When your melatonin level is too high or too low it has negative effects on our organism. Often, this leads to sleep disturbances and tiredness. A melatonin level with an average of 10 pg/ml (picogram per milliliter) during the day and 100 pg/ml during the night are said to be normal.
Symptoms and causes
Melatonin level too low
When the melatonin level is under the above mentioned values it might lead to sleeping problems and consequently lack of sleep and tiredness. This has a negative effect on the general well-being. Sleep disturbances depending on a lack of melatonin especially express with problems to fall asleep and early awakening. The resulting missing and therefore not very restful sleep can cause susceptibility to diseases, concentration disturbances, poor memory, mood swings etc.
Since the melatonin production constantly decreases in the course of life older people are more concerned by this. But due to our modern lifestyle and certain factors from the outside, many people often suffer under a lack of melatonin. Influencing factors might be
- long phases of daylight in summer, long phases of artificial light due to electric light, computer and TV
- lack of serotonin
- intake of certain medications like for example beta blockers
- consumption of caffeine, alcohol or tobacco
- too intensive sport too late in the evening
- ongoing stress
When your problems to fall asleep and waking up too early persist it is advisable to check your melatonin level. If the level actually is too low, try to spend as much time as possible in natural day light and eat tryptophan-containing foods. These two support production of the happy hormone serotonin – precursor of melatonin.
Melatonin level too high
An increased melatonin level, too, is noticeable by sleep disturbances and tiredness. An increased melatonin level makes waking up in the morning difficult. During the day, you are feeling whacked and lethargic. Especially in the colder and darker months of autumn and winter the melatonin production is increased. This also might lead to seasonal affective disorder (SAD).
A too high melatonin level can be caused by
- long phases of darkness in the winter
- liver dysfunction
- high intake of vitamins B3 or B6
- intake of tryptophan or certain antidepressants
Here, too, daylight is helpful. And – as soon as the days start to get longer, the symptoms decrease.
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