We recommend that Qualia Night be taken several hours before bedtime, and that is not an ideal time to take melatonin for most people. Like many processes in the body, both the what, in this case, melatonin, and the when, it’s timing, is important. Secretion of melatonin peaks in the middle of the night. The timing of this surge in melatonin synchronizes physiological cycles of the body. Because melatonin levels increase quickly after taking it orally, you’ll usually see recommendations to take it shortly before going to bed. When taken near a person’s normal bedtime, the increase in melatonin produced by the supplement will be close to the time melatonin is going to surge anyway. If taken a few hours before bedtime, the increase in melatonin will be earlier. For many people that would shift the time they’d naturally fall asleep and wake up to be earlier. And while they were adjusting to the new timing, in a sense, the melatonin would be causing something akin to jet lag, abruptly shifting the body’s circadian rhythms. Those are not things we wanted to do. So instead of including melatonin, Qualia Night contains ingredients the brain can use to make melatonin when it needs it.