People with certain sleep issues can benefit from taking melatonin. Find out how melatonin can help you catch much-needed Zzz's by watching this video featuring sleep specialist Dr. Michael Breus.
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Melatonin is a hormone, it's not a vitamin and it's not a herb it's actually something that is produced naturally in your body most people, 98% of those they've got enough Melatonin in their system and here is what it does. Melatonin actually tells your body clock that it's night time, so when somebody takes a supplement of Melatonin what they are trying to do is fake their brain out to thinking that it's evening.
Melatonin can help you sleep better in several different ways, first of all if you find that you're either your bedtime feels too late or your bedtime feels too early so that your body clock is off. That's when melatonin is appropriate. So for example if you have something called Social Jetlag and that's where you stay up late Friday night, you stay up late Saturday night and then come Sunday, your body thinks it needs to stay up late again.
That might be a time when melatonin would be appropriate, if your travelling across the country would be appropriate, or if you have what's called Phase Delay or Phase Advance Syndrome where naturally your body clock is shifted in either direction. Those are the people that melatonin would be appropriate for.
Melatonin would not be appropriate for people for example, who are under the age of 18 or people who are currently on blood pressure medications because it has been shown to.
Michael J. Breus, PhD, is a clinical psychologist and a fellow of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine. He specializes in sleep disorders and is one of only 163 psychologists in the world with his credentials and distinction.
