...and there is debate as to whether melatonin supplements are truly good for sleep.
What?
The most commonly talked about sleep aid might not be good for sleep? Yikes.
I have been reading a lot about melatonin as it relates to sleep. I will read that taking it is good for sleep, that you need it when you're older and...that it's nothing but a placebo, that you shouldn't take it except possibly in small doses and then only when you're older or for jet lag...
The more research I do the stronger I feel that we just need to experiment and see if it works for us. But you do need to do your own reading, keep your dose low and make sure it's time release.
What else is melatonin good for? It impacts, in addition to sleep and circadian
rhythms, heart disease, diabetes, Alzheimer's disease and other
dementias, cancer, and blood pressure.
Given all the ongoing research that has shown and is showing that melatonin, a hormone, impacts many, many parts of our body and health I have decided to keep it in my nightly regime. At low doses.
I was taking 5 mg at one point --- just grabbed what was on the shelf not knowing anything about dosing, "assuming" if that was all that was offered it must be right. Ha. I discovered quickly that the dose was too high. I was melatonin overloading, it was not helping, and was hurting. I did some reading, which I SHOULD have done before buying and compromised on 1 mg, time-release. Then I stopped taking it as I heard Matthew Walker say it had more of a placebo effect and was only good for jet lag. Then I started again when I read the next article touting the benefits. Then I stopped. Then I started.
Finally, I have taken the time to read everything I possibly could on the subject and settled.
I won't go higher than 2mg as everything I've read says 3 is too high. I wouldn't do 2 if it wasn't time release. I'm tracking my deep and REM sleep so I'll see if it helps. I may just put the tabs by my bed and take if I wake up in the middle of the night, do a bit of experimenting.
Why time release? Here's a quote from the first article below: "Natural melatonin levels are low early in the evening, rise steadily through the night, and peak in the last third of sleep. Because melatonin has a short half-life (about 30-45 minutes), taking a standard-release tablet around bedtime results in a peak early in the night and a tail toward morning — precisely the opposite of the natural pattern...He suggests taking time-released tablets around bedtime or sublingual regular-release products in the middle of the night."
One would hope that there were ongoing studies to help us figure out this one but, per the article below (Melatonin: Magic Potion or Unregulated Danger?) --- "There is little financial incentive for studying melatonin more thoroughly, primarily because it can't be patented and competes with the lucrative hypnotics market"...
Articles that sparked this blog:
Melatonin: Magic Potion or Unregulated Danger?
...there are certainly studies out there that suggest melatonin may be helpful for insomnia in older individuals, perhaps especially those who have significant declines in endogenous melatonin levels associated with aging," he said. "Those data, however, also show conflicting results."https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/922202?nlid=132930_5402&src=wnl_dne_191209_mscpedit&uac=127754CG&impID=2196787&faf=1#vp_2
What New Research Says About Melatonin and Sleep
Here is what you need to know about taking melatonin to help you sleep...
It’s almost getting easier to ask: what chronic diseases don’t melatonin play a role in? Recent years have seen a flurry of studies showing the protective and therapeutic benefits of melatonin in the fight against the most significant chronic diseases of our time—heart disease, cancer, dementia, diabetes...
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/sleep-newzzz/202002/what-new-research-says-about-melatonin-and-sleep
Heartburn
https://healthyy.net/heartburn/melatonin-and-heartburn-how-it-helps
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