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Regulatory grey zone Evidence grade: B Most Indian doses too high India availability: High

Melatonin
The body-clock signal

Melatonin isn't a sleeping pill. It's the hormone your brain releases at dusk to say "it's night now", and as a supplement it's best at moving the timing of sleep, not forcing it. That's why it works well for jet lag and late body clocks and only a little for ordinary insomnia. Your body makes the equivalent of well under a milligram. Indian shelves sell 5 and 10 mg.

Updated: Sep 2026~12 min read12 citations
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Naked Compound Research TeamAbout the authors →
7 min
How much faster people fell asleep on melatonin vs placebo, pooled across 19 trials and 1,683 people (Ferracioli-Oda 2013). Real, but small.
0.3 mg
The dose that brought night-time melatonin back to normal levels in older adults with insomnia. 3 mg left levels raised into the next day (Zhdanova 2001).
74–347%
Actual melatonin content vs the label in US gummies. Only 3 of 25 products were within ±10% of their label (Cohen 2023).
~15%
Share of an oral dose that reaches the blood; the half-life is about 45 minutes (Harpsøe 2015). Timing matters more than size.
On this page

What melatonin is

Melatonin is a hormone made by the pineal gland, a small gland deep in the brain. Its release is controlled by the brain's master clock, the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN), and is shut off by light. Levels start rising in the evening, stay high through the night and fall by morning. The body reads this rise as "night has started".

Supplement melatonin copies that evening signal. Researchers call it a chronobiotic, something that shifts the body clock, rather than a hypnotic, something that sedates. That one distinction explains most of the evidence: melatonin is good at moving when you sleep and only modestly helpful at making you sleep. [1]

⚠

If stress or a racing mind keeps you awake, this is the wrong tool

Most urban Indian sleep complaints (late screens, work stress, a busy mind at midnight) are not body-clock problems, and melatonin at any dose does little for them. Sleep specialists recommend CBT-I (cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia) first for chronic insomnia, and the American Academy of Sleep Medicine suggests not using melatonin for it. [2]

How it works — two receptors, one clock

Melatonin acts on two receptors in the SCN. Activating MT1 quiets the clock's firing, which is the "time to sleep" signal. Activating MT2 shifts the clock's timing earlier or later. [1] Both respond to the small amounts the body makes naturally, so a dose far above natural levels doesn't send a stronger signal. It just keeps the signal on for longer.

Oral melatonin is absorbed and broken down quickly. Only about 15% of a swallowed dose reaches the blood, levels peak about 50 minutes after an ordinary tablet, and the half-life is about 45 minutes. [3] With a small dose, that means a short, sharp signal. With a big dose, blood levels can stay above natural night-time levels into the morning, which is where next-day grogginess comes from. [4]

0.3–1 mg AT BEDTIME NIGHT-LIKE LEVEL Matches own melatonin MT1 + MT2 SIGNAL "Night has started" CLEARS BY MORNING No hangover 3–10 mg AT BEDTIME FAR ABOVE NORMAL Receptors already full NO EXTRA SLEEP Signal lasts longer STILL HIGH AT DAWN Grogginess Zhdanova 2001: 0.3 mg normalised night levels; 3 mg kept them raised into daylight
Fig. 1 — Why a bigger dose isn't a stronger signal. Melatonin's receptors respond at natural night-time levels. Extra melatonin mainly keeps blood levels raised for longer, into the next morning.

Clinical evidence — what the trials show

StudyPopulation / doseDesignnKey findingGrade
Ferracioli-Oda et al. (2013) — PLoS One
doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0063773		 Primary sleep disorders, various dosesMeta-analysis, 19 RCTs1,683 People fell asleep 7.06 min faster (95% CI 4.37–9.75) and slept 8.25 min longer (95% CI 1.74–14.75) than on placebo, with better overall sleep quality. Effects were modest and didn't fade with continued use. A
Zhdanova et al. (2001) — J Clin Endocrinol Metab
doi:10.1210/jcem.86.10.7901		 Adults over 50: 0.1, 0.3 and 3.0 mg vs placebo, 30 min before bedDouble-blind crossover30 0.3 mg restored sleep efficiency in the insomnia group and brought plasma melatonin back to normal. 3.0 mg also improved sleep but lowered body temperature and kept melatonin raised into daylight hours. B
Herxheimer & Petrie (2002) — Cochrane Review
doi:10.1002/14651858.CD001520		 Air travellers crossing several time zonesSystematic review of RCTsMultiple trials Melatonin was "remarkably effective" against jet lag. 0.5–5 mg worked similarly, 5 mg helped people fall asleep a little faster, and doses above 5 mg added nothing. The review recommends it for flights crossing 5 or more time zones, especially eastward. A
Burgess et al. (2010) — J Clin Endocrinol Metab
doi:10.1210/jc.2009-2590		 0.5 mg vs 3.0 mg, 3 days, lab-controlled lightPhase-response studyHealthy adults Taken at the right time, 0.5 mg shifted the body clock as much as 3.0 mg. For moving the clock earlier, 0.5 mg worked best in the afternoon, 2–4 hours before the body's own melatonin rise. B
Auger et al. (2015) — AASM guideline, J Clin Sleep Med
doi:10.5664/jcsm.5100		 Circadian rhythm sleep disordersClinical guideline— Supports carefully timed melatonin for delayed sleep-wake phase disorder (a body clock that runs late): small doses, about 0.5–3 mg, in the early evening. A
Sateia et al. (2017) — AASM guideline, J Clin Sleep Med
doi:10.5664/jcsm.6470		 Chronic insomnia in adultsClinical guideline— Suggests clinicians not use melatonin for trouble falling or staying asleep in chronic insomnia (a weak recommendation, based on small benefits). A

The pattern is consistent. As a timing signal, for jet lag, shift work and late body clocks, melatonin works well, even at half a milligram. As a general sleep aid, the effect is real but small: minutes, not hours. [5][6]

Who it actually helps

Strong evidence

Jet lag

Best-supported use. Take it at the new time zone's bedtime from the day you arrive, for a few nights. Most useful for 5+ time zones and eastward trips, such as the US to India. [7]

Strong evidence

Body clock that runs late

If you can't fall asleep before 2am but sleep fine when allowed to wake late, that's delayed sleep phase, not insomnia. A small dose in the early evening moves the clock earlier. Pair it with bright morning light. [8][6]

Moderate evidence

Shift work and night shifts

Taken before a daytime sleep, it can help you sleep when your body thinks it's daytime. Relevant for night-shift work in Indian IT, BPO and healthcare. Blackout curtains and a consistent schedule matter as much.

Weak evidence

General insomnia, over-55s

Natural melatonin output falls with age, and low doses help older adults a little more than younger ones. [4] For ordinary stress-driven insomnia, expect about 7 minutes faster sleep onset. [5]

Dose and timing

✓

Evidence-based protocol

To fall asleep: 0.3–1 mg, 30–60 minutes before your target bedtime, with lights dimmed. Give it a week. [4] To move a late body clock earlier: 0.5 mg in the early evening, about 4–5 hours before your target bedtime, every day, plus morning light. [8][6] Jet lag: 0.5–5 mg at bedtime in the new time zone for the first few nights. [7] Above 5 mg: no trial showed any extra benefit.

Why timing beats dose

Because melatonin shifts the clock, when you take it decides what it does. Taken in the evening, before your natural melatonin rise, it moves your clock earlier. Taken in the early morning, it can move it later, which is the opposite of what most people want. Burgess's work showed that a well-timed 0.5 mg shifts the clock as much as 3 mg, and the best time for the small dose is earlier in the afternoon than for the big one. [8]

Getting a low dose in India

Few products on Indian shelves come in 0.3–1 mg. If you only have a 3 mg tablet, quartering it gives roughly 0.75 mg. Splitting is uneven, but it's still closer to the evidence than swallowing 3–10 mg. Don't split slow-release tablets, which are designed to release slowly and shouldn't be cut.

India-specific context

🇮🇳 India data

Easy to buy, loosely regulated, dosed high

3–10 mg
Dose range of every melatonin product in our database, 10–33× the 0.3 mg that restored normal night-time levels in trials.
Grey zone
Melatonin is a drug ingredient, but many products are sold as FSSAI nutraceuticals. A 2024 government panel named it as an example of drug-like ingredients taking the supplement route.
₹399–₹999
Price range of the melatonin products we've scored (30–60 servings; see brand table).

The regulatory confusion matters for buyers. Medicines go through quality checks that food-route supplements don't, and there is no published Indian testing of how much melatonin these products actually contain. [9] Our research note "Why India's 10 mg melatonin tablets are wrong" goes further into how shelf doses got this high, and our melatonin reading list covers the papers that changed how we score it.

Label accuracy — what testing found

Erland & Saxena (2017) — J Clin Sleep Med
31 melatonin supplements, Canada
Over 71% missed their label by more than 10%
Actual vs label−83% to +478%
Contained serotonin8 of 30 (26%)
Tested by liquid chromatography. [10]
Cohen et al. (2023) — JAMA
25 melatonin gummies, USA
22 of 25 (88%) inaccurately labelled
Actual vs label74% to 347%
Within ±10% of label3 of 25
One "melatonin" gummy contained no detectable melatonin, only CBD. [11]
India
No published testing
Unknown — assume the same risk
Independent lab dataNone found
Batch COAs publishedRare
These studies tested North American products, which face more scrutiny than Indian food-route supplements. We found no Indian equivalent. Choose tablets over gummies, and brands that publish batch COAs.

Indian brand comparison

Brand & productPriceMelatonin / servingScoreOur take
TrueBasics Sleep Formula₹699 / 30ct3 mg + L-theanine 200 mg + ashwagandha7.3 (B)The lowest melatonin dose we've scored, with meaningful L-theanine. Still 3–10× the physiological dose. Best of the current options.
Wellbeing Nutrition Melts Melatonin + Ashwagandha₹799 / 30 days5 mg + KSM-66 300 mg7.1 (B)Well-dosed ashwagandha. The melatonin is higher than needed.
GNC Melatonin 5 mg₹999 / 60ct5 mg6.9 (C)Consistent import quality, but a dose well above what trials support. Import pricing.
Purayati Melatonin 5 mg₹399 / 60ct5 mg6.5 (C)Cheaper route to the same overshoot. A quarter-tablet (~1.25 mg) is closer to the evidence, if the tablet splits cleanly.
Himalayan Organics Melatonin 10 mg₹399 / 60ct10 mg5.5 (D)Double the highest dose with any trial evidence (5 mg for jet lag). Likely to cause next-day grogginess. Avoid.

Scores and prices come from our product database (2026). None of the products we've scored come in the 0.3–1 mg range. Full rankings: sleep supplements compared.

Safety

Common

Grogginess, headache, vivid dreams

Mostly a high-dose problem: blood levels that are still raised in the morning cause next-day grogginess. [4] Drop the dose before you give up on melatonin, and don't drive if you feel drowsy.

Serious

Keep it away from children

In the US, child melatonin ingestions reported to poison centres rose 530% from 2012 to 2021, and in 2020 melatonin became the most common substance children swallowed in those reports. Gummies look like sweets; store them out of reach. [12]

Ask a doctor first

Pregnancy, breastfeeding, medicines

There isn't enough safety data in pregnancy or breastfeeding, so avoid it unless a doctor advises. Check with your doctor if you take blood thinners such as warfarin, immune-suppressing drugs, diabetes medicines or sedatives. Don't combine it with alcohol.

Dependence

Not habit-forming like sleeping pills

In trials, the effect didn't fade with continued use, and there's no withdrawal syndrome like with benzodiazepines. [5] The main risk of long-term use is covering up a sleep problem that needs a different treatment.

Commonly taken together

Morning light

High synergy

Not a supplement, but the other half of shifting a late body clock. Evening melatonin plus bright morning light push the clock in the same direction. Dim screens and lights in the last hour before bed. [6]

L-theanine (100–200 mg)

Moderate synergy

Targets the racing mind that melatonin doesn't touch. The two work in different ways, so they complement each other. See our L-theanine deep-dive and the wind-down protocol, which combines them.

Magnesium glycinate

Moderate synergy

A common evening companion in sleep stacks, and gentler than other magnesium forms. See our magnesium glycinate deep-dive.

Caffeine

Works against it

Late-afternoon chai or coffee can cancel out whatever melatonin does. Set a caffeine cut-off before trying melatonin. Our caffeine page covers timing.

Scoring rubric — full breakdown

1. Evidence quality

7.0/10

Strong for jet lag and delayed sleep phase (a Cochrane review and AASM guideline support). For chronic insomnia, the benefit is statistically real but clinically small, and the AASM suggests against using it. The score is the average of a strong and a weak evidence base. [5][2]

2. Dosage confidence

8.0/10

The physiological dose (0.3–1 mg) and its timing are well mapped by dose-comparison and phase-response studies. We deduct because the best dose differs by use, from 0.5 mg for clock-shifting to up to 5 mg for jet lag, and the timing is easy to get wrong. [4][8]

3. India market fit

6.0/10

Night-shift work, frequent international travel and late-night screen habits give melatonin real uses in India. But the market sells 5–10 mg to people whose insomnia is mostly stress-driven, and low-dose products are hard to find.

4. Safety profile

7.5/10

Short-term use at low doses is well tolerated, and it isn't habit-forming. We deduct for next-day effects at high doses, the rise in child poisonings, possible drug interactions and limited long-term data. [12]

5. Label accuracy (tested)

4.5/10

Where products have been tested, most miss their labels, some badly, and some contain serotonin that isn't on the label. India has no published testing, and melatonin's regulatory status here is unclear. [10][11][9]

Frequently asked questions

How much melatonin should I take?

For most adults, 0.3–1 mg is enough. In older adults with insomnia, 0.3 mg brought night-time melatonin back to normal levels and improved sleep, while 3 mg kept blood levels raised into the next day. Most tablets sold in India are 3–10 mg, far more than the body makes on its own.

Does melatonin work for insomnia?

Only a little. A meta-analysis of 19 trials (1,683 people) found melatonin helped people fall asleep about 7 minutes faster and sleep about 8 minutes longer than placebo. The American Academy of Sleep Medicine suggests not using it for chronic insomnia. It works much better for jet lag and for body clocks that run late.

When should I take melatonin?

It depends on the goal. To fall asleep, take 0.3–1 mg 30–60 minutes before bed. To move a late body clock earlier, take a small dose in the early evening, about 4–5 hours before your target bedtime. For jet lag, take it at bedtime in the new time zone.

Is melatonin safe to take every night?

Short-term use at low doses appears safe, and trial effects did not fade with continued use. Long-term data are limited. Avoid it in pregnancy and breastfeeding unless a doctor advises it, check with your doctor if you take blood thinners or immune-suppressing drugs, and store it away from children: melatonin gummies are now a common cause of child poisoning calls in the US.

Is melatonin legal in India?

It is sold widely, but its status is unclear. Melatonin is a drug ingredient under CDSCO rules, yet many products are sold as FSSAI 'nutraceuticals'. A government panel set up in 2024 named melatonin as an example of drug-like ingredients being moved into the food-supplement route. In practice, labels are not checked the way medicines are.

References

  1. 1
    Dubocovich ML. Melatonin receptors: role on sleep and circadian rhythm regulation. Sleep Med. 2007. ScienceDirect
  2. 2
    Sateia MJ, et al. Clinical practice guideline for the pharmacologic treatment of chronic insomnia in adults: an American Academy of Sleep Medicine clinical practice guideline. J Clin Sleep Med. 2017;13(2).doi:10.5664/jcsm.6470
  3. 3
    Harpsøe NG, et al. Clinical pharmacokinetics of melatonin: a systematic review. Eur J Clin Pharmacol. 2015.doi:10.1007/s00228-015-1873-4
  4. 4
    Zhdanova IV, Wurtman RJ, Regan MM, Taylor JA, Shi JP, Leclair OU. Melatonin treatment for age-related insomnia. J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2001;86(10):4727–30.doi:10.1210/jcem.86.10.7901
  5. 5
    Ferracioli-Oda E, Qawasmi A, Bloch MH. Meta-analysis: melatonin for the treatment of primary sleep disorders. PLoS One. 2013;8(5):e63773.doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0063773
  6. 6
    Auger RR, Burgess HJ, Emens JS, et al. Clinical practice guideline for the treatment of intrinsic circadian rhythm sleep-wake disorders: an update for 2015. J Clin Sleep Med. 2015;11(10):1199.doi:10.5664/jcsm.5100
  7. 7
    Herxheimer A, Petrie KJ. Melatonin for the prevention and treatment of jet lag. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2002;CD001520.doi:10.1002/14651858.CD001520
  8. 8
    Burgess HJ, Revell VL, Molina TA, Eastman CI. Human phase response curves to three days of daily melatonin: 0.5 mg versus 3.0 mg. J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2010;95(7):3325–31.doi:10.1210/jc.2009-2590
  9. 9
    Business Standard. Govt panel set to review if nutraceuticals should be brought under CDSCO. 18 Feb 2024. business-standard.com
  10. 10
    Erland LA, Saxena PK. Melatonin natural health products and supplements: presence of serotonin and significant variability of melatonin content. J Clin Sleep Med. 2017;13(2):275–81.doi:10.5664/jcsm.6462
  11. 11
    Cohen PA, Avula B, Wang YH, Katragunta K, Khan I. Quantity of melatonin and CBD in melatonin gummies sold in the US. JAMA. 2023.doi:10.1001/jama.2023.2296
  12. 12
    Lelak K, Vohra V, Neuman MI, Toce MS, Sethuraman U. Pediatric melatonin ingestions — United States, 2012–2021. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. 2022;71:725–9.doi:10.15585/mmwr.mm7122a1

Medical note. This page is educational and not a diagnosis. Insomnia that lasts more than a few weeks, loud snoring or gasping at night, or daytime sleepiness that affects driving or work need a doctor. Sleep apnoea and depression both cause sleep problems that melatonin won't fix.

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