Don't Use Melatonin as an Anti-insomnia Drug

Can Patients with insomnia rely on melatonin to sleep?

Once upon a time, melatonin as a miracle medicine across the country, many insomnia patients even treat it as a miracle medicine for insomnia, as long as insomnia to take a pill. In fact, melatonin is only suitable for certain types of insomnia, and today we will talk about how to properly understand the use of melatonin in sleep disorders.

Note the use of melatonin with caution in patients with insomnia of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases.

The main component of melatonin is a hormone that can excite parasympathetic nerves and help sleep. However, it may increase myocardial ischemia and slow down the heart rate in patients with cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, so it should be used with caution.

Common adverse reactions to melatonin use include itchy skin, rash, diarrhea, abdominal pain, drowsiness, headache, heavy head, fatigue, male breast feminization, decreased progesterone levels, and hypothermia.

Severe adverse reactions include tachycardia, disturbed sleep patterns, mental disorders, impaired orientation, anxiety, seizures, stroke, autoimmune hepatitis, optic neuritis and so on. Therefore, patients with cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases need to be particularly careful.

Knowing this melatonin related trivia, do you still take melatonin for insomnia? Appropriate anti-insomnia drugs should be selected for different types of insomnia. At the same time, non-drug treatments such as cognitive behavioral therapy can effectively improve the symptoms of insomnia. Do not use melatonin as a miracle drug.

Author: The Second Hospital of Jilin University

Department of neurology Full Yuhong chief physician