![]() Play quiet music, take a warm bath, and enjoy a cup of pregnancy-safe herbal tea, for example. Establish a relaxing bedtime ritual to cue your body that it's time to sleep.Experiment with pregnancy pillows to find an assortment that's comfortable. Is it a comfortable temperature? Dark and quiet? Invest in heavy or light-blocking curtains, good bedding, and a sound machine if you need to. Improve your "sleep hygiene" by going to bed and getting up at the same time daily.Artificial light tricks our body into thinking it's still daylight and keeps it from making the melatonin that helps us get to sleep. Boost your body's own melatonin by dimming the lights and turning off bright screens like laptops, tablets, smartphones, and TVs at least an hour before bedtime.Here's what to try instead of melatonin while pregnant: Happily, there are plenty of safe options for improving your sleep. "Unfortunately, sleep disturbances usually get worse as the pregnancy progresses," says Dr. There are plenty of reasons for the struggle, including trouble getting comfy, frequent urination, leg cramps, heartburn, and anxiety. According to a Polish study of more than 7,000 pregnant women, 77 percent reported sleep problems, including trouble falling asleep, waking often, waking too early, and sleeping too shallowly. It's no secret that it's often hard to get a good night's sleep while pregnant. What to try instead of melatonin while pregnant In another analysis of 17 studies over a period of more than 20 years, melatonin reduced sleep onset by 4 minutes and increased total sleep duration by about 13 minutes.Īlso, while it's generally considered safe, melatonin isn't without side effects, including daytime sleepiness, dizziness, and fatigue. One study of 13 trials involving more than 5,800 patients found that the amount of time taken to fall asleep improved by 4.5 minutes after taking melatonin, but the overall total sleep time was not affected. (They do say that melatonin might be a treatment option for specific circadian rhythm sleep disorders, such as jet lag or shift work disorder.) The American Academy of Sleep Medicine doesn't recommend the use of melatonin as a treatment for problems falling asleep or insomnia, due to the lack of data supporting its effectiveness. Whether you're pregnant or not, research shows that melatonin isn't a silver bullet when it comes to getting good sleep.īased on trials of melatonin, researchers have generally found small or modest effects on sleep onset and little if any effects on overall sleep quality. Variability from one lot of a specific product to another lot of the same product varied as much as 465 percent. The amount of melatonin ranged from less than 83 percent of the amount listed to over 478 percent of the labelled content. And more than 70 percent didn't meet their melatonin label claim within a 10 percent margin. One study of 31 commercial melatonin supplements found that 26 percent of the products contained serotonin, a non-listed contaminant. Before birth, babies get melatonin from their mothers, and it seems to play a crucial role in fetal development. The melatonin your body produces during pregnancy is important in many ways. ![]() What happens to melatonin levels during pregnancy? ![]() ![]() According to the Council for Responsible Nutrition (CRN), the number of Americans who tried melatonin more than doubled from 2012 to 2022, from 4 percent to 10 percent. Government-collected data from more than 55,000 adults shows that melatonin use increased from 0.4 percent of Americans in 1999 to 2.1 percent in 2018. Some doctors may recommend it for a few nights after a trip abroad, for example.Īs a sleep aid, melatonin's popularity has soared in recent years. Melatonin is considered most useful to help people with temporarily altered sleep cycles, such as those suffering from jet lag. Limited research suggests that taking melatonin supplements before bed may help some people fall asleep more easily. Levels normally rise in response to darkness, peaking in the middle of the night and dropping just before morning. Melatonin is a hormone that's important in sleep-wake cycles.
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