Does Melatonin Work? How It Transformed My Sleep and Health

Does Melatonin Work? Well, it’s a bold statement, but I stand by it: Melatonin changed my life.

A Rocky Start with Sleep

Ever since I was a kid, I’ve had a tumultuous relationship with sleep. It began when I was just five years old, plagued by terrifying sleep hallucinations and paralysis. At that age, I didn’t know how to explain it to my parents, so I’d lie in bed, hoping that closing my eyes wouldn’t lead to another episode. If you’ve ever experienced sleep hallucinations, you know how confusing and scary they can be. As a child, the only way to escape the terror was to avoid sleep altogether.

As I got older, the hallucinations faded, but the damage to my sleep cycle was already done. I developed a circadian rhythm that had me staying up late and waking up extremely early. At sleepovers, my friends would beg me not to wake them up at the crack of dawn, knowing I’d be ready to go by 7 a.m., even at age 10.

By the time I reached art school, my sleep habits had deteriorated even further. In my first year, I once went three nights without sleep while working on a large piece for a foundations class. I felt like a zombie but would laugh it off, joking that I was "born not to sleep."

The Guilt of Sleeping Pills

After graduating and starting my first job, my sleep was still terrible. I was desperate to improve my health, but the only way I could sleep was by taking sleeping pills every night. It felt so contradictory—trying to be healthy while relying on synthetic pills to sleep.

Sleeping pills worked, but I began to find the guilt of knowing it was only a band-aid to overpower me. All of the medical journals I read seemed to insinuate that sleeping on a sleeping pill was no healthier than no sleep at all. So, I quit cold turkey and learned to run on 5-6 hours of sleep per night.

The Irony of My "Healthy" Business

In my mid-twenties, I started a company that grew into a nationally distributed, VC-backed snack food brand focused on healthy, plant-based products. Ironically, while my brand promoted wellness, my own health began to fall apart. The stress and workload were unbearable. For the first three years, I got by on just two to three hours of sleep a night, sometimes with a short nap during the day. I thought that my diet—full of green juices and raw foods—could counteract the damage from my lifestyle.

Eventually, my company and the stress broke me. It turns out, you can’t green juice your way out of unhealthy lifestyle habits.

A Turning Point: Cancer and Melatonin

Then came my cancer diagnosis. My integrative oncologist prescribed a high dose of melatonin—20 mg—for all his active cancer patients. I was skeptical at first, having tried melatonin before and waking up feeling groggy and miserable. But this time, everything was different. I had read studies highlighting melatonin’s potential benefits, particularly for certain cancers. Facing the relapse of my stage 4 cancer, I was staring death in the face. At that point, I was willing to try anything—if someone told me gasoline might help, I would’ve considered it.

So, I began taking 20 mg of melatonin every night for six months. It wasn’t always easy—the vivid dreams were intense. However, I didn’t experience any of the drowsiness I had before, which I credited to taking a pure dissolvable form that bypassed the digestive issues caused by melatonin supplements mixed with other herbs. Gradually, something remarkable happened: for the first time in my life, I was consistently sleeping eight hours a night, going to bed, and waking up at the same time every day. It felt like my body had finally reset its circadian rhythm.

Eventually, I reduced the dose to 5 mg, and for the past three years, I’ve continued to take it every night.

No More Sleepless Nights

These days, it feels strange to be the only person in the room not complaining about sleep. I’ve sat through countless events where women share their struggles with insomnia, and it almost triggers me. It brings back vivid memories of those torturous nights lying awake, followed by the foggy, hungover feeling the next day.

I always try to share my experience with melatonin, but the response is usually a quick, “Oh, I can’t do melatonin.” My reply is always the same: “That’s exactly what I used to say!” But I don’t push it further, because I get it. If I hadn’t been diagnosed with cancer and spent $10,000 on a treatment plan from a world-renowned integrative oncologist, I probably wouldn’t have given melatonin another chance, either.

Still, I can’t help but want to take away their pain. I’ve tried everything—sleep aids, supplements, breathing exercises, even hypnosis tracks—but nothing worked for me the way melatonin did. It was the true game changer.

The 3 Biggest Misconceptions About Melatonin

Myth 1: Taking Melatonin Will Stop Your Body from Producing It Naturally

This myth threw me off for years. The internet can be a wild place, full of conflicting information! I’ve come across countless articles warning that taking melatonin could disrupt your body’s natural production, with advice like "take it in the afternoon so it doesn't interfere" or even claims that supplementing with melatonin could completely shut down your body’s ability to produce it.

Here’s the truth: Melatonin is not a hormone produced by the endocrine system, but by the pineal gland (and other organs and tissues), which functions differently. Unlike the endocrine system, which controls hormones like insulin or thyroid hormones, the pineal gland produces melatonin based on your exposure to light and dark. Several studies have shown that supplementing with melatonin does not inhibit your body’s natural ability to produce it. Instead, it helps regulate your sleep cycle, especially when external factors (like stress, travel, or illness) throw it off balance.

Myth 2: Melatonin only helps with sleep

Learning about how powerful melatonin is in the body was a game-changer for me! I felt like I had been living under a rock for years. When I first read through the symptoms of low melatonin, it was like checking off every box: anxiety, stress, imbalanced estrogen-to-progesterone ratio, immune disorders, and of course, cancer. The deeper I dug into the research, the more mind-blowing it became. For instance, one study consistently found that individuals suffering from depression had chronically low melatonin levels, and patients with panic disorder were also reported to have low melatonin levels paired with a delayed circadian rhythm.

There’s also compelling evidence linking melatonin and cancer, especially hormone-dependent types. Studies suggest that melatonin’s ability to regulate the body’s response to light exposure may influence the development of certain cancers. In fact, melatonin supplementation has been shown to improve survival rates and quality of life in patients with brain metastases from solid tumors. Additionally, when used alongside chemotherapy (like cisplatin) for non-small cell lung cancer, melatonin helped extend survival time in patients with metastatic disease.

One of the most promising areas of research is melatonin’s role in breast cancer treatment, thanks to its oncostatic (anti-cancer) effects and its ability to block estrogen. Numerous studies have demonstrated an inverse relationship between melatonin levels and the growth of estrogen-receptor-positive tumors. Used in combination with tamoxifen, melatonin has been found to enhance the effectiveness of endocrine therapy by modulating estrogen receptor expression and inhibiting breast cancer cell growth. In some cases, researchers have even observed tumor regression in metastatic breast cancer patients who were previously resistant to tamoxifen alone. (see citations below)

Myth 3: Melatonin Will Make You Drowsy

Based on my experience, I believe that taking the wrong form of melatonin combined with each person’s unique digestion rate can cause complications.

In the past, I took melatonin in large pills mixed with other ingredients, usually around 2-3 mg, and woke up feeling like I’d spent the night taking shots—not exactly restful sleep. The timing also played a role; I often took it with or after dinner, which delayed absorption. Since it takes about three hours to digest a meal, my stomach was still busy processing food when I took the pill, further slowing melatonin’s release. Because melatonin in pill form needs to be broken down first, it would enter my bloodstream later than intended, throwing off my body’s natural rhythm and leaving me groggy the next morning.

Now, I’ve learned a few key things that changed my sleep routine. First, I eat much earlier, typically around 6 p.m., giving my body enough time to digest my meal before taking melatonin. Second, I switched to a pure, dissolvable form of melatonin, which bypasses the need for full digestion. I take it around 8:30 p.m., and by 9:30, I’m usually asleep, without any drowsiness or grogginess the next day.

This routine—eating dinner earlier and using a fast-acting dissolvable form of melatonin—has completely transformed my sleep. Now, I get a full eight hours of rest and wake up feeling refreshed, without needing an alarm clock. My body naturally maintains its rhythm, so if I go to bed later, around 10:30, I still wake up on my own around 6:30, consistently getting the rest I need.

A Final Word on Melatonin

I never imagined that something as simple as melatonin could be the key to unlocking the restful sleep I’d been missing my entire life. From battling childhood sleep paralysis to enduring sleepless nights throughout my career, I had tried everything to fix my sleep. Yet, it wasn’t until I faced the toughest challenge of my life—cancer—that I finally gave melatonin a real chance.

Looking back, it’s almost surreal how much of an impact this small change has had on my health and well-being. Melatonin didn’t just help me sleep; it reset my entire circadian rhythm, bringing consistency and restoration to my nights. And now, three years later, I still experience the benefits of that decision every night, waking up refreshed and energized for the day ahead.

If there’s one thing I hope you take away from my story, it’s that sometimes, the solutions we’re hesitant to try are the ones that end up changing everything. Whether you’ve struggled with sleep your whole life or are simply looking to optimize your rest, I encourage you to consider melatonin. The myths that surround it don’t hold up to the real-life experience I’ve had—and maybe, just maybe, it could change your life too.

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1: McIntyre IM, Judd FK, Marriott PM, Burrows GD, Norman TR. Int J Clin Pharmacol Res 1989;9(2):159-64.

2: Shafii M, MacMillan DR, Key MP, Derrick AM, Kaufman N, Nahinsky ID. Nocturnal serum melatonin profile in major depression in children and adolescents. Arch Gen Psychiatr 1996;53(11):1009-13.

3. Lissoni P, Barni S, Meregalli S, Fossati V, Cazzaniga M, Esposti D, Tancini G. Modulation of cancer endocrine therapy by melatonin: A phase two study of tamoxifen plus melatonin in metastic breast cancer patients progressing under tamoxifen alone. Br J Cancer 1995;71:854-56.

4. Danforth DN Jr, Tamarkin L, Lippman ME. Melatonin increases oestrogen receptor binding activty of human breast cancer cells. Nature 1983;305:323-25.