Sleep is closely related to health, but in reality many people suffer from insomnia. We are more familiar with the treatment of insomnia drugs such as “Valium”, “LOTAN” and so on. In recent years, melatonin has risen to prominence and has been publicized by businesses as a “miracle drug” for insomnia, is melatonin really that miraculous?

December 1, 2020, according to the “Food Safety Law of the People’s Republic of China”, “health food raw material catalog and health care function catalog management approach” and other provisions, the State Administration of Market Supervision and Administration, in conjunction with the National Health Commission, the State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine formulated a coenzyme Q10 and other five health food raw material directory, since March 1, 2021 shall come into force. Melatonin is among them.
Melatonin is a hormone naturally secreted by the human body, mainly secreted by the pineal gland, which has a wide range of effects, regulating the body’s reproductive system, endocrine system, immune system, central nervous system and many metabolic processes.

The secretion of melatonin has a more obvious circadian rhythm. The human body secretes melatonin at night and suppresses its secretion in bright light during the day. This secretion characteristic helps the human body to adjust the sleep state and sleep time.

The secretion of melatonin is also affected by light intensity, light wavelength, light duration, light cycle, electromagnetic field, environmental purification and other factors, even hunger, strenuous exercise can also affect the secretion of melatonin.

With age, the body’s melatonin secretion will gradually decrease, the elderly sleep disorder patients in the body of melatonin decline is more obvious, more and more elderly people are experiencing painful sleep problems.

Research shows that melatonin in physiological dose (0.1 ~ 0.3 mg) has a more ideal hypnotic effect. In China, melatonin is allowed to be used as a raw material for health food, and its health function is limited to improving sleep, with a recommended daily dose of 0.1~0.3 mg. In most of the sleep aid drugs, melatonin content up to 3 mg or even to 9 mg, far more than the physiological needs of the dose, which will make people get up the next morning after feeling dizzy. For the average insomniac, experts do not recommend long-term use of melatonin. The main reason is that long-term use of exogenous melatonin may lead to a decrease in its own secretion; excessive use of melatonin may aggravate the burden on the liver and kidneys.

Melatonin is only for biological clock disorders, melatonin-sensitive sleep disorders have a certain auxiliary effect, not for all insomnia have a role, such as insomnia caused by depression, taking melatonin may aggravate the symptoms of depression. In addition, melatonin has an effect on certain diseases and medications, and caution is needed when using the drug.

For example, there are coagulation disorders, depression, epilepsy, organ transplantation population is especially not recommended to take melatonin; cardiovascular and cerebrovascular disease long-term aspirin patients, it is not recommended to use melatonin, because aspirin and melatonin will occur drug interactions, affecting the efficacy of both. In fact, there are many reasons for insomnia, and if you want to improve the symptoms of insomnia, you should first develop good living habits. First create a comfortable sleep environment for yourself, and then consider a combination of physical, psychological and drug treatment programs.