How does melatonin help me to sleep?

Melatonin is a natural hormone released in the body during the evening and night, signaling ‘darkness’, associated with sleepiness and the sleep-wake cycle. Thereby melatonin facilitates the feeling of sleepiness and the ability to induce and maintain sleep.

Melatonin is a naturally occurring neuro-hormone mainly released from the pineal gland in the head in the evening and during the night^{1 2 3}. Melatonin signals ‘darkness’, is associated with feeling sleepy, and regulates the sleep-wake cycle^{1 2 3 4}.

Individual levels of melatonin vary, but it has been found that otherwise healthy people suffering from insomnia often have lower levels of melatonin than people without insomnia, and that melatonin therapy ameliorates the symptoms of insomnia⁵. Circadin^® is prolonged-release melatonin, which adds exogenous melatonin to the endogenous melatonin throughout the night, thereby facilitating the feeling of sleepiness, the ability to fall asleep, and improving sleep quality and daytime functioning¹.