Melatonin
Of 1,618 on-market melatonin products in the January 2026 DSLD dump, the median declared dose is 3 mg, and 100.0% list Immediate-release melatonin as the primary form.
Form share
Of 1,614 products with an identifiable primary form, here is the share held by each form of Melatonin on the market today.
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| Form | Quality tier | n | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Immediate-release melatonin | Tier 1 | 1,614 | 100.0% |
Forms we recognize but found no primary-form products for in this release: Extended/prolonged-release melatonin.
Form share over time
Entry-year breakdown of the top forms, 2012–2025.
Dose distribution
Deciles of declared dose per serving (mg), among 1,516 products with a disclosed amount.
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- 0.1% of products fall below the fairy-dust threshold (0.1 mg, 20% of the studied low dose).
- 6.3% of products don't disclose an amount because Melatonin is declared inside a proprietary blend.
Where does your dose rank?
Enter a per-serving dose (mg) to see exactly how it compares to the 1,516 on-market melatonin products with a disclosed amount. The chart above groups doses into deciles; this looks up the exact percentile for one number.
By dosage form
By target group
Top brands
Search interest over time
How often people search for melatonin on Google, US only, the last 5 years. This is public interest, not DSLD label data — a spike here doesn't necessarily line up with anything on this page, and Google's own index (100 = that term's peak popularity in the chosen window) is relative, not an absolute search-volume count.
Or see this search directly on trends.google.com.
Forms explained
Rapid absorption (Tmax ~0.9 h and half-life ~1 h for a 5 mg dose in one small crossover PK study; Thanawala 2024) makes this the best-evidenced form for reducing sleep-onset latency, the primary endpoint in most RCTs. Trial material is mostly synthetic (bioidentical to endogenous melatonin), though this was not independently verified.
Source: Ferracioli-Oda E et al. 2013, PLoS One 8(5):e63773, PMID 23691095; Thanawala S et al. 2024, Pharmaceutics 16(10):1248, PMID 39458580
Not "better/worse" than immediate-release in an absolute sense -- a different PK profile (longer half-life and sustained plasma levels), with RCT evidence for prolonged-release melatonin 2 mg in insomnia patients aged 55-80.
Source: Wade AG et al. 2007, Curr Med Res Opin 23(10):2597-605, PMID 17875243 (RCT, PR-melatonin 2 mg, age 55-80); Thanawala S et al. 2024, Pharmaceutics 16(10):1248, PMID 39458580 (SR vs IR PK: t1/2 5.1 vs 1.0 h)
Reference values
- RDA (adult): not established — Endogenous neurohormone, not an essential nutrient; no RDA/AI exists.
- Tolerable Upper Intake Level (adult): not established — No UL has been established. NCCIH: short-term use appears to be safe for most people; long-term safety data are lacking.
- Studied clinical dose range: 0.5–5 mg
- Ferracioli-Oda E et al. 2013, PLoS One 8(5):e63773, PMID 23691095 -- meta-analysis, 19 RCTs/1,683 subjects; significantly reduced sleep-onset latency (WMD 7.06 min) and increased total sleep time (WMD 8.25 min); higher doses and longer duration associated with greater effect. The 0.5-5mg range is the commonly studied adult sub-range of the included trials (0.5mg: Dawson 1998; up to 5mg), not the full range: the lowest adult dose in the meta-analysis was 0.1mg (Zhdanova 2001).
- Note: Immediate-release vs extended-release is a release-mechanism distinction (sleep onset vs. sleep maintenance use-case), not an objective bioavailability ranking -- see forms.yaml. DSLD's "Form: as N-Acetyl-5-Methoxytryptamine" is just melatonin's systematic chemical name, normalized to plain "Melatonin," not a distinct form.