It’s hard to overstate how key sleep is to our overall well-being. But for all the benefits it brings, it doesn’t always come easy. In an effort to get more of it, lots of people reach for the popular sleep aid melatonin.
But what you may not know is that as of 2017, the American Academy of Sleep Medicine updated its clinical practice guidelines to actually recommend against the use of melatonin as a nightly sleep aid because the overall evidence available for its effectiveness is weak. (Not to mention, it’s a hormone that can potentially do more harm than good when taken regularly.)
As board-certified sleep expert Michael Breus, Ph.D., previously explained to mbg, “Melatonin is a sleep regulator, not a sleep initiator. Melatonin does not make you feel sleepy; it tells your body it’s bedtime. Those are two completely different processes in the brain.”
That bedtime reminder function might make melatonin relevant in the short term when traveling across several time zones (i.e., help with circadian reset) but not for routine use.
If you’re in the market for a nonhormonal alternative for nightly sleep support, mindbodygreen’s pioneering sleep formula sleep support+ is a name to know. Taking two capsules of sleep support+ one to two hours before bed provides 120 mg of magnesium bisglycinate, along with relaxing jujube seed extract and PharmaGABA®, to promote deep and restorative sleep.*
Here’s what happy customers are saying about sleep support+ and why they’re glad they made the switch from melatonin.
