The Benefits of Melatonin

Melatonin is hormone normally created by the body while you are asleep. I strongly recommend that you read the Wikipedia write-up about it.

Ms. Eclectic swears it helps with insomnia. So does JA who wrote to me:

I have been using it for years.

Melatonin level decline is a major issue with age, hence sleep problems for so many older folks.

1mg tablet is more than sufficient (that's many times 'natural ' output).
Problems include:

1. You never know what you are buying; early product was from pineal gland of animals. Now we are told it's almost all synthetic. Assays of product out there would, like many nutraceuticals , reveal a wide range of substances and potencies I'm sure. I use Puritan Pride's 1mg tablet (must import but cheap)- find it works best for me, whatever it is.
2. Slow onset of action - some physiologists claim it's not a 'hypnotic' (sleep inducer) at all but just sets your sleep 'clock'. I disagree from personal experience, even if that effect is placebo ;-).
3. It's a complex hormone and we don't know nearly enough about its other actions to know if they are good (Cancer prevention??? as article suggested) or bad stuff.
   Nevertheless, I'm still alive - sort of - after more than a decade of use.

This seems like an efficient health supplement. JA's message to me was in response to this article that I sent to several friends who suffer from sleep disorders of varying degrees.

...the first clues that otherwise healthy people who do not get enough sleep or who shift their sleep schedules because of work, family or lifestyle may be endangering their health emerged from large epidemiological studies that found people who slept the least appeared to be significantly more likely to die.

"The strongest evidence out there right now is for the risk of overall mortality, but we also see the association for a number of specific causes," said Sanjay R. Patel of Harvard Medical School, who led one of the studies, involving more than 82,000 nurses, that found an increased risk of death among those who slept less than six hours a night.

As a result of these recommendations, I've started taking melatonin...... when I remember to take it........ along with scotch or red wine...... etc.