Unboxed: 7 sleep supplements that lead with melatonin
Safety is established. The question remains: When is the best time to take melatonin?
![Unboxed: 7 sleep supplements that lead with melatonin Unboxed: 7 sleep supplements that lead with melatonin](https://eu-images.contentstack.com/v3/assets/blt09e5e63517a16184/blt9f46fe2ac17478dd/64ff18265137412361279c14/1-melanonin-cover.png?width=700&auto=webp&quality=80&disable=upscale)
Chocolate supplements sound like one tasty way to finish your day and help you slip into sleep. A 3-milligram dose of melatonin is combined with 100-milligram 5-HTP, which is used to increase serotonin levels in the brain. This effect can regulate mood and behavior, and thus help improve sleep. SRP: $20.00/15 squares
This is a quality, sophisticated formulation featuring a slew of branded ingredients that tend to have research and intellectual property protection. Suntheanine is the leading brand of L-theanine, the amino acid in green tea that makes people relaxed yet not drowsy. Affron is a branded saffron, used to improve mood. GABA is a neurotransmitter that decreases activity in the nervous system, which slows the brain down and gets it ready for sleep. Valerian and melatonin combine to get you to sleep and keep you asleep. SRP: $34.99/60 caplets (30 servings)
This one-two punch combines melatonin with a new-to-the-market branded ingredient of ashwagandha called Shoden. This adaptogen is standardized to 35% withanolides, which is significantly higher than the other two primary branded ashwagandha ingredients, KSM-66 and Sensoril. Shoden, at the same 120-milligram dose used in this product, showed in a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, six-week trial of 150 participants a significant increase of 42% on restorative sleep. That means you're waking up and ready to go. Time to fall asleep after lights out was significantly reduced by almost 12%. Improved quality of sleep time increased by 39 minutes. SRP: $13.50/30 vegetarian capsules
These potent single-serve packets pack a tasty punch, designed to help reduce the time it takes to fall asleep, improve sleep quality, increase total sleep time and re-set the body's sleep/wake cycle. It does this with the ingredients 5-HTP, chamomile, lavender, L-tyrosine, L-theanine, lemon balm and 3 milligrams of melatonin. What's more, the product is Non-GMO Project Verified, Informed Sport Certified, gluten-free, vegan, and does not include artificial colors, flavors or sweeteners. Its sweeteners are stevia and monk fruit. SRP: $29.99/15 satchels
The Wellblends line from NatureMade features five SKUs: Fall Asleep Faster, Back to Sleep, Sleep & Recover, Sleep & Immune, and Sleep Longer. Because the main problem we seem to be having is to not get the recommended amount of sleep, let's focus on the Sleep Longer SKU. Along with a hefty 10-milligram dose of melatonin in a timed-release format, it contains GABA to chill the mind out and L-theanine to help the body relax. The packaging has just undergone a fresh re-design. SRP: $15.99/35 tablets (10mg melatonin, time release)
This formulation works on a range of sleep dysfunctions: It helps people fall asleep and stay asleep, and may also alleviate occasional sleeplessness. Melatonin is combined with lemon balm (Melissa officianalis), which is like walking meditation in a bottle; L-theanine, the amino acid in green tea that makes people relaxed yet not drowsy; and valerian, which has a long history of use as a sedative. SRP: $26.40/30 softgels
These delicious vegan gummies contain a range of ingredients aimed not just at helping get the body to sleep but to also uniquely help women. It starts, of course, with 3 milligrams of melatonin. Then there is passionflower to help the body relax, lemon balm for stress relief, L-theanine and GABA to chill out the overactive mind, and chaste tree, an herb used to balance women's hormones. SRP: $25/60 gummies (30 servings)
These delicious vegan gummies contain a range of ingredients aimed not just at helping get the body to sleep but to also uniquely help women. It starts, of course, with 3 milligrams of melatonin. Then there is passionflower to help the body relax, lemon balm for stress relief, L-theanine and GABA to chill out the overactive mind, and chaste tree, an herb used to balance women's hormones. SRP: $25/60 gummies (30 servings)
Melatonin is now approaching billion-dollar-baby status. According to Nutrition Business Journal, melatonin sales grew 14% in 2019, 42% in 2020 and another 17% in 2021.
And as sleep disturbances continue to thwart our collective health, supplements makers have stepped forward. In this first part of our look at the sleep supplements market, we will focus on new products that contain melatonin.
Melatonin has historically been used against jet lag. That's because it re-sets the body's circadian rhythms of sleep-wake regulation—the better to get you comfortably situated in a new time zone.
Melatonin has been called the "hormone of darkness." Researchers in the Czech Republic explain, "Melatonin is a hormone produced mainly by the pineal gland during the dark phase of the circadian cycle, with typical circadian rhythm with maximal secretion at night and depression during the day."
A number of studies have demonstrated a solid safety profile with melatonin supplementation in children. In a 2020 meta-analysis, 19 studies on 841 children and adolescents with delayed sleep-wake phase disorder (DSPD) the study subjects consistently reduced the time it took to fall asleep by a minimum of 22 minutes and maximum of 60 minutes, without any serious adverse events.
Similarly, when the same researchers looked at an additional 17 studies involving 1,374 children and adolescents who did not suffer DSPD, and found no adverse effects.
And in long-term safety studies, between one and almost 11 years long, melatonin supplements were did not exhibit any problems with puberty development, mental health scores or sleep quality other than what was expected.
In Britain, 35 million doses of 3 milligrams of melatonin between 2008 and 2020 showed all is well.
The optimal dose is the lowest one that works, researchers note, and people should stop taking melatonin at least once a year, preferably during summertime.
There is some disagreement on the best time to take melatonin. Everyone seems to agree that taking it too late—that is, right before bedtime—will increase the chances of feeling groggy the next day.
Melatonin levels begin to rise about two hours before bedtime, says Johns Hopkins University researcher Luis Buenaver, Ph.D. That's why he recommends taking it two hours before bedtime. German researchers, meanwhile, advocate taking melatonin one or two hours before bedtime.
But according to John Andrefsky, M.D., at University Hospitals in northeast Ohio, the optimal time to take melatonin supplements is three to five hours before the body's melatonin stores start to rise as daylight dims.
"If you are a night owl who normally stays up past midnight, but would like to nod off around 11 p.m., take melatonin at 6 p.m.," he says.
Perhaps the best counsel for consumers is, first, take the lowest dose that works. Then, they can experiment on themselves by taking melatonin at different times before bedtime. One hour seems to be the minimum, perhaps two. Because the body begins to ramp up production of melatonin when it starts to get dark out, night owls who want to dial back their nocturnal activities might want to take melatonin even earlier—up to five hours prior to the new desired bedtime.
Click through out gallery to learn more about seven new sleep supplements that feature melatonin.
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