Melatonin supplements
- Dietitian.Lauren Hmede
- Apr 12, 2019
- 2 min read
Melatonin may help you to get a better night's sleep:
Melatonin supplement may help older people to fall asleep easier. It is the hormone of darkness as it signals the body that is the time to sleep.
It is secreted by the pineal gland in the brain every 24 hours and usually around 90 minutes before you fall asleep. Levels stay elevated for about 10 hours and fall in the morning.
You need to know that artifical light or light coming from electronic equipement may distrub sleep and prevent your body from secreting melatonin.
Melatonin levels usually decline with age and result in sleep problems so use of melatonin supplements may help odler adult in falling asleep.
A 2013 study suggests melatonin may help improve sleep and cognition at high altitudes. After taking melatonin, participants fell asleep faster and experienced fewer episodes of wakefulness after sleep onset than after taking placebo. Furthermore, in comparison with a placebo, mean reaction time (a measure of cognitive function) the day after taking melatonin was significantly improved.
Melatonin is Effective for Short Periods
Some studies show that melatonin can shorten the time it takes to fall asleep and reduce the number of awakenings, while other studies have found it’s no better than a placebo. Supplements of melatonin may be safe for use over short period to reduce delay of sleep while use over long term is not studied yet.
You need to be careful about melatonin supplements time as taking them at wrong time may result in reset of biological clock. For example if you take supplements at morning it may result in fatigue and tiredness throughout the active day.
The optimal dose of melatonin has not been established. In addition, the doses in commercial preparations of melatonin may not be standardized and can cause blood levels to rise as much as 20 to 60 times higher than normal. Side effects can include fatigue and gastrointestinal upsets.
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