FAQs
What Is Melatonin?
Melatonin is a naturally occurring hormone released in our brains in the evening to signal to our body that it’s time for sleep. Melatonin helps reduce feelings of anxiety and calms the body. Synthetic melatonin is available as an over-the-counter supplement in pill or chewable tablet form, and as teas and tinctures. It’s relatively affordable and often a first step in treating insomnia.
How Do I Know If My Dog Needs Melatonin?
If your dog is experiencing anxiety or stress, melatonin may be a helpful addition to your pup’s wellness regimen. Melatonin is a naturally occurring hormone that helps regulate sleep. Giving your dog melatonin will help them stay relaxed, even during the most stressful situations.
Is Melatonin Safe For Dogs?
Yes, melatonin is absolutely safe for dogs! Melatonin helps regulate sleep and wakefulness and is naturally produced by your dog’s body. It’s also available over-the-counter for both animals and humans in many countries.
Melatonin Health Benefits
Supplementing with melatonin can be highly beneficial, as melatonin is a well-known antioxidant useful in regulating hormones and may reduce stress and anxiety.
Melatonin decreases sex hormone secretion, modulates aromatase activity, and inhibits cortisol production. It has also been shown in some animal models to inhibit androgen production and ovarian activity.
Melatonin’s anti-estrogenic properties have been extensively studied.
Melatonin acts in several ways to limit estrogen production and/or activities, including by interfering with estrogen receptor activities, downregulating estrogen expression during transcription, reducing estrogen receptor sensitivity, and inhibiting the expression of key enzymes (like aromatase) involved in estrogen production.
In addition, melatonin has been shown not only to inhibit cortisol itself, but also the chemical (ACTH) that signals the adrenal gland to produce cortisol.
Studies have shown melatonin can reduce symptoms of stress in canines, including refusal to eat, excessive pacing or panting, whimpering, and licking. Melatonin may also help reduce aggressive behavior in dogs. Because the body responds to stress by producing additional cortisol, the reduction in stress, anxiety and aggression that results from melatonin supplementation may have a secondary effect (beyond the direct effects noted above) of lowering cortisol levels.
Can you give dogs human melatonin?
No, it’s generally not recommended to give your dog a melatonin supplement formulated for humans, as they can contain ingredients harmful to or unnecessary for your pup. The common dosages for dogs and humans are also different, so providing human melatonin to your dog may end up giving them too much of this synthetic hormone.
