For research and educational purposes only. Not medical advice.
Melatonin Reference
Educational, not medical advice reference for Melatonin: Sleep, Longevity; regulatory status, evidence posture, source review, and schedule notes. Also known…
Reference summary
Two widely cited meta-analyses (Ferracioli-Oda 2013 PLoS One; Auld 2017 Sleep Med Rev) report small but consistent reductions in sleep-onset latency and modest gains in total sleep time in primary insomnia. The effect is larger for circadian-phase shifting (jet lag, delayed sleep phase) than for primary insomnia. NIH Office of Dietary Supplements maintains a health-professional fact sheet summarizing the evidence and safety profile.
Regulatory and posture
- Categories
- Sleep, Longevity
- Aliases
- N-acetyl-5-methoxytryptamine, Pineal hormone analog (OTC dietary supplement in the US)
- Evidence posture
- human - Small effect size on sleep onset; meta-analyses are heterogeneous. Supplement-content variability is well documented.
- Regulatory status
- Over-the-counter dietary supplement in the United States; prescription-only in many other countries (United Kingdom, European Union, Australia, Canada for most adult use). Not FDA-approved as a drug; oral melatonin supplements are regulated under DSHEA, which means label content can vary substantially from analytical content (Erland 2017 J Clin Sleep Med).
- Content review status
- research reference
Selected public sources
- NIH Office of Dietary Supplements: Melatonin Fact Sheet for Health Professionals
- PubMed: Auld et al. Sleep Med Rev 2017 - evidence for the efficacy of melatonin in the treatment of primary adult sleep disorders (PMID 28648359)
- PubMed: Ferracioli-Oda et al. PLoS One 2013 - meta-analysis of melatonin for the treatment of primary sleep disorders (PMID 23691095)
- PubMed: Erland & Saxena J Clin Sleep Med 2017 - melatonin natural health products: presence of serotonin and significant variability of melatonin content (PMID 27855744)