The Dracula of Hormones: Melatonin In the U.S. alone, over half
of adults have trouble sleeping at least a few days a week (1).
Trouble sleeping, also called insomnia, can be found in mainly
two different forms. Mild insomnia (insomnia only lasting for a
week or two) is most likely caused by sadness or anxiety.
Chronic insomnia can be a result of depression or other
psychiatric illnesses. More and more in the last decade,
insomnia sufferers have been turning to the hormone melatonin
for relief. Melatonin is a hormone produced by the brain’s
pineal gland – a small gland located towards the center of the
brain (2). Melatonin gets released when light does not reach the
retina and therefore cannot travel to the hypothalamus where
both the pineal gland and the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SNC or
the body’s clock) are found. It is believed that when the SNC
registers this lack of light, it urges the pineal gland to
secrete melatonin, which makes us drowsy (3) and advances the
dream-wake cycle (4). Therefore, people who