How does melatonin actually work?

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Noddie Night · Accepted Answer

Melatonin is a hormone your brain produces in response to darkness, and it helps regulate your 24-hour internal clock and sleep. Its job is to signal that it is night, not to knock you out. The National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH) says it is best supported for timing problems such as jet lag and delayed sleep-wake phase disorder.

Light holds melatonin back during the day, and levels rise as evening light fades. A supplement adds to that timing signal. NCCIH says a 2018 trial of 307 people with delayed sleep-wake phase disorder, where the body clock runs late, found melatonin helped them fall asleep about 34 minutes earlier.

For chronic insomnia, NCCIH says there is not enough strong evidence on effectiveness or safety to recommend melatonin, and long-term safety information is lacking. Product labels may also not match what is in the bottle.

Talk to your doctor before taking melatonin if you are pregnant, nursing, taking blood thinners, have epilepsy or have another medical condition.

How does melatonin actually work?

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