It’s involved in regulating your body clock and is the signal that sets off a cascade of processes that lead us to fall asleep and stay asleep. We often think of melatonin as the ‘sleep hormone’, but it doesn’t actually put you to sleep. We’ll talk a little more now on what we know about the roles of melatonin in your body. Melatonin is a key hormone in our sleep/wake cycle whose levels change depending on light levels, the season and our age. Melatonin production declines gradually throughout our lives until, in old age, the hormone can be almost undetectable in the body. 4 Newborn babies produce very little melatonin, levels then rise in infancy and peak in early childhood. 3Īnd thirdly, levels of melatonin also differ with age. The body produces melatonin for a longer length of time during the darker winter months than during the shorter, lighter summer months. If we’re being scientific, we can say it’s regulated by the light/dark cycle.īut it’s not just regulated by light, melatonin levels also follow seasonal variations. 2 It then begins to steadily drop until, around dawn, levels are at their lowest and remain low throughout the day.īecause of its night-time production, melatonin is often called the ‘hormone of darkness’ and it’s been given the name ‘vampire hormone’ because it comes out at night and is stopped in its tracks by sunlight. The body releases melatonin all throughout the hours of darkness, with levels peaking in the middle of the night, around 2-4am. It’s as the light levels decrease that the brake is slowly lifted and melatonin production increases again.Īs light levels decrease, melatonin levels rise naturally about 1-3 hours before we go to sleep. When light enters your eye in the morning, the brakes are essentially put on melatonin production. While it seems like melatonin production is triggered by darkness, light levels also play a role. It’s mostly made in a part of the brain called the pineal gland and is released into the body in response to darkness falling. While you might have heard of it as a supplement touted to aid sleep, melatonin’s actually a really important hormone that your body naturally produces. It’s in everything from plants and animals to yeast, fungi and bacteria. What is melatonin?Īt its most basic, melatonin is a molecule that’s thought to exist in all living organisms. We’ll get started by dipping into the science of melatonin. In this article, we’re going to explore what melatonin is, its functions in the body and what we know about its use, effectiveness and short-comings as a sleep aid. It seems strange that while one country sees no problem with people taking melatonin as and when they wish, others feel that it should only be taken with medical supervision, and even then, only for short-term usage. Melatonin is extremely popular as a sleep aid in the USA, melatonin containing products are sold over the counter in Canada but yet it remains a prescription-only drug in the UK, Europe, Australia and many other countries. So why do different places have such different rules about how melatonin is used? how to naturally look after your melatonin levels.In this article, we’re going to cover the following points: Interest in melatonin as a ‘natural’ sleep aid seems to be on the increase, even though this hormone isn’t actually available on the high street in the UK.
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