If you have ever had difficulty sleeping, and most people have, you have likely heard of or tried melatonin. Some people love it and others find it doesn’t work. They have side effects of grogginess or intense dreams when taking it. The problem with commercially available over the counter melatonin is that the preparation of it is not standardized so there may be a lot of fillers in the pill you take and an unknown amount of actual melatonin. Depending on how it is prepared, it also may not be as available for absorption in the body as a micronized preparation is.
Melatonin is naturally occurring in the body and the amount you make and its effectiveness decreases with age. It helps regulate the circadian rhythms and influences stage IV or REM sleep. Stage IV sleep means deeper sleep and better quality of sleep. The body cycles in and out of stages of sleep throughout the night. When you have sufficient time in REM or stage IV sleep the pituitary gland releases growth hormone which is helpful in building and maintaining muscle mass. Use of melatonin is also associated with improved mood, energy and immune function. Besides just better sleep, melatonin can be used to treat frequent night time urination in men (when not due to another cause like infection or uncontrolled diabetes) and is a potent anti-oxidant.
1% of people who take melatonin have the opposite effect, meaning they get hyper stimulated instead of becoming tired. It also seems to be ineffective in helping with sleep during the day if you are a night shift worker. It could, however, be helpful for night shift workers when they transition back to sleeping at night. 10% of people will report no effect on sleep with melatonin, but it still carries the benefits of destruction of free radicals and the anti-oxidative effects.
Vivid dreams or nightmares can be another side effect of taking melatonin. In these cases I suggest starting with low doses, maybe 0.5mg-1mg nightly and increase the dose slowly until effective. Another common compliant is grogginess in the morning. In those cases I suggest taking the melatonin 1-2 hours before bedtime. The preparation I recommend is sustained release so it should not make you tired in the meantime. The average person will need between 3mg and 30 mg of melatonin to be effective, but in rare cases require up to 100 mg nightly.
If you are interested in trying melatonin, but you don’t know where to get a high quality micronized sustained release melatonin, I can help you with that! Just direct message me so we can have a quick conversation about your health history, allergies etc and I can send you the link to buy it directly from Nutrascriptive.
