Our hormones are an important part of our body, but did you know that you can also consume specific hormones to help your body function better? Melatonin is actually one of these essentials. Melatonin supplements have helped improve the quality of your rest and assist you in getting a good night’s sleep. While this can be good for you, excess dosage of melatonin may result to side effects if one is not careful.
In simplest of terms, melatonin helps regulate our internal body clocks. Under the chemical name N-acetyl-5-methoxytryptamine, the amounts of melatonin decreases during the day and starts to shoot up at night. As the sun starts to rise, you can expect to wake up in the morning with lower melatonin levels.
Scientists and physicians have studied the effects of melatonin for several years, and this has resulted to sleep aids and supplements that have been very effective in getting over insomnia and lack of sleep. While this can produce great results, you need to make sure that you are able to consult trained professionals in knowing how much you should consume.
Patients who have claimed to have suffered from melatonin side effects have reported of nausea, sleepwalking, migraines and abdominal cramps. There are also some that have been irritable and experienced bouts of depression. When consumed in adequate dosages, melatonin has also been claimed to be helpful in terms of anti-aging and boosting the immune system.
Do we really need to take melatonin? As with any other kind of medicine or supplement, when your body does not have enough quantities of the hormone, then it may be advisable for you to get a recommendation from your physician. You may need to think twice about taking these sleep aids if you do not really need it. Your health is of utmost importance, and self-medication may produce more harmful results without the supervision of your doctor.