What exactly is melatonin and what does it do for sleep?

Melatonin is a natural hormone that is produced by your body and helps make you sleepy. In a person with a typical sleep pattern, melatonin is only produced at night for about 12 hours or so. However, lots of people have inappropriate melatonin release (reduced amounts or shortened time periods of release). This results in trouble falling asleep or staying asleep. So how does your melatonin production get messed up?

A major cause of funky melatonin is light. Light from the sun, light from your TV, light from your lamps, light from your phone... Light prevents melatonin from being released, causing a hard time falling asleep or staying asleep. Noise or other types of stimulation can also make a restless night. So how what if your melatonin is messed up?

There are a couple of things you can do. First, try to naturally reset your melatonin. Dim lights, turn off the TV and adjust the light on your phone for a reduced light brightness. Calm yourself brain with a quiet environment or something that soothes you (taking a bath, reading a book or a cup of tea). Try this on a regular schedule for a couple of weeks. If these efforts don’t work, the second thing you can try is melatonin supplements. The point of using melatonin is to adjust your internal sleep clock, so you won’t necessarily have to use it forever. Start with a dose of 3mg and take it 30-60 minutes before you want to fall asleep. Try this for a couple of weeks to see it it works. You can go up to 10mg nightly if you need, though you probably won’t need that much.