The first thing you should know about melatonin supplements for sleep is that they are go-to-sleep fondling pills, not a sleep-through-the-night hormone. They are designed to ease the miles to go before sleeping, not to keep you asleep. They are also sold to treat some common conditions like anxiety headaches and sleep disorders. Yet , I find that people have certain myths about that sleep disorder treatment that need to be disclosed and explained before attempting to use it to help you enter your desired period of rest.
Melatonin is made inside of the body in a lot of places, the most important of which is the brain and the gut which makes about 400 times as much melatonin as made by the brain. It is made as product of another compound called serotonin that is present inside the human body as well as inside many food stuffs. Its manufacturing cycle is triggered by the light/dark cycle. Light inhibits melatonin synthesis, while darkness enforces it. Normally its levels begin to rise in the early evening, so if you take it as a pill at 10 or 11 pm, this will push your sleep rhythm back later than it should be.
Another common benign feature of melatonin supplement for sleep is that it has a 45-60 minute half life inside the human body. This can add to the evidence that it is only a sleep fondling pill. Ironically enough, some people are very sure of its abilities as an inducer of lucid dreams at doses around 3 mg. It is true that melatonin suppresses rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, but this can lead to a rebound and an increase in dream vividness only in people who have experience in controlling their mind during sleep. But science still has the upper argument that the longer REM cycles ( where dreams usually occur ) happen late at night after you've been asleep for 4-6 hours, so it is certainly not the most effective lucid dreaming supplement. If you're thinking of lucid dreams, try better ways by reading Thomas Yoshak's "Advanced lucid Dreaming: The Power of supplements"
If you are taking melatonin pills for anxiety headaches, jet lag lack of sleep, or any other sleep disorders, don't worry about side effects. Melatonin has a very low toxicity, and excess doses at one time will never put you in coma. It is the duration of treatment rather than the size of the dose that is most influential to compliance to melatonin. Melatonin side effects are unlikely to occur in healthy users if they consume it for less than 3 months. This might be due to another fact that when you start taking melatonin supplements, it will get better for a couple of weeks, then it will stall for another week, so when people just keep using it, they are just keeping up reserves. Aside from the mild side effects of nausea or vomiting, the most important of melatonin side effects is the occurrence of nightmares.
People who drive or are engaged in doing any work that requires full concentration and fast physical reaction, shouldn't perform these activities if consuming melatonin. It can also worsen low blood pressure, depression, liver disease, so one must consult his doctor before taking it, and if is advised to take it, he/she must keep in mind to take it as a temporary remedy for his complaint to avoid entry into its side effects.
There are however, other natural less expensive means that anyone can use to improve his sleep awake cycle during the day that we can summarize as follows:
1- Regular exercise during the day.
2- Avoid fighting back sleep during the daytime because it actually teaches the brain to fight sleep during night which disturbs the sleep cycle.
3- Going into a dark room during daytime and closing your eyes there for a few minutes sets your brain waves into an alpha-theta rhythm which lets the brain rest. That brief transit during the day will train the brain to adjust more easily to the same conditions during the night.
4- Eat a spoonful of peanut butter about 30 minutes after you wake up in the morning and keep that time constant even on the weekends. This will set the circadian rhythm of cortisol, the main stress hormone which has great control on the sleep awake cycle.
