Melatonin is the naturally producing hormone, which is taken in the pill form and as over-the-counter drug to aid sleep. This is very helpful in the circadian rhythm disorders, however it is often taken to ease difficulty falling and staying asleep. Suppose you’re interested in using the melatonin supplement to help you sleep, you might wonder how you can safely use melatonin as the sleep aid for treating insomnia and appropriate timing and dose. Discover how you can avoid the side effects or reduce likelihood of the overdose.
What Melatonin Dose to Take?
Melatonin is actually believed to be very safe, and therefore it is available as over-the-counter in many pharmacies & health supplement stores. This can be compounded in many ways, and sometimes it is added to many other supplements meant to aid in sleep. The pure melatonin drug is often sold as the capsule or pill, but you may buy this in the liquid or spray form.
Advertised melatonin dose strength will range from 1 mg to 10 mg and more. It’s important to know that using melatonin as a sleep aid isn’t regulated by Food & Drug Administration. As such, the production & quality standards aren’t enforced, thus the dose will actually differ from listed strength. So, it is suggested that it is bought from the reputable source.
Does melatonin help you sleep better? The research suggests that low doses of the melatonin drug can be very effective, particularly in the circadian rhythm disorders. Thus, it is tough to determine optimal dose for a person. Given such limitations, probably it is good if you take lowest possible dose. (It will mean taking 1 mg or 2 mg daily day for sleep aid.) The higher doses can be used for treating the sleep behaviors that happen as a part of the REM sleep disorder.
Timing of this dose is important and the high blood levels in wrong times can be the problem. Thus, if you take a lot of this dose, you might actually flood the system and benefits can get counteracted. There’re not any reports of the fatal overdose on the melatonin supplement alone. Although it can cause some morning hangover effects in case optimal dose gets exceeded, since it wears off, the symptoms must relent.
Role of melatonin supplement in regulating the biological clock, and circadian rhythm, seems to be very important. Thus, timing of when to take is very important. It is generally produced in one part of brain called pineal gland and gets released during period of the darkness from night to morning.