Melatonin Dreams Melatonin Dreams There's been a lot of talk in the media lately about melatonin, a natural hormone made by the pineal gland. This hormone has been available in vitamin stores for the past two years and is currently used mostly for insomnia. I believe readers of MAPS would be interested in the fact that melatonin is chemically known as 5-methoxy-N-acetyl-tryptamine, with a structure not too unlike that of DMT (N,N-dimethyltryptamine) and other tryptamines.

I have used melatonin in my practice to treat insomniacs. Many of my patients report experiencing vivid dreams. I also have incredibly long, clear, and memorable dreams the nights I take this supplement. It especially seems that the morning dream goes on and on, almost like watching a double feature at the movie theater.

My theory is that melatonin, and related hallucinogenic metabolic compounds, are the chemicals responsible (at least partly) for inducing a dream state. J.C. Callaway also felt that tryptamines were involved with dreams when he published an article in 1988 entitled "A proposed mechanism for the visions of dream sleep," Medical Hypotheses 26:119-124.

Most of my patients report having pleasant dreams, often with complicated plots. One 70 year old woman, who previously rarely remembered her dreams, tells me she now dreams of people in her high school. However, no medicine is perfect. A small percentage of users have noted that occasionally a dream had been vividly bad - what could be called a nightmare.

I tell my patients on melatonin not to watch Nightmare on Elm Street or read a Stephen King novel before tucking under the covers.

Ray Sahelian, M.D.
author of Melatonin: Nature's Sleeping Pill
Editor-in-Chief of Melatonin Update newsletter
Tel: 310-821-2409
dr.ray@ix.netcom.com