Browse: Home / Diabetes / The risks of using a melatonin supplement to help you sleep

Menu

Skip to content
  • About
  • Better Body Chemistry School
  • Book a health conversation
  • Speaking query
  • The “Big” Spoons
Header image

BBC

Small things can make a big difference to your health

advertisement

Menu

Skip to content
  • Home
  • Free Resources
    • 31 days to Better Body Chemistry
    • Willpower Report
    • Weight loss e-course
    • Better Body Chemistry for Expecting Moms
    • The ups and downs of insulin resistance
    • Candy Floss Boards
    • Weight tracker
  • Library
  • Shop
  • Lucky dip
  • Sound bites
  • Buy me a coffee
  • Contact

The risks of using a melatonin supplement to help you sleep

Posted by Dr Sandy on in Diabetes | 170 Views | Leave a response
Pin
Share
WhatsApp
Reddit
More
Tweet
Share

When you pop a melatonin pill, a couple of hours before bed, melatonin crashes your dinner party – negatively impacting glycemic control, increasing your odds of diabetes.

Share Button

Click to listen to the audio…

The risks of melatonin supplements

women swallowing a melatonin supplement

When you pop a melatonin pill, a couple of hours before bed, melatonin crashes your dinner party – negatively impacting glycemic control, increasing your odds of diabetes

You know sleep is important, unfortunately it doesn’t come easy to you……………..

Your night valet is tardy.

Since you are a go getter, you don’t let the failings of your personal night valet, interfere with GETTING A GOOD NIGHT’S SLEEP. You outsource his services, to a stand in night valet, by popping a melatonin supplement, a few hours before bed.

It works like a charm…..

You can enjoy your evenings and WHEN YOU’RE READY, with minimum fuss and bother, hop into bed and be asleep a minute or two, after your head hits the pillow.

A melatonin supplement can help you SURVIVE.

Empowering you, to get the sleep you need, but it can be risky….

The risk comes if you’re carrying one particular variant of melatonin 2 receptor.

Yes you can – but should you ?

People who carry the super duper version of this receptor and people who have a dud version, have a much higher odds of developing type 2 diabetes.

It’s the super duper version that requires caution.

And since this is a common variant, the odds that you have it, are quite high.

So what does it do ?

The gene makes melatonin 2 receptors, which are expressed on the surface of beta cells.  If you’ve got none, you’re in trouble, but if you’ve got lots, you’re also in trouble, because your beta cells are very sensitive to melatonin.

beta cells expressing different versions of MTN1RB gene

Circulating melatonin signals to beta cells, that it is time to knock off.  This is something that hard working beta cells REALLY appreciate. When melatonin is around, they know, it’s okay to kick back and relax.

The human they’re serving is IN SLEEP MODE.

There is not going to be any need, to spring into action and pump out insulin, because the kitchen is closed FOR THE DAY. In fact, this is the time, when all those groceries that they have helped to squirrel away, will be unpacked and used.

Insulin levels will be kept super low, until melatonin leaves.

What the hell is this ?

Once dinner has been served, and enjoyed – melatonin will clear the plates, as your retire for the evening.

melatonin clearing the plates

When you pop a melatonin pill, a couple of hours before bed, the night shift boss, arrives, in the midst of the dinner run.

confused upset beta cell plate being removed before he has eaten

Chaos. Confusion. Crisis.

The poor old beta cells don’t know if they are coming or going !

The night shift boss RULES

They’ve received the signal to cease insulin production for the evening, right at the moment, when insulin is NEEDED.

The ability to put away, the current batch of groceries IS COMPROMISED.

Glycemic control waivers.

Here is what happens when healthy women take 5 mg of melatonin, just before doing an oral glucose tolerance test.

OGTT following melatonin supplementation

Comparison between the effects of placebo and melatonin administrations on plasma glucose  in response to an oral load of glucose (75 g) performed in the morning (09:00 and evening (21:00). © 2014 Associated Professional Sleep Societies, LLC.

The glucose levels are significantly higher, when the pill is taking at breakfast time and at dinner time. The reason the impact is bigger in the evening, is because the body’s ability to handle sugar is already lower later in the day.

Remember, this is in healthy ladies……..

If you’re metabolically challenged, the picture is going to be worse.

The melatonin risk

If glucose levels are constantly bumped out of range, the system becomes vulnerable, to a catastrophic failure and when beta cells fail, you get a diagnosis of type 2 diabetes.

By taking a melatonin as a sleep aide, what you gain on the swings, because you are sleeping better, is lost on the round about, because you have poorer glycemic control. Eish !

It’s not just a dinner thing

Thanks to the way exogenous melatonin behaves in the body, it’s easy to make a “mess” of things, both at dinner time AND breakfast.

Melatonin kinetics explained

Let’s say you take a dose of 5 mg of a fast release formula, around 7 pm in the evening. Based on the pharmacokinetics of insulin, the melatonin levels would peak in your system, around 30-45 minutes later. It’s at this point, the melatonin supplement, would begin the task of “getting you ready for bed”.

melatonin kinetics curve

The peak would be around 10 times higher, than what you would reach, naturally.

Plus, if you’re having a later supper, the levels would be at their highest, just as you are sitting down to your evening meal. And, because you plopped 10 times more than “normal”, even when you wake up, after your fabulous night of sleep, there could still be melatonin in your system. Enough to cause consternation and confusion, in the beta cells, if you opt for an early breakfast, especially if they’re melatonin “sensitive”.

Sleep don’t eat

The take home message…….

Melatonin and eating should never happen SIMULTANEOUSLY.

The principle applies whether you are using melatonin as a sleep aide or not.

But when you’re relying on endogenous melatonin to send you to dreamland, your activities before bed, tend to keep melatonin hiding in the cupboard, so he is a whole lot less likely to crash your dinner party. This doesn’t happen when you’re taking melatonin supplement as a sleep aide, because you’re manipulating the system.

Should you supplement ?

There is lots of science to suggest melatonin is healthful, so it’s probably okay to do it, but you do need to be cognisant of the biology. When it comes to melatonin……

TIMING IS EVERYTHING !

Use biology to supplement wisely

Based on the biology, the optimum time take exogenous melatonin, would be at least 2 hours after the last meal, to allow partial recovery of normal plasma glucose values, before melatonin arrives.

empty plate and hour glass

NOTE : If you’re struggling to get glucose packed away, something that is common when you are metabolically compromised, the 2 hour window, may need to be extended.

Share Button
Acute Melatonin Administration in Humans Impairs Glucose Tolerance in Both the Morning and Evening. SLEEP (2014) 37(10):1715-1719. Patricia Rubio-Sastre, Frank A.J.L. Scheer, Purificación Gómez-Abellán, Juan A. Madrid, Marta Garaulet.

Melatonin Effects On Glucose Metabolism: Time To Unlock The Controversy. Trends Endocrinol Metab. (2020) 31(3): 192–204. Marta Garaulet, Jingyi Qian, Jose C. Florez, Josephine Arendt, Richa Saxena, Frank A.J.L. Scheer.

Further reading

longer night fasts

Giving your kitchen staff time off, can lower the risk of breast cancer

“Eating” food, whether it be healthy or not so healthy, is STRESS FUL. To create BETTER BODY CHEMISTRY, you need to give, your digestive tract, time off

insulin setting liver clock

Why midnight feasts cause bigger hips

If you eat, when you should be asleep, the enzymes contracted to work the night shift clock in for work, but they don’t do the work, so fat burning ceases.

a broken body clock causing confusion

When you fail to obey YOUR CLOCK – trillions are impacted

Stuck in the warm dark gut, your gut microflora depend on you to tell time. If you get it wrong, they get confused. And this is T-R-O-U-B-L-E.

 

Want to discover more ways to create BETTER BODY CHEMISTRY ?

The risks of using a melatonin supplement to help you sleep
Pin
Share
WhatsApp
Reddit
More
Tweet
Share
Posted in Diabetes | Tagged beta cells, breakfast, circadian, dinner, genes, glycemic control, insulin, melatonin, pharmacokinetics, sleep, sleep aide, sugar levels, sugar spikes, timing, type 2 diabetes

Sugar gremlins are REAL

Connect with us

facebook you tube pinterest 40 google plus 40 Linkedin

willpower report
  • Popular
  • Featured
  • Recent
  • asprosin the sugar plum fairy

    Why sugar levels are high despite NOT eating

    19386 views / Posted
  • poop getting stuck

    The fix for constipation is to go on a low fibre diet

    19071 views / Posted
  • oatmeal breakfast being beaten by egg

    Which is a better breakfast, egg or oatmeal ?

    18755 views / Posted
  • chewing gum relieving postoperative ileus

    A stick of chewing gum gets the gut going after surgery

    16604 views / Posted
  • carbonated water bubbles fill you up

    Fizzing up the water flattens your appetite

    15364 views / Posted
  • sun extracting cholesterol

    Make sure you have your “annual” check-up in the summer time

    / Dr Sandy
  • sending your kid to bootcamp won't stop childhood obesity

    Moving more won’t stop your kid from getting fat

    / Dr Sandy
  • cholesterol at the scene of the accident

    Bone cells are stiffening up your arteries not cholesterol

    / Dr Sandy
  • brain size the problem in ADHD

    Are kids with ADHD just acting according to their brain age

    / Dr Sandy
  • plastering the blood vessel with calcium

    Calcium supplements are building bones and breaking hearts

    / Dr Sandy
  • corona virus sporting his beautiful crown

    How to overcome long covid sooner rather than later

    / Dr Sandy
  • the metabolic big 5 of health

    The big 5 of health is an out dated concept

    / Dr Sandy
  • cholesterol scratching a unwell heart

    A cholesterol level in the normal range won’t guarantee no heart troubles

    / Dr Sandy
  • Missing image

    Metabolically healthy obese are not doomed

    / Dr Sandy
  • brain being drained of energy by a cell phone

    Chatting on your mobile phone might be making you fat !

    / Dr Sandy

RSS Recent posts

Dr Sandy Dr Sandy Evans, PhD

Located in Johannesburg, South Africa

Book an appointment with Spoonful of Science using SetMore
Disclaimer : The stories and articles are provided as a service. Dr Sandy's opinions are for information only, and are not intended to diagnose or prescribe. For your specific diagnosis and treatment, consult your doctor or health care provider.
 
 

Connect with Dr Sandy

facebook 40
you tube 40
pinterest 40
google plus 40
linkedin 40
meetup 40
 

Categories

Featured posts

  • asprosin the sugar plum fairy

    Why sugar levels are high despite NOT eating

    19386 views / Posted
  • poop getting stuck

    The fix for constipation is to go on a low fibre diet

    19071 views / Posted
  • oatmeal breakfast being beaten by egg

    Which is a better breakfast, egg or oatmeal ?

    18755 views / Posted
 

©2011-2022 Spoonful of Science

Menu

  • Meet Dr Sandy
  • Disclosure/disclaimer
  • Privacy policy
  • Comment policy
  • Contact
Redirect Stakk
Thank You

Beat your SUGAR CRAVINGS, using biology, NOT psychology

Download our FREE REPORT entitled, "How to get the Willpower you Need to Trump Sugar's Power"

  • Do you have a sugar gremlin ?
  • Discover the biology behind sugar gremlins
  • Learn about the 10 weapons you can use to TAME YOUR SUGAR GREMLIN

Get instant access

Pin
Share
WhatsApp
Reddit
More