Stop Using this Wrong!

Take everything you ever thought you

knew about melatonin and evaporate it

out of your mind right now. Okay, that

was a bit extreme, but seriously, a lot

of people get the information about

melatonin incorrect. And there's several

reasons for that. Namely, one, melatonin

is very, very weird. It does not behave

like any other medication. Number two,

it's a supplement in the United States,

which means it doesn't go through an FDA

approval process. And whenever something

does go through an FDA approval process,

the dose and the side effects, and all

sorts of other information is well

defined. We sort of accept that as fact.

But without that, people are just kind

of speculating and comparing different

studies that have different volunteers,

and it becomes a little bit of a mess.

And the third, most importantly, is it

just really doesn't matter. On average,

melatonin can help you fall asleep

around 15 minutes earlier, which in my

opinion is worth it. But it's not

exactly life-saving medicine. I mean, it

can be very helpful, and I find it very

helpful myself. But it it really just

isn't that important. So, nobody cares

enough to actually like hone in and find

some of the answers to these questions,

because it's just really not that

important. That being said, a lot of

people, in fact, probably most people

use melatonin incorrectly. So, stick

around while I tell you actual factual

information about melatonin. And where

we don't have answers, I will give my

professional opinion to help you use

melatonin safely and effectively. I'm

Grant Harding. I'm a licensed pharmacist

in four states. And it just so happens I

also struggle with my sleep a lot.

Chiefly because for most of my adult

life I've worked a night shift, but even

before that, you know, taking that out

of the equation, I still struggled. I

have taken a lot of medication like

trazodone for sleep, taken Ambien, taken

Lunesta, I've taken Sonata,

promethazine, Ativan. I think that's

probably it. Long story short,

everything I mentioned there, they're

okay every once in a while, but a lot of

the ones I just mentioned are

habit-forming and a lot of them give you

a lot of next-day grogginess. So,

whenever we talk about sleep medicine,

the benefits of falling asleep quickly

and easily are awesome, but not if

they're outweighed by the risks of not

having refreshing sleep or being

habit-forming. And trust me, you do not

want to have a habit with a sleeping

medication. That is not fun at all.

Okay, so back to the subject at hand.

Melatonin, what is it exactly? Well,

your body actually produces melatonin,

mostly from the pineal gland in your

brain, and your body does this in

response to darkness. I love to think

about, humans before all of this

technology and particularly light, you

know, screen time was uh introduced to

humans and our culture. Back when there

was no such thing. Think of like, you

know, human in the state of nature.

The sun went down, it got dark, and you

went to bed. Biologically speaking,

that's how that should work, but of

course it's very difficult, like I

mentioned, with all the screens that we

have nowadays. So, when it does get dark

outside, your body releases melatonin

and it tells your body it's time to go

to bed. It doesn't really make you

drowsy. It doesn't actually even make

you that tired, really. It's a signal in

your internal clock called your

circadian rhythm that tells you, "Now we

need to sleep." So, with that in mind,

you should think of melatonin as a "Hey,

it's time to go to bed" medicine, not

necessarily "I'm going to get zonked out

of my nuggets" medicine. I would say a

lot of people who have taken melatonin

and say it doesn't work were probably

using this inappropriately. They're

expecting, you know, these very drowsy

feelings and and that they wouldn't be

able to even stay awake. It doesn't work

that way. But, it does work in several

very common situations and it is

recommended by the American Academy of

Sleep Medicine to use melatonin in these

situations, particularly when we talk

about supplements. A lot of the evidence

is anecdotal, and a good litmus test to

ask yourself is, does this appear in any

official guideline? And yes, melatonin

does. Melatonin works best whenever your

circadian rhythm is out of whack. And

when this happens, this is called a

circadian rhythm sleep-wake disorder.

There are extrinsic disorders like jet

lag and shift work disorder. Extrinsic

means something outside of your body,

like something in your environment

that's pushing you into a weird sleep

cycle. And of course, if you take a

flight somewhere, you know, several time

zones away, or you're working night

shift and forcing yourself to go to bed

at a time that your body naturally

doesn't want to, you can imagine how

that can get mixed up and melatonin will

help kind of get you back on track. But

there are also intrinsic disorders.

There's a couple of them that people

often forget about, and probably the

most important one is something called

delayed sleep-wake phase disorder. This

is something messed up in your body,

regardless of which environment you're

in, that's keeping you from falling

asleep at an appropriate time. And in

delayed sleep-wake phase disorder, it'd

be, you know, back a couple hours. And I

also see a lot of people forget that

this exists. They automatically assign

melatonin to shift work and jet lag, and

they forget that your internal clock can

just get messed up on its own. And the

way to get it back on track, or at least

one of the ways, would be to use

melatonin. I saw one paper define the

circadian rhythm sleep-wake disorders as

an inappropriate timing of the major

sleep episode relative to the light-dark

cycle. And in delayed sleep-wake phase

disorder, you know, it's pushed back,

and it it can actually be forward, too.

You know, people can fall asleep really,

really early, called advanced sleep-wake

phase disorder, I believe is what it's

called. But if you're watching this

video, I don't think you have that

issue. Now, if it hasn't been made

obvious at this point, taking melatonin

randomly, you know, one or two nights

out of the month, that is not going to

help you. If you just have trouble

falling asleep, especially for something

like anxiety or uh uh you know, you

maybe you just have something the next

day that you're very excited about or

very concerned about, melatonin is not

going to help. This is for like a

prolonged issue, which most people

probably are experiencing. So, melatonin

is natural, it's recommended by the

guidelines, and there are several

situations where it can be beneficial.

The next part I want to talk about is

the actual dose itself. I have 5 mg

eddies here. I take one of these pretty

much every night. If not, I'm taking a

different supplement that I'll talk

about here in a moment. And me and my

company chose this dose, and we believe

this is the dose that helps the most

amount of people in most situations.

But, do note the dose of melatonin is

merely a suggestion or an opinion. And

when you look at the guidelines, that's

pretty much what they say. Optimal

dosing of melatonin for circadian

effects remains unclear, and studies

suggest that timing is more important

than dose. In addition to phase-shifting

effects, melatonin may also have direct

soporific effects, particularly at high

doses. Soporific is my new favorite

word. I'm going to use it constantly

now. People outside the medical

community have a lot of really strong

feelings and opinions about the

melatonin dose. They'll typically just

kind of Google around until they find

something that they like and then accept

that as the correct melatonin dose. But,

the only wrong answer to the question,

"What is the correct dose of melatonin?"

is actually just giving an answer. You

can have a suggestion or an opinion, as

long as it's within the realm of reason,

it's good to go. But, there is no

correct dose. And as the guidelines

talked about here, timing of melatonin

administration is likely more important

than the actual dose itself. Remember,

we're trying to get your circadian

rhythm back on track, so the time you

take it does really matter. A lot of

people are very unsatisfied with this.

This goes against the logic of like

every other medicine it seems. You know,

most medicines have a dose-dependent

response and melatonin is just very,

very weird. It doesn't behave like most

other medicines. And there's also this

other theory that your body secretes

about 0.2 mg or around 0.3 mg or

something like that of melatonin at

night. So, you should dose melatonin

exogenously in a pill or liquid or

whatever at that same dose 0.2 0.3 mg.

That's not wrong either. I mean, that's

perfectly fine. But I wouldn't get

married to that ideology because lots of

guidelines and studies and they all

recommend all different doses. So, to

keep things simple, we just say 5 mg.

Now, the timing of administration about

30 to 60 minutes before bed, like I

said, is probably more important than

the actual dose itself. And you have to

do this consistently. It'll take about a

week uh seven nights before you actually

start to see this effect. Again, where

people you know, mix this up and they

start using it incorrectly is they think

they can just take it every once in a

while. Doesn't work that way. You have

to be consistent. We're essentially

trying to trick your body into thinking

it's night time out. Well, probably it's

night time, but you know what I mean.

We're trying to trick your body into

thinking it just got dark and now we

need to go to bed. The next thing I see

people talk about is taking a melatonin

supplement reduces your body's own

natural melatonin production. That is a

myth. Again, melatonin is just very

weird. You cannot use logic when

discussing melatonin. Very, very odd.

The side effects of melatonin are very

mild. You see like headache and next day

grogginess. It's typically nothing

serious. Melatonin is available in the

United States without a prescription at

any dose. I've seen things as low as

like 0.1 mg all the way up to 120 mg.

Most experts, by the way, say between,

you know, 0.1, 0.2 mg and 10 mg, maybe

12. You know, there's really no reason

to go over 10 or 12. In fact, we don't

think there's any reason to go over

five. And other countries, like I

believe the UK has a limit of 5 mg,

someone correct me if I'm wrong. And in

a lot of countries, you just can't buy

it at all. To me, I don't really think

it's that deep. I mean, you do you, but

I mean, people can just buy 5 mg of

melatonin, and I think there's nothing

wrong with that. There was a recent

study that kind of got a lot of uh

attention lately that kind of linked

melatonin use to heart disease

development. Most experts agree that

this is probably correlation, not

causation, meaning people who can't

sleep for one reason or another are at

an increased risk for developing heart

disease, and thus are more likely to

also try melatonin. Not really, you

know, the other way around. And I saw

this one paper that I think was a little

bit too bold in their claims here, but

this is what they wrote. "No trial has

ever documented any serious adverse

effect from use of melatonin, and two

observational long-term use studies in

children and adolescents have not

documented any safety concerns." And

just like anything else, if you want to

Google around and find melatonin is this

dangerous supplement, you can. You can

find, you know, articles that say that.

But I'm telling you as a professional,

it is very, very safe. Speaking of

children and adolescents, can you use

melatonin in children?

Probably, but you really need to ask

your pediatrician first. There's a

slight, you know, possible risk in

developmental delays in children.

>> [clears throat]

>> I don't know. You You just really should

have communication with your

pediatrician about that. What are the

long-term effects of melatonin use in

adults?

The same as the short, you know,

headache, next day grogginess. That's

pretty much it. I've taken melatonin

every night pretty much for the past 5

years or so.

It's fine. There doesn't seem to be any

withdrawals issues associated with

melatonin use for most people. Like I

said, I take it every night. And here's

the most confusing part about this

melatonin. Everything I said there is

great. You know, using it appropriately

36 minutes before bed, you know, it's

kind of to get your circadian rhythm

back on track, delayed sleep-wake phase

disorder especially. But manufacturers

in the US cannot put that in the

melatonin directions. Well, they can put

the timing in there. In fact, my company

does as well. But you can't put like

this is for delayed sleep-wake phase

disorder. This is to get your circadian

rhythm back on track. Doing so is

illegal because melatonin is a

supplement in the United States.

Supplements cannot make claims to

prevent, cure, or mitigate disease. And

I guess that was in an attempt to

protect consumers, but in my opinion,

especially in this particular situation,

it's actually causing more harm than

good. They have to put something like

sleep support on here. Some very vague

kind of terminology. And that's left up

for interpretation. So people will see

melatonin, they'll see a word like sleep

support, and then they'll think that

they can take it, you know, a couple of

times a month. Very, very frustrating to

me from a legal standpoint. So then,

what are the best melatonin products? If

you have, you know, a prolonged issue

with falling asleep at appropriate time,

either from jet lag, either from working

night shift, or if, you know, you and

your doctor decide that you do have

delayed sleep-wake phase disorder, it

really doesn't matter. The most

important thing is to take 5 mg of

melatonin or less. Like I said, the dose

really doesn't matter. If you want to

take less, it's perfectly fine. 30 to 60

minutes before bed, consistently

for at least 7 nights. Additionally,

there are other things you can do to

help. Having a cool temperature in your

home, if you're able to do that, maybe,

you know, a couple of degrees, one or

two or something like that, at night

time whenever you go to bed, does help.

And the biggest thing is light. If you

can get in a purely pitch dark room

whenever you sleep, that will be very,

very helpful. And no screens before bed.

No phones, no computers, no nothing.

Even just a little bit of light can mess

up that signal in your body telling you

that it's time to go to bed. This is one

of the melatonins I use, melatonin 5 mg

from Vitamatic. I just bought it cuz it

was dirt cheap. It's 5 mg. I don't even

know how much this was, but it was like

next to nothing. Uh if you want a little

bit of an extra kick, through a process

of reviewing literature, data, hearing

from other folks, and testing things on

myself, my company and I have a product

called Sleep Caps. This is like super

melatonin. It has melatonin 5 mg, and it

also has magnesium glycinate and

L-theanine. Magnesium glycinate kind of

activates GABA receptors a bit, creating

a pretty drowsy feeling. Then the

L-theanine and it kind of blocks

excitatory neuron activation, and that

creates more of a calm feeling. And the

three of these together has helped me a

lot. I use this, I don't know, probably

three times a week. Sometimes I'll use

it for a whole week if I have a lot of

trouble. A lot of supplements contain

these, but they have the wrong doses.

So, we say, you know, 5 mg of melatonin,

like that really doesn't matter that

much. But magnesium glycinate and

L-theanine, based on what I'm seeing and

what I've experienced myself, you want

about 200 mg of each of those. What

companies do is they'll they'll put them

together, but then they'll cut back on

the doses so you only have to take one

pill. Unfortunately, with Sleep Caps you

have to take three pills. That's just

because it's impossible to get all that

stuff into one pill. That is, however,

not the most cost-effective option. If

you don't mind taking four pills instead

of three,

uh we recommend NutraCost. NutraCost is

dirt cheap. I believe they're probably

vertically integrated. Um

I mean, no one can compete with them,

and we don't even try. So, you can match

those same doses with the NutraCost

products for a considerable price

reduction. Ours is $30 right now. I

don't know what NutraCost ends up being,

but it is it is definitely cheaper to

use NutraCost. If you're watching the

YouTube version of this, you can

probably buy this on the merch bar below

the video. If you're watching it

somewhere else, you can just go to

shop.crushcost.com.

So, there you go, folks. You are now

free to go into this world and use

melatonin correctly. They say here's

what they tell you it doesn't work and

they are probably wrong because they

probably used it at the wrong time and

for the wrong thing. But, now you know.

You can do this. Thanks for sticking

around, folks. I make all sorts of

educational videos like this.