I was the worst sleeper I have met in my life. If I was able to fix my sleep, believe me, everyone can do it.
For 20 years, I struggled with terrible sleep. I used to lie in bed for hours, sometimes staying awake the entire night. At one point, I even stayed awake for 72 hours.
I really wanted to solve it but I have always been hesitant about taking pills because most of them don’t work well, have side effects, and lead to tolerance over time. However, after reading some research, I found this amazing pill called melatonin which actually works, side effects are mild, and long-term use doesn’t build up tolerance. At least that the research showed. I had to test it.
My personal experience
I started taking melatonin 8 months ago. Even before that, I have been tracking how long it takes me to fall asleep, how long I sleep, and how I feel every day. After around 6 months of taking melatonin consistently, I watched Andrew Huberman’s video advising against melatonin for the following reasons:
Insert Andrew Huberman’s video here ( https://www.youtube.com/shorts/4zsiOFAfcFw )
- Melatonin suppresses the onset of puberty.
- Melatonin helps to fall asleep but not to remain asleep and many people who take melatonin find that they wake up 3–5 hours later unable to fall back asleep.
- Melatonin is not regulated so melatonin pills could be from 15% to 400 times more than what is listed in the bottle.
Then I listened to Andrew Huberman and decided that melatonin was not necessary and I could continue to sleep great without it. I left it for a month and focused only on my sleep habits. In the last month, I came back to melatonin and I have never stopped tracking my sleep so I have data, before taking melatonin, 6 months taking it, 1 month only with sleep hygiene, and one month back into the melatonin. Let’s compare it and see the results.
My results: (melatonin + sleep hygiene)
Let’s start with the first 6 months of taking melatonin and working on my sleep hygiene.
The first day was weird, the last thing I remembered was taking the pill. When I woke up in the morning I felt a little confused but it passed quickly. Then I realized how good I was feeling. I was full of energy and mental clarity. It could have been the first time I slept well in my life.
For the first 6 months of taking melatonin, my sleep was really amazing. I really felt the difference. But… what does the data say?
During the first 6 months of taking melatonin, on average I fell asleep 24 minutes faster, slept 32 minutes longer, and woke up feeling very good 87% of mornings. It means I was sleeping 32 minutes more but only spending 8 minutes more in bed because I was also falling asleep considerably faster. I also was feeling great most days.
But to be fair it was not only the melatonin. At that time I also started to take care of my sleep habits. I started taking other supplements, created a sleep ritual, and created a better sleep environment (let me know in the comments if you want a video about my complete sleep routine).
My results: (sleep hygiene alone)
After 6 months of great sleeping and an Andrew Huberman video, I stopped taking melatonin and focused only on sleep hygiene. I even improved my sleep habits because I knew I didn’t have melatonin to back me up.
So let’s compare the melatonin-free month with the past 6 months. I was expecting better results because my sleep habits were even better and… (Let me know in the comments if you expect better or worse sleep after quitting the melatonin.) Compared with the 6 months of taking the melatonin: It took me 4 minutes longer to fall asleep (not a big deal), but here’s where the difference actually comes in, I spent 15 minutes less asleep, and felt very good only 73% of nights. You may be thinking “Not bad”, but I was really paying attention to my sleep habits. I was doing everything to sleep well.
Coming back to melatonin
No doubt melatonin was beneficial. But before starting to take it again I had to check what the research says about Andrew Huberman’s claims. I did my research and I couldn’t find any reason to stop taking it (I’ll explain what I found a bit later). I came back to melatonin for the last 42 days and the results were a bit better than in the first 6 months. The full results are on the screen.
As you can see I sleep a lot faster, longer, and feel better when I’m taking melatonin.
Going to the research to check Andrew Huberman’s claims and more
So now let’s check Andrew Huberman’s claims and what science says about that. First of all, he says “My personal bias is” [insert video here], he shows it as it is, his personal opinion, not scientific outcome. I appreciate that he differentiates what is science proved and what is his personal opinion.
- Melatonin suppresses the onset of puberty [insert video here]: science is not conclusive about that yet. Some research has found no effect while others have found differences but they are not randomized controlled trials. However, the most important question here is how old you are. If you are 20 years old or younger I don’t recommend taking melatonin. Your body produces enough on its own. As you can see in the graph below melatonin production starts to decline after puberty and levels are considerably lower at 40. If you are a teenager or a kid taking melatonin it is very unlikely to help you in any way. You would be better off focusing on your sleep hygiene. But I’m 22 and as you can see my melatonin production is already far from the peak. So if you are older than 20 the positive effects of bringing your melatonin levels back dwarf any puberty-related concern.
- Melatonin helps to fall asleep but not to remain asleep [insert video here]: I agree that the main goal of melatonin is to help us fall asleep. First, I want to fall asleep faster. Who likes to spend time in bed trying to fall asleep?
Many people who take melatonin find that they wake up 3–5 hours later unable to fall back asleep [insert video here]: That may be true for some people. Some people have other sleep problems and melatonin doesn’t help to solve them. But we cannot say that melatonin is the cause of them waking up in the middle of the night. As you have seen in my results I spend more time in bed and sleep better when I take the melatonin. In this double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled study melatonin significantly improved self-rated sleep quality, shortened sleep latency, and reduced fatigue and daytime sleepiness. This systematic review of melatonin safety in older adults says “Overall, melatonin appears to be a safe medication in older adults relative to other commonly prescribed medications in this age group”. And this systematic review and meta-analysis of 23 randomized control trials concluded that treatment with exogenous melatonin has positive effects on sleep quality in adults.
- Let’s take a look at their meta-analysis. The vertical continuous line in the middle means neutral results. Every horizontal line is a different study and the the square in the middle means the average of the study. In the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index the points at the left of the middle line mean an improvement in sleep quality while points at the right mean worsening. As you can see there are 2 points in the middle showing no significant difference, 4 points on the right showing a worsening, and 18 on the left showing an improvement. The blue diamond at the end shows the average of all the studies and as you can see is clearly at the left. So people slept a lot better on average while taking the melatonin.
- Melatonin is not regulated so melatonin pills could be from 15% to 400 times more than what is listed in the bottle [insert video here]: I think he’s citing this Canadian research and, sorry Andrew Huberman, I really appreciate your work, but the data is really inaccurate. The research found that melatonin pills could have from -83% to +478%, or what is the same from 17% to 578% of what is written in the label. Saying 15% instead of 17% is ok, it’s not a big difference. But +478% or 578% means only 5 times more of what is written on the label. Actually a bit less, 4.78 times more than what is written on the label. It’s still a concern, but far away from 400 times more. Let me clarify that I don’t think he did that on purpose. He mentioned the right information in other videos but in this one, he completely messed it up.
- You may think “ok, but I don’t want to take 5 times more than I think I’m taking”. The amount of melatonin used in human trials is usually 1 to 10 mg per day, but up to 50g of melatonin per day has been shown to be safe an not affect natural melatonin production.
- Let’s say you consume one pill of the Amazon Basics Melatonin. It’s listed as 2.5 grams of melatonin per pill. You could be actually consuming from half a gram and up to 15 grams of melatonin. In any case, you’re in the safe range. You could be consuming more or less than you actually need but there is no harm in it. What’s more, I don’t even recommend you to look at the labels. Let me explain it.
Dosage
[https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40266-014-0178-0]
This comparative study shows that small doses of melatonin are as effective as high doses. This is a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled study, done on 320 people with jet lag, probably the ones needing the highest amount because of having their sleep more disrupted than the average person. Subjects received either 5 milligrams, 2 milligrams, 0.5 milligrams, or a placebo. Not surprisingly all groups taking melatonin slept better than the placebo. But the interesting part is that there was almost no difference between the 3 groups consuming the melatonin. 0.5 milligrams was as effective as 10 times it.
Also this systematic review including 16 articles concludes “we advise the use of the lowest possible dose of melatonin, varying from 0.3 mg (which is already effective) to a maximum of 1 or 2 mg, preferably 1 h before bedtime”
It makes sense. Our body naturally produces 0.1 to 0.3 milligrams of melatonin and it’s enough to help us fall asleep. Why would we need to supplement with 10 times it or more? I personally consume 0.3 milligrams of melatonin every night and I recommend everyone to try it in small amounts.
I know that most pills have more than those small amounts and as discussed earlier we don’t even know the real amount they have. What I did and recommend everyone to do is to buy any melatonin from a good brand, I personally like the Amazon Basics Melatonin (link in the description). Then don’t consume the full pill but just take a small bite of it and see how well you sleep. Then increase slowly over time until the increase doesn’t provide any further benefit. You may be surprised how little melatonin you need to achieve maximum benefits. Also taking a small portion helps to avoid feeling drowsy the next day.
Timing
Some people take melatonin 30 minutes before bed but I prefer to take it 1 or 2 hours before bed because that’s the time when melatonin production rises naturally in our body; so I feel it aligns better with our circadian rhythm. But as always, experiment with different times and see what works best for you.
If you would like to buy my preferred melatonin the link is in the description. If you buy through my link you support me at no extra cost for you. I hope you found this video useful. If so please like, and if you don’t want to miss other my other content don’t forget to subscribe to the channel. See you in the next video.