Does Melatonin Help Anxiety? Exploring Its Potential for Relief

Does melatonin help anxiety? It’s a question that many individuals grappling with anxiety often ask, seeking relief and understanding in their journey toward better mental health. In a world where stress appears to be an inevitable companion, researching different natural and pharmacological solutions has become a popular activity. Although melatonin is mainly recognized for its function in controlling sleep, its possible mental calming benefits have drawn more attention. But does it really have potential as a treatment for anxiety? Let’s explore the facts, myths, and science of melatonin and how it relates to anxiety.

A lot of the time not getting enough sleep can cause us to feel anxious throughout the day. Sleep and anxiety are linked so lack of sleep could make anxiety worse. Melatonin ensures you have better sleep quality and a longer sleep so you wake up feeling refreshed and less anxious, therefore this shows us that melatonin works well when treating anxiety.

This blog is going to take you through what melatonin is, what it does, and how it helps with anxiety. 

What is Melatonin?

It is a hormone created from the amino acid tryptophan and helps to keep the body’s circadian rhythm on track, therefore,  keeping us awake when we should be during the day and asleep at night. It is released mostly at night, between the hours of 2 am and 4 am, however, it is also produced and released during the day but in small amounts. At night melatonin is produced ten times more than during the day because it is needed more.

Melatonin comes from the pineal gland and enters the fluid around the brain and spinal cord before entering the bloodstream. From here it travels to all the tissues and organs in the body, this triggers all the specific receptors to tell the body it’s time to sleep.

Melatonin is sensitive to light, so it is responsible for our internal clock. As light changes, we either become more alert or feel tired. When the nights get longer and the days shorter as the season changes, the way melatonin is created and released also changes. This is called circannual rhythm or seasonal rhythm.

It is an antioxidant that serves to lower oxidative stress in our brains. Melatonin looks for and gets rid of free radicals and reduces tissue damage. It also stimulates the creation of antioxidant enzymes in the body as an extra defense against oxidative damage.

Pineal Gland

The pineal gland is a very small pinecone-shaped gland found deep in your brain. It is part of a network of glands that produce and release hormones throughout the body. It gets information from our eyes to know when the light changes based on the time of day. Once it has this information it makes melatonin.

Low Melatonin Productions

If your melatonin levels are low, you will experience sleep disturbance at night or have trouble falling asleep. Over time it could lead to mental health disorders or a sleep disorder.

Contributing Factors

Light exposure

If we have a lot of light exposure at night then production lowers, especially from blue light found in phones, televisions, laptops, and most electronic devices.

Age

As we get older, we produce and release less melatonin. This is why it becomes harder to get good quality sleep as we age.

Diseases

Bipolar disorder, some cancers, Alzheimer’s disease, seasonal affective disorder (SAD), Type 2 diabetes, and migraines can interfere with the production and release of melatonin.

Symptoms

Circadian Rhythm Disruptions

When your sleep-wake cycle isn’t performing as it should. This normally occurs when your biological clock is out of sync.

Nightly Wake-Ups

Waking up at night often and being unable to fall back asleep.

Daytime Sleepiness

Constantly feeling tired during the day and feeling as if you didn’t get enough sleep.

What is Anxiety?

Anxiety is a natural response to fear, stress, or caused by a surrounding threat. It is an emotion characterized by fear, worry, or concern about the future. While it’s common to feel anxious in reaction to stressful events occasionally, anxiety becomes a problem when it gets out of control, persists, or interferes with day-to-day activities. Anxiety doesn’t have to be caused by a life-threatening situation, it could be an awkward situation or needing to make a very important decision.

When you are anxious, you get a boost of adrenaline and your body goes into “fight or flight mode” so you can respond to that danger appropriately. This response becomes a disorder when we start experiencing “flight or flight mode” more often, without there being any danger involved. This leads to physical symptoms and an inability to function as we normally would.

Often panic starts to set in and this hampers our ability to do our day-to-day activities. People with this disorder end up isolating themselves from places and people to protect themselves from this constant perceived danger. A lot of the time anti-anxiety medications are used to treat these affective disorders.

Anxiety Symptoms

Sweating, nausea, shaking, and an increase in blood pressure are physical anxiety symptoms. Emotional symptoms include constant worry, nervousness, difficulty concentrating, restlessness, unease, irritability, inability to sleep, and fear.

Types of Anxiety Disorders

Social Anxiety Disorder

Also known as the fear of public embarrassment. It’s cause is based around being fearful of others judging you when you are in a public and social setting. Common factors of social anxiety disorder include the fear of rejection, the fear of intimacy, and stage fright.

Phobias

Certain situations or items might cause such distress that we become anxious in their presence. Snakes can trigger a fear response so extreme that panic sets in or agoraphobia, the fear of being unable to leave a certain place or get help.

Separation Anxiety Disorder

If a specific place or person makes you feel secure and safe, being away from that place or person causes severe anxiety.

Panic Disorder

People who suffer from this disorder often have panic attacks which results in them not being able to breathe easily. This can result in shaking, nausea, confusion, and dizziness. These symptoms can start small but can become uncontrollable.  The majority of the time stressful situations cause panic attacks.

Selective Mutism

Specific places or situations may cause a person to become temporarily unable to speak. This could be due to trauma or anxiety.

Generalized Anxiety Disorder(GAD)

This is the most common type of anxiety. This is when you can’t pinpoint exactly what is causing the anxiousness. Regardless of your situation, you experience the physical and emotional symptoms of anxiety, which are often debilitating.

Causes of Anxiety    

Multiple factors cause anxiety such as:

Stimulants

The use of illegal stimulants or caffeine can have a large impact on your anxiety levels. These substances can increase your heart rate and blood pressure, heighten your sensitivity, disrupt sleep, and ultimately create a withdrawal effect and therefore increase your anxiety.

Unhealthy Environments 

Stress exposure for long periods in unhealthy work or family environments could cause anxiety. If your working environment causes you high levels of stress due to toxic behaviors, it will start affecting your anxiety levels. This is the same in family environments that are hostile and unsafe.

Family History 

You could have an anxiety disorder if your family has a history of this condition. If your parents or grandparents had high stress levels and were anxious a lot of the time you could have inherited it genetically.

Medical Issues

Thyroid disorders, diabetes, and heart arrhythmias can cause anxiety. Worrying about your illness or health conditions could make you anxious.

How Does Melatonin Treat Anxiety?

Melatonin is a sleep aid, and getting a good night’s sleep lowers anxiety levels, therefore by having adequate melatonin levels, you will sleep better and ultimately have less anxiety!  Melatonin reduces anxiety levels in adult patients undergoing surgery and makes them feel more at ease both before and after the procedure. It also produces a calming neurotransmitter in our nervous system that helps to improve mood quality and lower stress levels. In this randomized clinical trial you can see how melatonin administration was effective at relieving anxiety symptoms.

How to Increase Your Melatonin Levels

Keep a Regular Sleep Schedule

By going to bed at a fixed time and waking up at a fixed time, you regulate your body’s internal clock. This helps your body produce melatonin naturally.

Establish a Calm Bedtime Schedule

Before going to bed, create relaxing activities like reading, having a warm bath, or practicing relaxation methods like deep breathing. Your body may receive this as a cue to relax and get ready for sleep.

Reduce Your Nighttime Exposure to Artificial Light

Before going to bed, limit your exposure to strong lights, especially blue light from computers, smartphones, and other electronics. Blue light can hinder your ability to fall asleep by suppressing the generation of melatonin. It also causes sleep disturbances.

Increase Your Daytime Exposure to Natural Light

Go outside during the day, especially in the morning. Exposure to natural light aids in regulating your circadian rhythm, which affects the synthesis of melatonin and your sleep-wake cycles.

Think About Supplemental Melatonin

Melatonin supplements can be taken to raise melatonin levels if natural approaches aren’t enough. Since the amount and timing of these medications can vary depending on individual needs, it is imperative to use them sparingly and under the supervision of a healthcare practitioner.

Some people take melatonin supplements as a form of sleep medicine when their bodies don’t make enough of the hormone. Low melatonin production could have adverse effects like chronic insomnia. 

It is used for treating sleep problems like poor sleep, and trouble falling asleep. It is also used for older adults suffering from neurodivergent disorders, acute coronary syndrome, and cardiovascular disease. 

Well of Life Sleep Restore contains melatonin as well as sleep-enhancing elements. It has been formulated to support healthy sleep so you can feel restored.

Eat Foods High in Melatonin

Some foods contain melatonin and chemicals that promote its production. Tomatoes, walnuts, almonds, grapes, and tart cherries are a few examples. Including these foods in your diet could help your body produce more melatonin naturally.

Address Stress

Prolonged stress can interfere with the generation of melatonin and deregulate sleep patterns. To encourage relaxation and improved sleep, try stress-reduction methods like progressive muscle relaxation or mindfulness.

Establish a Sleep-Friendly Environment

Make sure your bedroom is calm, dark, and cool to sleep in. If required, reduce noise by using white noise machines, blackout curtains, or earplugs.

How Does It Regulate Sleep?

Enhances Sleep Quality

Taking melatonin reduces sleep disruption, helps you sleep longer, and gets you to fall asleep faster without hassle.

Circadian Rhythm Regulator

If you work, travel across time zones, or work different shifts,  this puts your biological clock out of sync. You can’t process things or could even develop mood disorders over time. Melatonin resets that clock so the sleep-wake cycle functions as it should.

Sleep Assistance

Supplements for travelers with jet lag or sleep disorders like insomnia include a melatonin supplement at night before bed to promote sleep.

Key Takeaways

We have found out that not only does melatonin help us get a great night’s sleep but it has other functions as well. It fights off free radical damage in the body and helps with anxiety. The link between getting good sleep and anxiety is the key to understanding why this is the case.

We highlighted how a natural hormone for sleep also helps to lower stress and treat anxiety. As a sleep-enhancing protocol and preventing cognitive dysfunction compared to other medications, it’s the best at treating sleep issues. A good night’s sleep helps to decrease symptoms of anxiety and lowers the risk of other mental health conditions or depressive symptoms. Melatonin makes this all possible while being natural making it a much healthier option!