Are you aware that the global melatonin industry is worth over $1.26 billion?

It shouldn't be a surprise. People feel more frazzled than ever in our sleepless, digitally driven society. As everyday folks hunt for the best sleeping solutions, melatonin will only become more popular. This is good. The average person can transform their wellness by adding a tiny microdose of melatonin to their nightly routine.

But for people with an active lifestyle — athletes, jacked dads, and suburban gladiators alike — this supplement can be an absolute game changer.

Not only does melatonin help you get better sleep, but it can improve your performance on multiple fronts. Read on to learn how taking melatonin for muscle recovery can help you achieve herculean gains.

What Is Melatonin Exactly?

If you haven't read our previous articles in this series on melatonin, let's recap. You might be surprised to learn that melatonin is a hormone our bodies naturally create. Whether you're increasing your melatonin the natural way or covering your bases with a supplement, melatonin exists to help us get healthy, natural, restorative sleep.

When melatonin starts coursing through your body, it creates a signal. It tells your brain: "Start the sleep process!" As the melatonin wears off, your body will gracefully wake up, and you may not even need to rely on a jarring alarm clock anymore.

Why Aren't People Getting Enough Melatonin Anymore?

Most of us agree that life is much better today than it was through most of human history. Technology, medicine, food (and not to mention toilets and squat racks) — things have gotten better with time. One notable downside, though, is that it's become hard to produce our own melatonin.

It's nice to not rely on candlelight as soon as the sun goes down, but electricity has taken a toll on our bodies. Being exposed to artificial light late at night delays our bodies' ability to release melatonin. Blue light from smartphones and TV screens is arguably the worst kind of artificial light: it tricks our brains into thinking it's daytime.

Are you guilty of binge-watching Netflix or scrolling through Instagram before bed? You can bet your glutes that your melatonin levels are being suppressed. This is why many turn to melatonin supplements: to help counteract the effects of artificial light.

What Are the Basic Benefits of Melatonin?

Before we can dive into how melatonin specifically benefits your workouts, it's helpful to understand the basics of this fascinating hormone. Taking melatonin every night (as a microdose!) can retrain your body to fall asleep at a healthy time and stay asleep longer.

Melatonin plays a role in many other bodily functions as well. Melatonin can combat stress and lower your blood pressure. It can even boost your immune system and alleviate symptoms of mental health issues like depression. (Funny, isn't it? You get your hormones balanced and everything falls into place.)

There are dozens of sleep supplements on the market nowadays. Yet, melatonin will always reign supreme because it already occurs naturally in our bodies. Taken in a dose of 0.3mg or less, it doesn't drug you, doesn't short-circuit natural brain processes, and doesn't cause nasty side effects like prescription pill do.

You don't need to struggle to pull yourself out of sleep and still feel groggy all day. Melatonin can help you wake up feeling fresh and ready to crush those Rocky-style early-morning workouts.

How Does Melatonin Revolutionize Your Workout Routine?

Getting deeper and longer sleep lets your body prioritize muscle recovery and growth after hard training sessions. Taking melatonin can help you say goodbye to creaky, inflamed joints that reduce your flexibility and slow down your gains. Melatonin can even increase human growth hormone (HGH) levels, so you can maximize the muscle tissue your body creates (and, as a bonus, improve the quality of your skin).

Being well-rested also boosts your energy levels throughout the day. This means that, once you're healed from yesterday's muscle microtraumas, you'll feel pumped to tackle another workout (or your job, or just family time chucking hail marys at your kids in the yard). Whatever your goals, you'll have the energy to chase them down, and enjoy them.

Since melatonin is so good for your mental health, you'll also notice that your brain feels sharper, and your reaction time speeds up. If you enjoy hill sprints, high-intensity interval training, Olympic lifting, CrossFit, or anything else that requires explosive speed, melatonin can make a measurable difference.

It's also worth knowing that melatonin is an antioxidant. This helps neutralize the harmful free radicals our bodies produce when we train, eat, and more. Increasing your intake of antioxidants is crucial for keeping your cells healthy and youthful. It also reduces your risk of serious health problems like cancer and neurodegeneration.

(Did you know fruits and vegetables also contain trace amounts of melatonin? Trust Mother Nature, brother — she always knows what's good.)

How Can You Get the Most Out of Taking Melatonin for Muscle Recovery?

Melatonin may sound like a miracle supplement, but you need to remember that your habits can sabotage its positive effects. To get the most out of your melatonin supplement, it's wise to take it at the same time each night. This will keep your circadian rhythms steady and improve your overall sleep hygiene.

Melatonin isn't a drug that can knock you out right after taking it. Since it only sends the sleep signal to your brain, you should also take other steps to ensure you're getting a proper, healthy snooze. Aim to take your melatonin supplement one to two hours before bedtime. Stop any activities that get you riled up (no arguing on Reddit!), and definitely avoid artificial light as much as possible.

Make sure you don't drink caffeine within 8-10 hours of sleeping. (Don't worry, if your sleep is on point, you won't even want coffee after 9AM anymore.) Don't eat full meals within 2 hours of bed — digestion can seriously disrupt sleep. Try to create a cool and pitch-black environment in your bedroom. If you live in a city with lots of ambient sounds, then consider a white-noise machine (or even an old fan) to prevent you from getting startled awake, or subconscious alterations to your sleep phases.

Are There Any Risks of Taking Melatonin?

A common mistake people make is assuming that natural products are always safe. Melatonin does occur in our bodies, but most supplements on the market don't pay attention to how it actually works. They sell pills in HUGE doses. Literal "overdoses," in fact. This ends up causing more harm than good because your brain can't process it quickly enough, and it actually disrupts your sleep.

(If you've ever taken melatonin and woken up to freaky dreams, this is why. You probably took 10 times more than your brain needs, and it kept you in shallow sleep all night.)

The best way to take melatonin is in micro-doses. They break down quickly, get the job done, and let your brain handle the rest on its own. This mimics the natural melatonin production that humans enjoyed before good ol' Thomas Edison put a lightbulb in every house. This also reduces the amount of time melatonin is active in your system, allowing you to pass into a deep, dreamless sleep.

Huge doses take longer to break down. That excess stays in your bloodstream, and when it docks to a receptor in your brain, that sleep signal fires off again like a klaxon horn: "Hey, it's time to sleep!" You've already been sleeping for 3 hours? Tough luck, Jack. We're starting over again. 

Some supplements can stay in your system for 10 hours. Trust us: you definitely don't want your "It's time to sleep!" signal going off that long. You might as well wake up, turn on the lights, then turn them off again. It has the same effect. A micro-dose, however, gets the job done perfectly.

As long as you take a smaller dose (0.2-0.3mg) and get to bed within a couple of hours, taking melatonin will work wonders for your health.

How Is Our Melatonin Superior to Other Supplements?

Hibernate is passionate about creating natural supplements that can take your health to the next level without any alarming side effects. This is why we only offer a melatonin supplement that comes in micro-doses.

In addition to melatonin, Hibernate Sleep Formula also includes vital nutrients that the average athlete lacks. No drugs or goofy plant extracts that override natural sleep processes. With healthy, man-sized doses of zinc orotate, magnesium citrate, and vitamin D3 added to our supplements, your body will have all the fuel it needs to boost immunity and engineer a truly anabolic snooze. Avoiding these nutrient deficiencies is crucial if you want to maintain an active lifestyle as you age or deal with stress.

Our melatonin supplement is also low-calorie, gluten-free, dairy-free, sugar-free, and all-natural. Since our products are clean, you never have to worry about developing a drug dependency. We offer free shipping and a 30-day guarantee, so you have nothing to lose if you're still on the fence.

We're confident you'll fall in love with Hibernate Sleep Formula. This is why we've created a monthly subscription service — you can make your sleep regimen even more affordable by saving 25%.

Melatonin Is the Key to Building Healthy Muscles Like Never Before

There are plenty of reasons why micro-dosing melatonin for muscle recovery is one of the smartest decisions you can ever make. If you're passionate about reaching your fitness goals, then melatonin can give you the natural fuel you need to reach your greatest potential.

Are you ready to wake up feeling excited to conquer each day and crush your workouts? Let Hibernate Sleep Formula support you on the path. Check out our website so you can learn more about our products, philosophy, and even score more tips for working out.