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I am a night shift worker, 9 p.m. to 7 a.m. shift, working a schedule of roughly seven nights on and 14 nights off. During my off time, I switch to a daytime schedule. Needless to say, I have some difficulty sleeping. I recently conducted the DUTCH Complete Test at about five nights out from my work schedule. While my cortisol level demonstrated some large swings, spiking to top end of normal at the second morning point and bottoming out to the low end of normal at the evening point and coming up to the high end of normal at the before bed point, it remained diurnal. Unfortunately, melatonin was well below normal at 1.2. My question is whether it’s better to supplement with melatonin or try to provide melatonin support through food. I currently only supplement with melatonin during my work weeks.

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I am a night shift worker, 9 p.m. to 7 a.m. shift, working a schedule of roughly seven nights on and 14 nights off. During my off time, I switch to a daytime schedule. Needless to say, I have some difficulty sleeping. I recently conducted the DUTCH Complete Test at about five nights out from my work schedule. While my cortisol level demonstrated some large swings, spiking to top end of normal at the second morning point and bottoming out to the low end of normal at the evening point and coming up to the high end of normal at the before bed point, it remained diurnal. Unfortunately, melatonin was well below normal at 1.2. My question is whether it’s better to supplement with melatonin or try to provide melatonin support through food. I currently only supplement with melatonin during my work weeks.

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I am a night shift worker, 9 p.m. to 7 a.m. shift, working a schedule of roughly seven nights on and 14 nights off. During my off time, I switch to a daytime schedule. Needless to say, I have some difficulty sleeping. I recently conducted the DUTCH Complete Test at about five nights out from my work schedule. While my cortisol level demonstrated some large swings, spiking to top end of normal at the second morning point and bottoming out to the low end of normal at the evening point and coming up to the high end of normal at the before bed point, it remained diurnal. Unfortunately, melatonin was well below normal at 1.2. My question is whether it’s better to supplement with melatonin or try to provide melatonin support through food. I currently only supplement with melatonin during my work weeks.

I am a night shift worker, 9 p.m. to 7 a.m. shift, working a schedule of roughly seven nights on and 14 nights off. During my off time, I switch to a daytime schedule. Needless to say, I have some difficulty sleeping. I recently conducted the DUTCH Complete Test at about five nights out from my work schedule. While my cortisol level demonstrated some large swings, spiking to top end of normal at the second morning point and bottoming out to the low end of normal at the evening point and coming up to the high end of normal at the before bed point, it remained diurnal. Unfortunately, melatonin was well below normal at 1.2. My question is whether it’s better to supplement with melatonin or try to provide melatonin support through food. I currently only supplement with melatonin during my work weeks.

Chris Kresser: Yeah, it’s a really tough situation. I think I mentioned that having a more consistent shift schedule, where you’re working the same shift on an ongoing basis instead of alternating shifts, is more desirable from an HPA axis regulation standpoint, but I realize that’s not practical or possible in every situation.

For melatonin, it depends somewhat on your age, but if you’re 35, 40, or above, I think supplementing with melatonin might be a good idea, especially given your circumstances, to support your circadian rhythm as much as possible. You could also try taking L-tryptophan or 5-HTP since those are precursors to melatonin, to see if that increases your melatonin levels without having to take melatonin itself.

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