Patient/caregiver was instructed upon therapeutic uses of melatonin as follows:
- Melatonin helps inducing sleep in individuals with history of insomnia and difficulty in staying asleep.
- Melatonin, by helping to induce sleep can contribute towards controlling sleep patterns in people working night shifts.
- Individuals traveling rapidly across multiple time zones might experience disturbance in the sleep-wake cycle, as their natural body cycle could be out of sync with the time zone of their new destination and thereby, experience symptoms of jet lag. Induction of sleep with melatonin supplement in such individuals, can help relieve symptoms of jet lag and reset the sleep-wake cycle.
- Many of other actions of melatonin have only been proposed, but not established with certainty.
- Cortisol levels increase in individuals experiencing stress, to help manage the symptoms of stress. Stress is believed to diminish the secretion of melatonin in the night and increase the secretion of melatonin during the day, thus contributing to the findings of stress, such as, insomnia, restlessness, daytime drowsiness, and fatigue. Melatonin supplementation in individuals experiencing stress can help promote sleep and restful night, reduce daytime drowsiness and fatigue, and thus, contribute towards stress relief.
