Melatonin for a Healthy Rhythm.

According to a scientific review from 2016, short-term use of melatonin is considered safe (except in pregnant or breastfeeding women, as there is a lack of studies in this area). Long-term melatonin supplementation in children or adolescents needs to be further investigated. If in doubt, please inform yourself about possible side effects and consult a doctor to make an informed decision.

If you decide to take melatonin, I would like to point out two things:

• For sleep, many people take melatonin about 1.5 hours before bedtime. While this helps with falling asleep, it has little impact on the circadian rhythm. If you want to support your rhythm, a study has shown that melatonin is most effective when taken much earlier. When using 0.5 mg of melatonin, the optimal time to take it for maximum effect was 3.3 hours before the natural onset of melatonin, i.e. 5 hours before the usual bedtime.

• Above 0.5 mg, a higher dose of melatonin does not seem to lead to greater circadian phase shifts. In the aforementioned study, 3 mg of melatonin resulted in the same average shift of the circadian phase (1.5 hours) as 0.5 mg. The difference was that the 3 mg supplement needed to be taken even earlier for maximum effect, namely about 7 hours before bedtime.