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The Truth About Taking Melatonin

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to Help You Sleep

MARCH 12, 2018
BY UHBLOG

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It’s been a rough day and you must

wake up early tomorrow for a
breakfast meeting, so you take a Beyond CPAP: AnBack to Top
melatonin pill, brush your teeth and
crawl into bed. Then you stare at
Alternative Treatment
the ceiling. And stare. And stare. for Moderate to
Neurologist and sleep medicine
Severe Sleep Apnea
specialist John Andrefsky, MD isn’t
Many people nd a CPAP machine too
surprised.
noisy or too uncomfortable for sleep. A
recently approved treatment called
“Melatonin decreases sleep latency by about six minutes, which is not a lot of time
Inspire therapy may help people who...
considering people sometimes can’t fall asleep for 45 minutes, an hour or two hours,”
he says. “Melatonin a ects when you fall asleep, not how quickly.” 12/10/2018 BY UHBLOG

Dr. Andrefsky says melatonin is more useful in mitigating jetlag than in curing chronic
READ MORE
insomnia, so it can be an e ective tool for people who travel leisurely or for business.

How Melatonin Works

Although billed as a cure-all for insomnia, melatonin is not a perfect antidote for
sleeplessness. A synthesized form of the naturally occurring hormone, which is
secreted by the pineal gland in the brain, was patented by MIT in 1995 and is widely
available as a pill or chewable gummy candy.

Melatonin helps travelers because when you cross time zones, your body
naturally “corrects” one hour lost or gained every 24 hours. For instance, if you
attend a conference on the West Coast and return to Cleveland, you'll shift back
to your normal bedtime and awaken more normally in three days, which 5 Tips to Getting a
corresponds with the three-hour time difference. Melatonin can help speed that Good Night's Sleep
process.
with Quality Rest
However, many people turn to melatonin for chronic or occasional insomnia and
Maintaining a good sleep routine is the
experience mixed results, because they use it too frequently, take higher-than-
best way to ensure you get a good
necessary doses or don’t time it properly.
night's rest. Find out how you can get
quality sleep.

How to Use Melatonin Properly 7/27/2017 BY UHBLOG

Dr. Andrefsky o ers these tips for using melatonin: READ MORE

Timing is key. Don’t take melatonin right before bed because it takes several hours
for it to become e ective.
The Healthy@UH E-
If you are a night owl who normally stays up past midnight, but would like to nod o Newsletter
around 11 p.m., take melatonin at 6 p.m. Conversely, if you go to bed at 8 p.m. and
rise at 4 a.m., it’s better to take melatonin in the late morning or early afternoon. You can get health and medical news
and information from the Healthy@UH
Don’t overdo it. More isn’t better. Just 0.3 mg to 1 mg is su cient, although many blog delivered right to your inbox every
over-the-counter preparations may be upwards of 5 mg each. Overusing melatonin month in the Healthy@UH e-newsletter.
has consequences, including: For a FREE subscription, visit our Sign
Up page.
Losing e ectiveness over time because brain receptors get desensitized to it
Worsening insomnia
SIGN UP FOR THE HEALTHY@UH ENEWSLETTERS
Headaches
Nausea
Next-day drowsiness, which can a ect work performance
Decreasing body temperature in the elderly
Interacting with other medications

“Think of melatonin like a Tylenol for sleep,” Dr. Andrefsky says. “When you have a
headache or joint pain, you take Tylenol for a few days and then you stop.”

Maintaining good sleep habits can decrease the need for melatonin, Dr. Andrefsky
says. Good sleep habits include:

Developing a consistent sleep-wake cycle – going to bed and waking up around

the same time every day, including weekends
Turning on the light rst thing in the morning, so your body understands it's
time to be awake
Sleeping in a cool, dark room
Avoiding late-night exercise
Not drinking co ee in the afternoon or evening if you are a ected by ca eine
Reserving your bed for sleep and sex only. That means don’t watch TV or read
in bed.
Getting checked for sleep apnea if you are waking up tired on a regular basis

John Andrefsky, MD is a neurologist and sleep medicine specialist at University

Hospitals Parma Medical Arts Center and University Hospitals Medina Health Center.
You can request an appointment with Dr. Andrefsky or any University
Hospitals doctor online.

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