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Whether you're struggling with jet lag, working shifts and sleeping during the day, or dealing with more severe insomnia, you might have wondered if melatonin can help you get better sleep.

Melatonin is a hormone made in the brain to regulate your daily sleep-wake cycle. It tells your internal body clock to get sleepy when it's dark.

Melatonin supplements are a synthetic version of this hormone that people can take to help them sleep.

But they won't work for all sleep conditions. So what can you take melatonin for?

Melatonin works by slowing or stopping neuron firing in the area of the brain called the hypothalamus. This is the brain's master biological clock.

Your eyes detect when darkness falls, triggering the brain to produce melatonin.

Because you need lower light levels, or darkness, to trigger melatonin release, sleep can be a problem for people living at very high or low latitudes. In summer, the sun may not set, or it is only dark for a few hours per day, and that affects melatonin production. And in winter, the sun may never come up, or you get only a few hours of sunlight.

For those in the rest of the world, low levels of melatonin—which can happen as you age—can make it harder to sleep.

There are several diseases and conditions that affect sleep, but only two have evidence that they are treatable with melatonin supplements.

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