study by The Lancet study even suggested that melatonin might make kids wake up more at night, but we need more research to be sure about that. So, while melatonin might help in some cases, it's not a magic fix, and it's important to weigh the pros and cons with a doctor before trying it.

Who Should Not Consume Melatonin

People taking prescription steroid drugs
Women wanting to conceive
Pregnant women and nursing mothers
People with severe mental illness
People with severe allergies
People with autoimmune diseases
People with immune-system cancers such as leukaemia and lymphoma
Normal children of all ages

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Melatonin offers a solution to improve sleep quality and regulate sleep-wake cycles. While it can be beneficial, it's essential to consider potential side effects and consult with a healthcare professional for personalised advice before use.

In addition to these tips, for personalised advice and further assistance with sleep issues, we recommend consulting our experts from UR.Life. They can provide tailored strategies and support to help improve your sleep quality and overall well-being.