Is This Right for Me? Melatonin: The Truth About Dose, Timing, and Sleep

Commune with Jeff Krasno

Commune Media

Society & Culture, Health & Fitness

4.5 • 673 Ratings

🗓️ 28 April 2026

⏱️ 46 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Melatonin is one of the most consumed supplements in America and one of the most misunderstood. In this episode of The Commune Podcast, Jeff Krasno digs into what melatonin actually does, why most people take too much at the wrong time, and what the research says about sleep, kids, and the regulatory loophole that put a hormone on the candy shelf. In this episode: Why melatonin is a clock signal, not a sleeping pill The dosage gap between physiology and the bottle A 2023 JAMA study found 88% of melatonin gummies were mislabeled Pediatric use, ER visits, and questions around puberty timing How morning sunlight and dim evenings often outperform a pill This episode is for anyone reaching for melatonin at bedtime, parents weighing it for their kids, and listeners who want to know if their supplement is actually solving the problem they think it is. This episode was made possible by: Beyond Biohacking: Save $400 on any ticket with code COMMUNE400 at beyondconference.com. LMNT: Get a free 8-count Sample Pack of LMNT’s most popular drink mix flavors with any purchase at drinklmnt.com/commune. Vivobarefoot: Try Vivobarefoot risk-free with a 100-day return guarantee, and get 15% off your order at vivobarefoot.com/commune. Bon Charge: Get 15% off when you order at boncharge.com and use promo code COMMUNE Sunlighten: Visit sunlighten.com/commune Up to 2,100 off saunas and $50 off Red Light Products with code “COMMUNE”

Transcript

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0:00.0	Your sleep-wake cycle runs on two primary hormones, the yang and the yin of your daily rhythm.
0:07.9	The first peaks at dawn, talking about cortisol.
0:11.0	It rises in the hour before you wake, lifting core body temperature, increasing alertness,
0:16.3	and preparing your cardiovascular system for the day ahead.
0:20.3	The second peaks at dusk, as light fades and
0:24.0	cortisol falls, melatonin rises. It signals to your brain and your body that nighttime has arrived
0:31.9	and it's time to wind down. These two hormones work in harmonic counter-opposition, when one rises, the other falls,
0:40.0	and your circadian rhythm depends on both of them doing their jobs at the right time.
0:46.7	So when that timing breaks down, for example, when cortisol is elevated too late into the night,
0:52.4	melatonin blunted or delayed. Sleep suffers, stress,
0:57.0	compounds, memory degrades, and overnight physiological repair gets disrupted. This episode
1:04.4	focuses on the dark side of that relationship. Melatonin, a molecule that has existed in living organisms for roughly three billion
1:13.6	years that your body produces indogynously every night in a quantity smaller than a grain
1:20.7	of salt, and that the U.S. supplement industry now sells in doses up to 30 times that amount. Welcome to the Commune podcast. My name is
1:31.6	Jeff Krasno. And welcome to a series that I started about a month ago called Is This Right for Me?
1:37.8	Where we slow down on the protocols, supplements, therapies, and treatments flooding your
1:43.2	Instagram feed. And we ask the only
1:45.6	question that really actually matters, not whether something is fashionable, but whether it is
1:51.0	right for you. So I've done a reading and quite a bit of research. And I'll tell you where it led
1:57.7	and you decide.
2:08.7	So every night when the light fades and darkness emerges, a molecule stirs inside of you. And life has been making this exact molecule atom for atom structurally unchanged for something approaching 3 billion years. It was made in bacteria before there
2:20.6	were cells with nuclei, before there was anything even close to having eyes. Long before its sleep
	...

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