Melatonin and Science  

The first time I tried Melatonin was in 1995. I had three small children, was a single parent, and worked nights dealing black jack. During the week, I would get off work at 2 in the morning, and by the time I picked the kids up from the sitter and got them to bed, it would be nearly 3. I had to have time to unwind before going to bed myself, and that didn’t work well, as the kids would be up by 8. Finally, a friend recommended I try Melatonin to help me get to sleep faster.

I was thrilled with the results and recommended it to other people I knew had problems sleeping - one of those was my father. He called me a few days later to let me know he had done some investigating, and that scientists warned that there was no evidence that Melatonin was safe for long-term use, and he told me I should reconsider using it. I thought about it and continued to take it.

Fourteen years later, the warnings are still the same, and I still use Melatonin. I am alive and healthy. I have not grown a third eye and have no unexplained health issues. The science behind prolonged Melatonin use has made little progress. They [scientists] have performed numerous tests that show that subjects who used Melatonin had slower reaction times, impaired memory, poor performance, and were less alert. However, the subjects were given Melatonin during the day, and then tested. To me, that proves that Melatonin does what it’s supposed to do – it made the subjects sleepy.

Other scientific tests are not very conclusive, but indicate that Melatonin “may” be beneficial to people suffering from osteoporosis, menopause related sleep issues, high blood pressure, breast cancer, prostate cancer, and rheumatoid arthritis. Rumored benefits are that Melatonin will slow the aging process. In my own experience, I was 30 years old when I first took it and I’m 44 now; not 35, not 39, but 44. Tests on rats suggest that Melatonin can increase life expectancy. I’ll have to get back to you on that one.

It is advised that children should not use Melatonin. I have a friend who has given her kids Melatonin since they were little (in very small doses), and they are now older teens or adults, and have had no obvious negative effects. I will admit to giving my kids a small dose in certain situations, like trips, when I knew they would struggle to sleep in a foreign environment. I never saw any negative effects, but maybe I just got lucky.

Most information available says that you can’t really overdose on Melatonin. The worst that will happen is that you will be very groggy until it wears off and you may get a headache. People can become dependant on Melatonin, however, and you should not use it all the time. If you use Melatonin and find yourself needing to continually increase your dosage to have the desired effect, you may want to take a break from it for a while or find other methods of sleep inducement.