Table of Contents
Melatonin And Alcohol
Can you mix melatonin and alcohol? Find out!
If you are taking melatonin supplements, it is best to consume them without alcohol in your boy or wait for a long time after you have consumed any alcoholic drinks. How much you have drunk matters a lot while waiting, depending upon the amount consumed, act accordingly before taking melatonin.
Melatonin is a hormone naturally produced by the body which aids in sleeping. It helps keep our sleep cycle consistent daily. The sleep cycle is called the circadian rhythm. You might be familiar with the usage of the term “biological clock”. It is a natural cycle of the body functions which determines when to sleep and when to wake up.
You might get tired but when try to sleep you couldn’t sleep, it might be due to the low production of melatonin in your body. At some point, your family members or friends might have suggested you use melatonin supplements.
Melatonin plays a huge part in maintaining our biological cycle. Most melatonin is produced in the body after the sun sets or goes down. To be more specific about the time, it is produced between 11 p.m and 3 a.m.
You can also take melatonin from outside in the form of nutritional supplements. Almost all the drugstores and pharmacies have melatonin in them. It is recommended as a quick fix for insomnia or jet lag and seeing aid.
Why Melatonin and Alcohol cannot be combined?
Melatonin is used to enhance sleep and aid in sleeping while alcohol also works as a sedative and helps people fall asleep faster, then why cannot we combine melatonin ad alcohol?
Even though alcohol makes you sleep after having a few drinks but it is known to reduce the levels of melatonin in your body thus reducing your body’s efficiency to produce more melatonin. This interrupts your natural sleep cycle affecting the biological clock.
Alcohol might also cause some of the muscles around the airways to work differently thus affecting your breathing pattern. This makes it harder to fall asleep if you have breathing problems such as sleep apnea.
It is not recommended to take melatonin and alcohol together as they cause negative side effects to health. Some side effects can be potentially dangerous and disruptive, such as:
- Increased anxiety makes people feel irritable and raises their blood pressure.
- Drowsiness and dizziness make walking around and driving really dangerous.
- It makes it harder to focus on certain tasks like driving leading to accidents.
Complications on consuming melatonin and alcohol
Combining melatonin and alcohol may affect the ability of the liver to produce more enzymes. Following complications might arise as a result of inefficiency to produce enzymes or deficiency of enzymes in the body:
- Flushing in your upper body and face.
- Swelling of ankles and feet.
- The heartbeat becomes fast abnormally.
- Trouble in thinking and focusing properly on a given task.
- Feeling cold abnormally ad shivering for no reason.
- Trouble in breathing.
- Passing out.
If you have experienced any of these symptoms, see your condition and tell them about your experience related to these side effects. They will run proper diagnosis ad treatment will be given based on that.
If you are having trouble sleeping due to insomnia or you are sleeping inconsistently, discuss with your doctor if you should take melatonin supplements to aid in sleep. Doctors will be able to easily decide if melatonin is the best possible solution for treating your sleeping issues or not. In the case of sleeping disorders, other treatments and medications might be given as they are more effective to provide a night of better sleep.
How to consume melatonin for great results?
You can get the supplements anywhere as they come in doses from 1 mg to 10 mg. Discuss with your doctor to decide which dose is perfect for your body’s metabolism. Doses usually provided to aid in sleeping are anywhere between 0.1 mg to 5 mg. Depending o the health issues you have been facing, the doses also differ. Another factor affecting doses is age and the reason for which melatonin supplements are taken.
It is really hard to pinpoint the exact dose of melatonin for every individual as it is not regulated by the FDA or Food and rug administration. Dosage also varies by brand. You can follow these guidelines for consuming melatonin:
- Many nutritionists and doctors suggest taking melatonin nearly 30 minutes before you plan to sleep.
- several ways are using which you can consume melatonin. The most widely used method is by taking medicines or oral supplements. You will easily receive these in pharmacies and drugstores. Melatonin is also used in some beverages and food products to take, but tablets are the most recommended, effective, and safest way to get melatonin inside your body.
- Once you have consumed melatonin, make sure you do not indulge in activities that expose you to “blue light”. These activities may include using your mobile or smartphone or watching television for late hours. This type of light causes the body to reduce the level of melatonin produces. The reason behind this is the brightness of the screen involved. It results in less effectiveness of the supplements after which it might not aid in good sleep.
- If you are consuming melatonin to help you sleep faster, do not ever consume it with alcohol or after alcohol. If you have consumed alcohol, avoid using the supplement as it will cause side effects. Many supplements having melatonin are time release. This indicates that they need time to start working inside the body. Most of them begin after 30 minutes of taking the supplement. Consuming alcoholic drinks will eventually interrupt the process and supplements will not work as desired.
Risk factors and side effects
Melatonin supplements, when consumed separately without alcohol, do not have any side effects or negative effects on the body but having melatonin and alcohol together can have side effects. Most of the time, melatonin does not have noticeable effects on your body and your biological clock. Melatonin supplements should be brought from reputed companies and sellers as they are not standardized in packaging and processing.
Know that melatonin is not monitored by the food and drug administration for effectiveness, safety, and purity.
It may possess some risks when taken with some other drug after combing for example:
- Diabetes medications- Melatonin usage with diabetes medication will affect your blood sugar levels.
- Immunosuppressants- medications for working the immune system, taking melatonin with these will interfere with their functioning.
- Birth controls- Contraceptive drugs like birth control pills with melatonin might increase the risk of negative effects.
- Blood thinners- Taking melatonin with blood thinners may end up increasing the risk of bleeding in people.
- Blood pressure medicines- If you are suffering problems with blood pressure, avoid using melatonin as it may worsen this condition.
- Anticonvulsants- These are epilpsey medications. Taking melatonin with such medications may not be useful and certainly, make them less effective in fighting the diseases they are taken for.
- Avoid using melatonin with other sleep aids.
- Melatonin should also be avoided with central nervous system depressants along with alcohol.
- Avoid using melatonin if you are breastfeeding, pregnant, or planning to get pregnant as it may have negative impacts on the mother’s body as well as the child’s body.
- Additionally, you can seek help from the doctors if you have used melatonin along with an autoimmune disease, liver disease, kidney disease, or had an allergic reaction to it previously.
If you taking any of these medications already, do not go for melatonin as both drugs may interact to cause side effects. Discuss with your doctor before consuming any of these.
Some possible side effects may include the following:
- Unexplained yet short episodes of anxiety and depression or getting depressive feelings.
- Migraine and occasional headaches.
- Disorientation and abnormal dizziness.
- Feeling groggy and sleepy during the day-long after you have woken up.
- Disruption of your regular sleep cycle is very discomforting in case you have maintained sleeping habits or have night shifts for long times.
When to visit a doctor
An individual suffering from severe or chronic insomnia or disruptions in sleep should make an instant appointment what their doctor. There may be some other underlying conditions that are causing disruptions or lack of sleep. The doctor can easily rule out the conditions and look for a suitable treatment.
If any other case of insomnia or sleepiness has been ruled out by the doctor, it will be great if you talk to the doctors before going for melatonin as a sleeping aid. They will be able to rule out all the benefits as well as potential negative effects of the drug in your case. Also, they will be able to tell you more about how the melatonin is going to react with some other medications you are taking.
Avoid taking melatonin and alcohol completely. If you have accidentally consumed melatonin and alcohol together you should seek medical attention immediately if you have faced dizziness or breathing problems.
The Bottom Line
It is not safe to take melatonin and alcohol together because alcohol will interfere with the normal functioning and overall effectiveness of the melatonin supplement causing side effects. Both melatonin and alcohol can be used separately as they are beneficial to aid in sleeping but together they act abruptly causing negative downsides. There may be an increased risk of over-sedation when melatonin and alcohol are taken together.
Be careful using melatonin with other medications too because the components of melatonin may interfere with the functioning of other drugs you are taking like blood thinners or birth control medications. If you have faced any such issue that indicates negative downsides, visit a doctor immediately for diagnosis and treatment.
This was all you needed to know on melatonin and alcohol usage, know that both these sedatives cannot be used together for sleeping.
