Sleeping beauty with melatonin capsules

There's a reason why you're tired at night and wake up feeling great in the morning: melatonin. This hormone not only regulates your sleep-wake rhythm, it is also thought to have a beneficial effect on skin health and even slows down skin ageing.

So it was only a matter of time before the industry came up with melatonin jelly bears to children or invented beauty sleep with the melatonin anti-ageing capsule.

Dr Brigitte Holzinger is critical of melatonin in the form of chewable lozenges or dietary supplements. She is a psychotherapist and sleep coach at the Research Institute for Consciousness and Dreaming and leads the sleep coaching master's course at the Medical University of Vienna. She says: "Melatonin is not a sugar, even though it is suggested to us in the form of a food supplement."

The expert explains what melatonin is, what you need to watch out for when taking preparations, what a healthy sleep and why melatonin is wrongly called the "sleep hormone".

The secret is darkness

First, the basics: melatonin is a hormone that regulates your day-night rhythm and triggers your internal clock. As soon as night falls, the pineal gland in your brain begins to transform serotonin, the happy hormone produced during the day, into melatonin. This signals to the body that it's time to rest. Its antagonist, incidentally, is cortisol, a stress hormone, which activates your body.

Because it announces to the body the night and rest phase, melatonin is mistakenly called the "sleep hormone". But strictly speaking, it is a hormone of darkness: it is only produced when it is dark and triggers the body's regeneration - a vital process for your body.

"During this regeneration phase, the body is anything but inactive," explains Dr Holzinger, "melatonin triggers numerous bodily processes, including digestion, the secretion of important hormones or the body's own cleansing processes."Melatonin therefore promotes, as it were, the necessary maintenance of your body with all the important bodily functions.

Not without medical support: oral melatonin

Because melatonin regulates essential bodily functions and puts the body into rest and night mode, it is sold over the counter in drugstores and on the internet as a sleep aid or anti-wrinkle cure. Whether in capsule, tablet, spray, tea or gummy bear form. Dr Holzinger is critical of the market boom: "Melatonin regulates the rhythm of the whole body. It should not be taken lightly or without medical supervision."

Melatonin is rapidly broken down by the body and therefore has no noticeable side effects. An overdose is also unlikely. But "while little is known about the side effects of melatonin-based preparations, that doesn't mean they don't exist. Especially if taken over the long term and at random."

Because: the effects of taking melatonin long-term on the body are not well studied by specialists. Medical monitoring makes it possible to dose the intake individually, taking into account pre-existing illnesses, and to rule out possible interactions with other medications.

When the internal clock is fragile: melatonin in cases of jet lag, shift work and in the elderly

The sleep expert takes a critical view of the arbitrary administration of melatonin to children and teenagers. "Giving them a teddy bear gelled with melatonin is very tricky. Children and teenagers are still in the throes of hormonal development and we don't know what cascade of hormonal changes this will trigger."

This is why the preparations authorised in Switzerland are only recommended for people over 55. "With age, the internal clock becomes more fragile", explains Dr Holzinger, "melatonin can be a good way of stabilising the sleep-wake rhythm and, as a substance produced by the body, it acts gently."

It's not just with age that the internal clock becomes more fragile. In fact, it also reacts with irritation when there is little regularity in daily life due to shift work, long-distance travel or chronic sleep disorder (insomnia). In these cases, melatonin can help stabilise the sleep-wake rhythm, at least to a lesser extent. This is shown by a research published in Nutrition Journal: the authors make a cautious recommendation for melatonin to shorten the time it takes to fall asleep, reduce the effects of jet lag during long-distance travel and relieve insomnia. But research is lagging far behind in this area.

The team at "Medizin Transparent" is also cautiously optimistic. It has compared studies on the benefits of melatonin in combating jet lag and concludes, "The best available studies suggest that melatonin may be effective against jet lag problems."

Finally, a recent study published in the journal Frontiers in Psychiatry shows a positive effect of melatonin preparations on hospital shift work : According to the authors, melatonin has a positive influence on sleep quality and on the performance of shift workers on site.

It's important to be aware of your own sleep rhythm despite irregular wakefulness and rest phases, and to always take the preparation at the same time. Namely, always 90 minutes before your natural bedtime (even if you can't go to bed at that time during your shift work).

However, melatonin is not a permanent solution. It "is used as a course of treatment over a period of three to four weeks. It is not a sleeping pill after the working day."

Melatonin for beautiful skin?

The influence of melatonin on skin ageing and health is a new area of research. As it has an antioxidant effect, meaning that it protects against free radicals and therefore against environmental influences, it was only a matter of time before melatonin capsules were proposed as an anti-wrinkle remedy. The cosmetics and micronutrient industry was not mistaken.

In fact, melatonin is an essential hormone for maintaining skin health. A study shows, for example, that melatonin can, thanks to its antioxidant effect, repair the damage caused to DNA after intensive exposure to UV rays.

A study builds on this knowledge and also shows that melatonin is important for cell protection and for homeoostasis of tissues, i.e. for the balance of relevant bodily functions such as body temperature, blood sugar and pH in the blood.

It remains to be seen whether these positive effects of melatonin also act externally, in the form of a face cream. On this subject, the authors write, "The external use of melatonin to rejuvenate the skin, or to maintain a youthful skin phenotype, requires further study."

Dr Holzinger is therefore sceptical as to whether melatonin really has a positive effect on skin health when administered orally or through cosmetic products: "It is during the night that regeneration takes place, including that of the skin. The question is whether this is due to melatonin, better sleep or other internal cleansing processes. My assumption is that melatonin simply triggers processes that promote these effects on the skin."

Natural regulation for healthy melatonin levels

If not prescribed and accompanied by a doctor, you're better off staying away from melatonin preparations. Instead, you can make a natural daily contribution to maintaining healthy melatonin levels by exposing yourself to daylight. The expert advises getting fresh air frequently during the day, especially in the morning when blue light is strongest: "Sunlight has the best effect on melatonin production. If you get a lot of sun exposure during the day, your body produces more melatonin in the evening."

About the evening: as melatonin is only produced in the dark, you should reduce the intensity of light about 90 minutes before going to bed and then switch on lights that are rather warm than bright. In general, "the more regular your life, the better your melatonin levels", says Holzinger, "because the internal clock reinforces itself". So the better you follow it, the more melatonin will be able to work in your body.