Melatonin supplementation might impact dreams, but it’s hard to say much with certainty. Theoretically, melatonin could promote dreaming by increasing time spent in REM, a primary sleep stage when dreaming occurs. One randomized controlled trial of 22 young adults did find that taking melatonin before bed increased how bizarre participants rated their dreams.[1] However, aside from this small study, there isn’t much research confirming a dream-enhancing or dream-altering effect of melatonin. In two randomized controlled trials of people with sleep disorders, melatonin supplementation increased time spent in REM but had no obvious effect on the number, intensity, or quality of dreams.[2] And another study of 30 people with Parkinson’s disease found melatonin supplementation had no apparent effect on the frequency of vivid dreams compared to placebo.[3]
In some studies, people have stopped taking melatonin due to nightmares, although this is a rare occurrence.[4][5] It’s also not clear whether the nightmares were caused by melatonin or just happened to occur while the person was taking melatonin. Furthermore, one randomized controlled trial reported no increase in the rates of nightmares with melatonin supplementation.[6]
References
- ^Kahan, T.L., Hays, J., Hirashima, B., & Johnston, K.Effects of melatonin on dream bizarreness among male and female college students.Sleep and Hypnosis.(2000)
- ^Kunz D, Mahlberg R, Müller C, Tilmann A, Bes FMelatonin in patients with reduced REM sleep duration: two randomized controlled trials.J Clin Endocrinol Metab.(2004-Jan)
- ^Gilat M, Coeytaux Jackson A, Marshall NS, Hammond D, Mullins AE, Hall JM, Fang BAM, Yee BJ, Wong KKH, Grunstein RR, Lewis SJGMelatonin for rapid eye movement sleep behavior disorder in Parkinson's disease: A randomised controlled trial.Mov Disord.(2020-Feb)
- ^Schernhammer ES, Giobbie-Hurder A, Gantman K, Savoie J, Scheib R, Parker LM, Chen WYA randomized controlled trial of oral melatonin supplementation and breast cancer biomarkersCancer Causes Control.(2012 Apr)
- ^Rozen TDHow effective is melatonin as a preventive treatment for hemicrania continua? A clinic-based study.Headache.(2015-Mar)
- ^Farahmand S, Vafaeian M, Vahidi E, Abdollahi A, Bagheri-Hariri S, Dehpour ARComparison of exogenous melatonin versus placebo on sleep efficiency in emergency medicine residents working night shifts: A randomized trial.World J Emerg Med.(2018)