Vitamins & Nutritional Supplements for Insomnia

Melatonin is a natural hormone that regulates the human biological clock. The body produces less melatonin with advancing age, which may explain why elderly people often have difficulty sleeping and why melatonin supplements improve sleep in the elderly.

Warning: Melatonin is a potent hormone and its long-term safety is not established. Melatonin should only be taken with medical supervision.

Middle-aged adults (average age, 54 years) with insomnia also have lower melatonin levels, compared with people of the same age without insomnia. However, there is not much research on the use of melatonin for sleep problems in middle-aged people.

Double-blind trials have shown that melatonin facilitates sleep in young adults without insomnia, but not in young people who suffer from insomnia. However, one trial found that children with sleep disturbances stemming from school phobia had improved sleep after taking 1 mg of melatonin per night for one week, then 5 mg per night for one week, then 10 mg per night for a third week.

The results of one double-blind trial also indicate that a controlled release melatonin supplement providing 2 mg per day improves sleep quality in people with schizophrenia...