Melatonin

What is melatonin?
Melatonin is a hormone produced by the pineal gland in your brain.  Melatonin is known as “the sleep hormone” and helps regulate your sleep and wake cycles.

Your natural cycle of sleeping and waking hours, termed circadian rhythm, is controlled in part by your melatonin levels.  Typically, melatonin levels rise in the evening as a cue for sleep, remain high for most of the night, and decline as dawn nears. Natural melatonin levels do decline gradually as you age. Some older adults produce very small amounts or none at all.

Dreamerz uses a low amount of melatonin patented by MIT.  This low 0.3 mg amount of melatonin is more effective than higher doses.

In a series of studies, scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have shown that small doses (0.3 mg) of melatonin raise blood melatonin levels to normal nighttime levels and can help people fall asleep and improve sleep quality through the night.  The much-higher doses of melatonin found in many health food stores can raise blood melatonin levels much higher than necessary, causing less beneficial response.  This patented 0.3 mg amount of melatonin is substantially safer and, paradoxically, more effective than much higher dosages currently available.

MIT Laboratory Research
In 1992 scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) showed that if young people received tiny doses (0.3 milligrams orally) of melatonin in daytime - when blood melatonin levels are very low - they became sleepy and fell asleep. (The sleep thus produced was normal, electroencephalographically.) This dose of melatonin, 0.3 milligrams, raises blood melatonin levels to the nighttime levels found in normal young people (i.e., 150 picograms/ml). The much-higher doses of melatonin sold in many health food stores can raise blood melatonin levels into the thousands of picograms/ml.

Aside from the melatonin produced naturally in your body, melatonin can also be found in very small amounts in foods such as meats, fruits, vegetables and grains. It is also available as a dietary supplement. 

More recently, it was shown that these doses of melatonin (0.3 milligrams) also are helpful for older people who awaken during the night and have difficulty falling back asleep. The theory is that in these people, the melatonin constitutes "replacement therapy", i.e., taken before bedtime, it may restore nighttime blood melatonin levels to what they were when the user was younger. In a recently published double-blind, placebo-controlled study, the "sleep efficiency" of older people with sleep issues who took the 0.3 mg dose was undifferentiable from people without sleep issues. In contrast, people who took the usual supplement dose (1-3 mg or more) had less of a beneficial response, and some also developed unacceptable side-effects (like hypothermia).  These data indicate that MIT’s patented 0.3 milligram dose of melatonin is substantially safer and, paradoxically, more effective than the much higher dosages currently available.

Additional scientific data:
http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2005/melatonin.html
http://web.mit.edu/dick/www/pdf/988.pdf
http://web.mit.edu/dick/www/pdf/950.pdf