Melatonin: Preliminary Results

I now have roughly 2 months of sleep data. The first month (the control phase) I didn't take any sleep supplements, but in the second month (the experiment phase) I took exactly 3mg of melatonin approximately 30 minutes before going to bed each 'night'. During the control phase, I got an average of 406 minutes of sleep per night, with a standard deviation of 136 minutes.

In the experiment phase, I averaged 444 minutes of sleep per night, with a standard deviation of 98 minutes.

Therefore, on melatonin, I average an extra 38 minutes of sleep per night and experienced significantly less variation in the total length of sleep.

For the control phase of the trial, I averaged 115 minutes in REM sleep, with a standard deviation of 43 minutes.

During the experiment phase, I averaged about 125 minutes of REM sleep, also with a standard deviation of 41 minutes.

Therefore, while on melatonin, I was getting about 10 extra minutes of REM sleep per night with about same amount of variance.

For the control portion of the trial, I got about 37 minutes of deep sleep on average, with a standard deviation of approximately 23 minutes.

In the experiment phase, I got an average of 34 minutes of deep sleep, with a standard deviation of 12 minutes.

While taking melatonin, I average 3 minutes less deep sleep, but with quite a bit less variance as well.

During the control phase, I woke up about 3 times per night, with a standard deviation of 2 times.

In the experiment portion, I also awoke about 3 times a night with a standard deviation of 2 times.

Being on melatonin didn't seem to make any difference in the number of times I woke up during the night.

According to the preliminary data, while on melatonin, I seemed to get more total sleep, more REM sleep, less deep sleep, and wake up about the same number of times each night. Because this isn't enough data to be very confident in the results, I plan on continuing this experiment for at least another 4 months (2 on and 2 off of melatonin) and will analyze the results for the significance and magnitude of the effects (if there really are any) while throwing out the outliers (since my sleep schedule is so erratic).

Sleep: The Baseline

I was finally able to procure an EEG device thanks to some generous benefactors*. The following summary parameters are based on data (21 datapoints total) collected using the Zeo headband and a Samsung Galaxy S running Android 2.3 between 06/10/2012 and 07/03/2012:

Total Time Spent Asleep
Mean: 387 minutes
Median: 450 minutes
Mode: 471 minutes
Range: 506 minutes
Minimum: 18 minutes
Maximum: 524 minutes
Sum: 8,125 minutes

Time Elapsed Before Falling Asleep
Mean: 18 minutes
Median: 18 minutes
Mode: 13 minutes
Range: 38 minutes
Minimum: 1 minutes
Maximum: 39 minutes
Sum: 377 minutes

Time Spent Awake
Mean: 10 minutes
Standard Error: 3
Median: 6 minutes
Mode: 0 minutes
Range: 57 minutes
Minimum: 0 minutes
Maximum: 57 minutes
Sum: 217 minutes

Time Spent in REM Sleep
Mean: 108 minutes
Median: 125 minutes
Mode: 134 minutes
Range: 154 minutes
Minimum: 5 minutes
Maximum: 159 minutes
Sum: 2,274 minutes

Time Spent in Light Sleep
Mean: 245 minutes
Median: 290 minutes
Mode: 290 minutes
Range: 320 minutes
Minimum: 13 minutes
Maximum: 333 minutes
Sum: 5,153 minutes

Time Spent in Deep Sleep
Mean: 34 minutes
Median: 28 minutes
Mode: 24 minutes
Range: 104 minutes
Minimum: 0 minutes
Maximum: 104 minutes
Sum: 708 minutes

Number of Awakenings
Mean: 3 times
Median: 3 times
Mode: 5 times
Range: 9 times
Minimum: 0 times
Maximum: 9 times
Sum: 71 times

After only a few days, I realized that I was getting much less sleep than I thought (less than 6:30 per "night") and decided to make some adjustments. I set my alarm for an hour later and purchased one of those cheap "sleep masks" from Walmart. I don't anticipate making any other large changes before starting any of my sleep experiments, so this set of data will act as something of a baseline with which to compare later data to. My first experimental intervention (having to do with sleep) will be melatonin. I plan on taking it on-and-off for at least 6 months (possibly up to a year, if that is what will be required to reach statistical significance) in order to measure its effects and will perform a cost-benefit analysis on melatonin supplementation shortly after completing the trial.

*Thanks mom and dad for the birthday present!