I sometimes take melatonin in order to sleep, however it does not always work. A group of researchers at the  Institute of the McGill University Health Centre (RI-MUHC) “has made a major breakthrough by unraveling the inner workings of melatonin.” This research has led to the development of UCM765, which activates activates only non-rem (deep) sleep.

There are 2 main melatonin receptors. MT1, which stimulates REM sleep and MT2 which stimulates non-REM sleep. Non- rapid eye movement sleep is a much deeper sleep.  An associate professor of psychiatry at McGill said that “specifying the role of MT2 receptors in melatonin represent a major scientific breakthrough that may designate them as a promising novel target for future treatments of insomnia. This discovery also explains the modest hypnotic effect of the over-the-counter melatonin pills, which act on both conflicting receptors.” So, the reason that UCM765 would be so effective is because it promotes deeper sleeps by stimulating more MT2, but not stimulating more MT1.

So far, the results of this study has proved effective by increasing sleep in mice and rats. This study may (hopefully) get us one step closer towards curing insomnia!