by H. Snowborne

Created on: January 06, 2010

There are so many misconceptions about over the counter supplements and "remedies" that it's safe to say no one should be treading through these products at the mercy of a drug store or health food store clerk.  Insomnia is a big problem in the world, our collective lifestyle as a culture creates this condition in so many people because we're so driven to acquire and succeed and keep working, maintain control.  There are a multitude of reasons why individual people simply don't sleep, and though it looks like melatonin might  be a good option as a treatment, it really isn't something one should use without some prior education, or at least some kind of qualified supervision from a practitioner trained in the use of alternative medicines such as melatonin.  That list does not include a drug store clerk, a salesperson at a health food store, the vast majority of MDs and conventional medical doctors and practitioners who haven't bothered to learn about alternatives, or your closest glossy "health" magazine.

Let's clarify one huge piece of misinformation:  melatonin is not a "supplement".  It is not some nutrient we need to ensure is in our diet.  It's a hormone, one that our own bodies make naturally.  Our bodies create and use melatonin primarily as a means of creating the circadian rhythm in our sleeping/waking cycle.  At different times in our lives, the quantity of melatonin we produce will change to coincide with the needs of specific physical development.  For example, children who begin their adolescence produce a decreased amount of melatonin because their circadian rhythms change so that they need less sleep-this is why teenagers can stay awake so long into the wee hours, and sleep a few hours into the day to "make up" for the lost sleep.  Compared the amount of brain growth and developmental change which takes place in infancy and early childhood, sleep isn't quite so necessary during adolescence, when the body undergoes a different type of growth.  Eventually, melatonin production changes again, and our bodies learn once again to respond to daylight and darkness with help from this hormonal adjustment.  There's a common belief that melatonin production decreases as we age, but it may not be correct to believe that it decreases in the same way in everyone. Not enough research has been done.

Just because melatonin is a naturally occurring hormone doesn't mean it's safe to use.  The

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