# Melatonin done right

0.3–0.5 mg, ~1 h before bed, only to reset circadian rhythm. Never at 2 am.



## Takeaways

- Micro-dose.

- Travel/reset only.

- Third-party tested; take early.



Common doses are 5–10 mg; Galpin's team uses about a tenth of that (0.3–0.5 mg) — and 0.3 mg was as effective as 3 mg in the classic MIT trial. Use it for jet lag (where a Cochrane review calls it 'remarkably effective') or a genuine circadian reset for a few days, then put it away. It doesn't make you sleepy per se — it tells your system 'this is night', shifting cortisol, adrenaline and serotonin. Waking at 2 am and taking melatonin does nothing: you're already in the rhythm.

Label vs actual dose can be off wildly: measured content ranged from −83% to +478% of the label, and a quarter of products contained serotonin. In morning urine tests Galpin's team has seen people 100× above the reference range the next day — living in a hyperdosed melatonin state, groggy with sleep inertia, then relying on stimulants.

Take it earlier than you think so it clears before morning. Log dose and time in the Day log.



## Sources

- Melatonin treatment for age-related insomnia (Zhdanova IV, Wurtman RJ, Regan MM, Taylor JA, Shi JP, Leclair OU, 2001)

- Meta-analysis: melatonin for the treatment of primary sleep disorders (Ferracioli-Oda E, Qawasmi A, Bloch MH, 2013)

- Melatonin natural health products and supplements: presence of serotonin and significant variability of melatonin content (Erland LA, Saxena PK, 2017)

- Melatonin for the prevention and treatment of jet lag (Herxheimer A, Petrie KJ, 2002)

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Educational summary of published research, not medical advice. Screening scores are not diagnoses. If a score is elevated or you feel unwell, talk to a clinician.

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