That’s sort of a shocking statement. The primary use case is to feel drowsy and fall asleep. It’s the hormone that induces drowsiness that is readily absorbed by the gut unchanged and impacts systemic levels of said hormone. We not only know it’s effective by like billions of humans trying it trillions of times, we know it’s effective by like nearly every vertebrate animal in biochemical processes we kinda understand sleeping every single day for all of lifes history.
Cocaine isn’t naturally occurring in every vertebrate animal as the hormone responsible for not making you depressed. Plutonium is naturally occurring as well, but it’s not a part of the fundamental biology of all animals. Melatonin is as naturally occurring in animals as blood and its purpose we use it for as a supplement is precisely what it does in the body. It’s nudging the natural levels slightly higher to induce exactly what it does and we desire from it. There’s literally no debate anywhere in any context as to whether it does what it says on the tin, because it literally is the thing that does the thing on the tin.
But, you know, sure. Why not. Of course people did these studies because with positive results you’ll get published and it’s a bit of a softball, since it’s like, exactly what must be the result given the situation:
Results: Of 2642 papers, 23 RCTs met inclusion criteria. Our results indicated that melatonin had significant effect on sleep quality as assessed by the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) (WMD: - 1.24; 95% CI - 1.77, - 0.71, p = 0.000).
Conclusion: We found that the treatment with exogenous melatonin has positive effects on sleep quality as assessed by the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) in adult.
Certainly, if there's medical research indicating that melatonin is safe, all the better. As long as we're following the scientific process to generate a reproducible body of knowledge supporting the assertion that melatonin is safe.
Yeah. My point was though beyond random controlled trials we actually understand melatonin at a really fundamental level, and it’s not just that we understand it, but we identified it in as far as I can tell all vertebrates. That’s stronger than RCT’s. It’s like questioning we know whether blood infusions are actually effective at treating blood loss.
If you've ever had problems falling asleep and taken melatonin to fall asleep, you would have proven it works to yourself. I took melatonin for a couple of years, and without fail, it made me sleepy where normally I would be awake until all hours of the night. Sure, this is comment is anecdotal, but so many people wouldn't be spending money on it if it didn't do what it is known to do, which is making sleep come easier.
>> "Sure, this is comment is anecdotal, but so many people wouldn't be spending money on it if it didn't do what it is known to do, which is making sleep come easier."
"The proposed mechanisms for homeopathy are precluded from having any effect by the laws of physics and physical chemistry.[18] The extreme dilutions used in homeopathic preparations usually leave not one molecule of the original substance in the final product."
It remains a multi-billion dollar industry.
Whether melatonin is closer to medicine or nonsense can't be solved with anecdotes.
>Whether melatonin is closer to medicine or nonsense can't be solved with anecdotes.
I admitted my comment is an anecdote, but that doesn't cancel out the voluminous research and study done on melatonin. We know that melatonin is a hormone that is involved with regulating sleep cycles. I'm not sure what evidence you're looking for but internet trolls love to move goalposts anywhere they want to. Yes, millions of people use melatonin effectively every single night. You can call that an anecdote, but you've provided no evidence that melatonin does not do what it's being used for. All evidence and study points to one thing: melatonin helps people sleep. Just go google it yourself, don't have a pointless conversation about anecdotes.
We're talking about a supplement here, not the naturally occurring hormone. Of course the hormone works as expected and it's absurd to think I was talking about that. You accuse me of trolling while making a post like this. But I think you just misunderstood and aren't trolling. Moving on.
Supplements don't always work like the natural thing they're meant to supplement. Humans are really bad at knowing how inputs affect their health, and it's difficult to go through the long and laborious process of elimination to verify the cause if you've already convinced yourself of something. Self-reporting is notoriously unreliable for this and other reasons.
Please provide some evidence that melatonin does not work to help people sleep. Until you do you're not arguing from a position with any ground to stand on.
All available evidence does point to melatonin being an effective sleep aid. It is known to regulate sleep cycles, and it does so effectively for millions of people every night. It's no mystery or placebo. You can say it is all you want, but you've provided no evidence at all to support your feelings. And homeopathy has nothing at all to do with melatonin consumption as a sleep aid.
You admitted you were posting an anecdote and were under the mistaken impression people wouldn't spend money on something that doesn't work. I provided homeopathy as a very expensive example of how you were wrong.
The burden of proof is on you. Proof might exist, but I'm not convinced you have it. Otherwise, you'd lead with it instead of an anecdote.
I've experimented with Melatonin extensively. Different doses, different times, brands, etc. It has never caused an effect that I can notice. So - that's not to say it's not doing something, but to assume it has a noticeable effect on everyone is an incorrect assumption.
I dont want to devalue your experience. But this experimentation is usually not "(placebo) controlled" and not "double blind".
You could! Take a randomly selected real-or-placebo, that's marked as such but you do not know at the time. See if you can feel the difference, not your experience, repeat. Then look at your results. According to placebo science the results may shock you.
I guess there's an exception to every rule! Do you ever feel sleepy at all? I would wonder why someone would use melatonin if they didn't want to sleep, which suggests someone who isn't sleeping well, yet it had no effect. Extensive suggests it wasn't just one dodgy batch of melatonin either.
I hope you're sleeping well now regardless. Lack of good sleep is like slow torture.
When they make melatonin chewables with cartoons on them and sell them at Target, it's bound to have some level of popularity. Especially when they're placed near the front, on prime shelf space.