On a recent trip to Koh Samui, Thailand, the inevitable happened. A cancelled flight meant I had to take a 14-hour red-eye from Singapore to London, landing at 6:05am for a full day’s work by 10am.
Sleep was essential. So, on a whim, I did something my travel-savvy friends had told me to do a million times before: I bought a bottle of 3mg melatonin tablets for a very reasonable £15 ($20) from the duty-free store at Singapore Airport.
Only available with a prescription in the UK, the sleepy hormone is readily (and cheaply) available abroad over the counter. I took one tablet 30 minutes before take-off, curled up in my economy seat, and had nodded off by the time we were airborne. I next woke up 30 minutes from Heathrow, having slept through 13 and a half hours of crying children, considerable turbulence and (somewhat annoyingly) delicious meal services. ‘I tried to nudge you awake,’ the gentleman next to me told me afterwards, ‘but you were completely out of it. And you were snoring so loudly.’
Melatonin is a naturally occurring hormone that your body produces in response to darkness, which promotes sleepiness (which is why looking at light screens before bed can disturb your sleep pattern). The average starting dose is between 1mg and 5mg, which, according to the NHS, ‘adds to your body’s natural supply of the hormone, which helps you fall asleep and improves the quality of your sleep.’
Overseas, however, it’s an entirely different story. I could readily pick it up in Singapore, and it’s also available over-the-counter in holiday hotspots like the US, Spain, France (up to 2mg), Italy (up to 1mg), Greece, Thailand, Turkey, Mexico and Egypt.
Melatonin is a naturally occurring hormone that your body produces in response to darkness
When taken as a supplement, it can have a similar effect to a sleeping pill
The hormone is widely touted on social media sites like TikTok, where videos tagged #melatonin have been viewed more than 70 million times. ‘I sleep like a baby every time I take it,’ one TikToker wrote. ‘Melatonin saved my life on my flight,’ another added. ‘I was way too tired to feel anxious as usual, and it made my longest flight the best flight I’ve ever been on.’
I asked YOU’s resident doctor, Dr Ellie Cannon, what she thinks about the viral magic pill. ‘Melatonin has certainly grown in popularity in recent years,’ she said, ‘having previously just been something I knew Americans took for jet lag. We are a nation of bad sleepers with possibly as many as 6 million adults in the UK not sleeping well. So it’s no surprise we look for other solutions and fall into the arms of social media and consumerism for solutions.’
‘Melatonin is really not a bad idea. It’s actually prescribed now on the NHS for people over 55 with sleeping issues and for children with conditions such as ADHD or ASD that impact their sleep. It also holds a licence for jet lag in the UK but it’s rare to prescribe this to be honest.’ You can apply for a prescription via your NHS doctor, or pay for a Boots or Superdrug online appointment (their private doctors are more willing to sign it off).
Kourtney Kardashian’s Lemme Sleep melatonin gummies are a huge hit on social media
Kourtney Kardashian promoting another of her Lemme supplements
Her advice is to do your research before you publish. ‘Many of my patients stock up when they are abroad: the worry here of course is you don’t know what you are buying unless it is a regulated product from a reputable company: and there are a huge range of doses.’
The melatonin I used is produced by Asian supplement brand LAC, and comes in tablet form with added Vitamin B, which helps the body effectively absorb melatonin. But there are plenty of alternatives out there.
Americans (and my well-travelled friend) swear by £6 ($8) OLLY’s dissolvable melatonin tablets which are a great alternative to pills, whereas well-known brand Vicks sell 3 mg gummies for £10.99 ($15) that are also infused with valerian root, a plant extract proven to help relax your nervous system. Then there’s Kourtney Kardashian’s £23 ($31) Melatonin and Magnesium Lemme Sleep gummies, which even TV-show host Oprah is hooked on. It’s an Amazon best seller, and has more than 1,200 rave five-star reviews online.
There’s another, lesser-known issue melatonin can help with: menopause-induced insomnia. According to a study published by the National Institutes of Health, melatonin production decreases in menopausal and perimenopausal women. Researchers treated a group of women with melatonin tablets and found that sleep quality improved among recipients, with results described as ‘promising’ in the treatment of insomnia.
Melatonin is typically recommended for use on nighttime or long-haul flights, as its sleep-inducing effects last around six hours. It’s also advised to take it only occasionally – or for no longer than two to three months of nightly use – to avoid building a tolerance or disrupting your natural sleep cycle. Doctors also caution that melatonin can interact with medications, including blood thinners, antidepressants, and some forms of birth control, so it’s worth checking before trying it.
Dr Cannon has her own words of advice. ‘Like any drug melatonin comes with risks and side effects and people have to take this into account if taking them just for jet lag. Surprisingly it can commonly cause joint aches and back pain, as well as headaches which may go unnoticed by many people after a long flight. But it can also less commonly cause nightmares, anxiety and abdominal pain. Women taking the Pill or HRT need to be careful taking melatonin as it can make you more sensitive to the melatonin so likely increase the drowsiness it brings on.’
I didn’t experience the side effects Dr Cannon warns about – or a ‘melatonin hangover’, as it’s known online – and woke feeling incredibly refreshed. The hormone is inarguably less harsh than traditional sleeping pills which chemically sedate you, given melatonin simply tops up your body’s natural sleep hormone.
Dr Cannon largely agrees with the product’s efficacy and usefulness. ‘Melatonin certainly makes sense for all sorts of sleeping worries from jet lag to the menopause-induced sleep problems: but I’d be cautious about buying unregulated products and be aware that if you think something will help you sleep, it may do simply from the powerful placebo!’
As for me, placebo or not, the pills have a firm position on my holiday packing list. Consider me a convert. I’ll never face a long-haul flight again without my pot of melatonin magic.
