IIRC, the explanation of Matthew Walker, a well respected sleep researcher and author, (https://www.amazon.com/Why-We-Sleep-Unlocking-Dreams/dp/1501...) involves melatonin. It's a sleep timer: Melatonin levels peek in the middle of the day and are lowest around midnight. "Around" is the important part. As we get older, melatonines gets is earlier and earlier, say 1am for a juvenile but 8pm for a retiree. But the retiree doesn't got to sleep at 8pm because of social activities, watching a movie or a late night sports game. By the time he goes to bed, it's already too late and at 4am, melatonin levels are so high that he cannot sleep anymore, despite being tired.
I've read that Matthew Walker isn't a good source on sleep, as he tends to just make up some claims or bend the data to support whatever point he wants to make [1].
According to the blog post, the treatment for some sleep disorders is to take a dose of melatonin during the day, which moves your natural melatonin production earlier for unclear reasons. Maybe there's confusion between when you take the melatonin and when melatonin is naturally highest?
Yeah, it was my understanding that melatonin is secreted under low-light conditions according to one's circadian rhythm.
> A substantial number of studies have shown that, within this rhythmic profile, the onset of melatonin secretion under dim light conditions (the dim light melatonin onset or DLMO) is the single most accurate marker for assessing the circadian pacemaker. Additionally, melatonin onset has been used clinically to evaluate problems related to the onset or offset of sleep. DLMO is useful for determining whether an individual is entrained (synchronized) to a 24-h light/dark (LD) cycle or is in a free-running state. DLMO is also useful for assessing phase delays or advances of rhythms in entrained individuals. Additionally, it has become an important tool for psychiatric diagnosis, its use being recommended for phase typing in patients suffering from sleep and mood disorders. More recently, DLMO has also been used to assess the chronobiological features of seasonal affective disorder (SAD). DLMO marker is also useful for identifying optimal application times for therapies such as bright light or exogenous melatonin treatment. [1]
I don’t know about melatonin specifically, but some people react differently to chemicals than others. I’ve got a friend who could drink half a can of caffeinated soda and literally be wired as if he’d taken a recreational upper. I found I slept easier when I took adderall which would have the opposite effect on most folks.
This finding seems to be at odds with what I have heard about melatonin. Everything I have read says higher melatonin helps promote sleep, otherwise why would taking small doses near bedtime work?
