Best Melatonin Intake Suggested by Medical Experts

There’s no shortage of evidence suggesting that melatonin is necessary for healthy sleep, but it will only benefit you if the right intake is appropriated. Unless you take the proper melatonin dosage it won’t help at all and you could just end up wasting your time and money with this supplement. Apart from the dosage however, it’s necessary to know how it works so you’ll know what to expect when you take the supplement.

How Much Melatonin Should I Take?

Scientific research shows that this hormone works insofar as inducing sleep is concerned as well as fighting cancer and improving your wellbeing. It’s for these reasons why it’s now widely available, but that also makes it difficult to give an exact figure with regards to the dosage because there is no standard. Many health experts recommend 1 to 3 mg a day, but the dosage can vary from 0.1 mg to 20 mg. Basically what it all comes down to is the reason why you’re taking the hormone and how you react to it.

The best way to approach this is to start with low doses and increase it in increments if you don’t notice improvements in a week or two. If you’re suffering from insomnia, start with 0.1 mg and see what happens. That’s only 1/10 of a milligram, but for many people it’s enough to promote sleep.

In one study, volunteers with sleep problems were given 0.1 mg of the hormone and after a few weeks, results showed that their melatonin level had increased to the point that it equaled those who didn’t have trouble sleeping.

Does Higher Melatonin Dosage Help?

Higher dosages will not necessarily make the hormone work better as in some instances it doesn’t even help. While the hormone is a powerful sleeping aid, that’s the only case if the product you’re taking provides sufficient dosage. To emphasize this point, consider the following:

As mentioned earlier, the 0.1 mg dosage works for many people, and if it does for you there’s no reason to increase it.
A study found that elderly people who have difficulty sleeping found relief with 0.3 mg / 300 mcg. Interestingly, the same study tried giving them 3mg, 10 times more than the original 0.3 mg, but it didn’t help. The same would occur with 5mg.
Another study involved individuals with severe sleep disorder who were given 10 mg, but no improvement was reported. The amount was increased to 20 mg and still there was no improvement. But when the researchers reduce the dosage to 0.5 mg, the subjects were able to sleep much better.

What these studies show is that it’s best to start with a small dosage, preferably in the 0.1 to 3 mg range as it can be effective and in many cases, is more potent than large doses.

What about Overdosing?

There is no need to worry about overdosing on this hormone because very rarely will it cause side effects. Some researchers have conducted tests wherein subjects were given very high dosages up to 300 mg daily for several weeks with no side effects. In fact, some individuals have been given 75 mg doses for up to 3 years, again with no visible side effects. That being said, there’s no reason for you to take so much unless the small doses aren’t working.

Melatonin Dosage for Kids

Studies have been published indicating that it is especially good for children with autism. Based on several clinical trials, the ideal dosage is 0.1 to 6 mg, and more importantly, it doesn’t cause any adverse effects even with children that take psychotropic drugs or have had seizures.

In fact, this hormone has proven to be so potent that it’s now being used to treat infants with severe ailments, and it is also used to treat children with severe seizures when other treatments have failed to work. This just isn’t the result of one study as it has been repeated in other experiments.

How Does Melatonin Work?

It is a hormone that your pineal gland produces. Your pineal gland is inactive during the day, but during the night, the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) turns on the pineal and produces the hormone. The more melatonin your body produces, the sleepier you will feel. Production begins at 9 pm and it remains high in your body for 12 hours or until around 9 in the morning the following day.

As you can see, this hormone plays a very important role in determining your sleeping pattern, and if you’re not producing enough you’ll have trouble sleeping. And while your pineal gland produces this hormone on the clock, you need to be in a dimly lit place to reach the level necessary to induce sleep. So even if it’s 9 pm but you’re in a brightly lit environment, production will be low.

What Melatonin Product Should I Use?

Not all products that have melatonin provide the proper dosage, and if it’s not prepared correctly won’t help you at all. Keep in mind that this hormone is available in the US without the need for a prescription because it occurs naturally in foods. Because of this, the US Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994 determined that it can be marketed as a dietary supplement similar to vitamins and minerals.

In other words, the production of these sleeping aids is not regulated by the FDA, so even if they claim to have the hormone, there’s no guarantee that it will work for you at all. To get your money’s worth, make sure to research the product thoroughly so you’ll know exactly what it contains, how it’s supposed to work and so on.

You should also read product reviews to get an idea of what people have to say. While getting information from the company website is necessary, you also need to get feedback from customers.

To ensure that you take the correct melatonin dosage and sleep better, you should consider a product like Lunar Sleep, a natural sleep aid which contains melatonin and other essential ingredients to help you sleep better. And since it’s all natural you don’t have to worry about side effects.