Melatonin levels rise at night in response to darkness and decrease in the morning in response to light. Melatonin works closely with your body’s circadian rhythm to help prepare you for sleep. Taking a melatonin supplement may help counter low levels and normalize your internal clock. Many factors may cause low melatonin levels at night, such as alcohol consumption, smoking, caffeine consumption, shift work, aging, certain medications, and exposure to too much light at night - including blue light ( 9, 10). It can also reduce levels of dopamine, a hormone that helps you stay awake, and is involved in some aspects of the day-night cycle of your eyes ( 6, 7).Īlthough melatonin’s exact mechanisms are unclear, research suggests that these processes may help you fall asleep.Ĭonversely, daylight modulates melatonin production, which is one way your body knows it’s time to wake up ( 8).īecause melatonin helps your body prepare for sleep, people who don’t make enough of it at night can have trouble falling asleep.
Melatonin also binds to receptors in your body to help you relax.įor instance, it binds to receptors in your brain to reduce nerve activity. They then decrease in the morning, when it’s light outside, to promote wakefulness ( 5). Your melatonin levels start to rise when it’s dark outside, signaling to your body that it’s time to sleep. Melatonin also helps regulate your body temperature, blood pressure, blood glucose, body weight, and levels of some hormones ( 1, 4). In simple terms, the circadian rhythm is your body’s internal clock. When we sleep, we go through several sleep cycles about every 80 to 110 minutes, each of which is made up of four phases.Melatonin works in tandem with your body’s circadian rhythm ( 1). Keep reading to learn about the different stages of sleep, why deep sleep is important and how you can get more of it. Our body and mind work to restore, regenerate and process information during sleep so that we can function optimally in daily life. However, we now know that quality sleep is a complicated, dynamic physiological process that is anything but passive.
It was thought that the body and mind became inactive during sleep to rest and recover from the day’s activity. That may sound boring, but this unconscious state is actually much more interesting than previously thought.Īs recently as 70 years ago, researchers assumed the human body went into a dormant state during sleep. It’s estimated that humans spend about a third of our lives sleeping. South Georgia & South Sandwich Islands (GBP £)
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