“There are some clinical uses for it, but not the way that it’s marketed and used by the vast majority of the general public,” said Dr Jennifer Martin, a psychologist and professor of medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles.
Instead of a lights-out trigger, melatonin acts more like a dimmer switch, turning the day functions off and switching night functions on. So taking a melatonin supplement is sort of like taking a dose of sunset, tricking your body into feeling like it’s nighttime. It doesn’t put you to sleep as much as it tells the body that it’s time to sleep.
Hypnotic drugs like Ambien or Benadryl generally cause people to feel sleepy right away, and the sedation effect of those medications “far exceeds that which they obtain from melatonin”, said Dr Alon Y. Avidan, a professor of neurology and director of the Sleep Disorders Center at UCLA.
“Keep a close eye on how you feel the next day,” Dr Abbott said. “Feeling groggy or hung over is a sign that the dose is probably too high.”The good news: In the short term, at least, melatonin is unlikely to do any harm.
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