Melatonin has its admirers among consumers, but also its detractors among researchers. It is a regulator of the biological clock, it has never been a sleeping pill, says Joëlle Adrien, neurobiologist and emeritus research director at Inserm.
“By indicating to the brain that night has arrived, it is helpful to many people,” says neurologist Isabelle Arnulf, in charge of the department dedicated to sleep pathologies at the Pitié-Salpêtrière hospital.