The body's own messenger substance, melatonin, plays a major role in falling asleep. It regulates your sleepiness and controls the body's day-night rhythm. In humans and vertebrates, it is produced in the pineal gland, among other places, from the tissue hormone serotonin.
Darkness promotes secretion
Light inhibits the production of melatonin. In the dark, production increases because this inhibition is removed. Thus, the body's level of the messenger substance increases over the course of the night by a factor of three in older people and even by a factor of twelve in young people. Depending on the season, the maximum melatonin concentration is reached earlier or later, but the mean value in the body is at three o'clock at night. During this deep sleep phase, the secretion of other important messenger substances responsible for a healthy sleep rhythm is stimulated. If you look at the blue light of a smartphone, tablet, or laptop display for a long time before sleeping, it inhibits your melatonin secretion. The result can be that you have more trouble falling asleep.
Lower melatonin concentration with age?
As we age, the body's production of the messenger substance decreases. This explains why sleep duration generally decreases in seniors and problems with staying or falling asleep occur more frequently at night. Shift work or long-distance travel also have an unfavorable effect on melatonin production, so that additional melatonin intake can be useful to find healthy sleep for the recovery of body and mind and to mitigate the effects of jet lag.
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Melatonin as a dietary supplement
Due to its sleep-promoting and antioxidant properties, taking the "sandman hormone" as a dietary supplement is popular. Unlike many other sleep aids, melatonin increases the quality of sleep, so you do not wake up feeling groggy in the morning. The messenger substance is non-toxic even in larger quantities and is generally well tolerated. Nevertheless, you should not exceed the maximum dose when taking it. Occasionally, "too much" can have the opposite of the desired effect and trigger sleep problems, nervousness, and irritability, as well as daytime fatigue. You should also not take melatonin in the morning or during the day, as it can cause sleepiness. Incidentally, melatonin also acts as an antioxidant, thereby preventing oxidative stress.
• Are you interested in other natural sleep aids? Then read more here.
