Melatonin is a 5-substituted tryptamine — same chemical family as 5-MeO-DMT. Society fixates on the sleep angle because that's what retail products sell. Evolution fixated on oxidative stress because that's what kills cells.
One of the oldest molecules on Earth — present in every organism studied. Billions of years of evolution didn't optimize it for gummy bears.
Melatonin is a 5-substituted tryptamine — same chemical family as 5-MeO-DMT. Society fixates on the sleep angle because that's what retail products sell. Evolution fixated on oxidative stress because that's what kills cells.
Melatonin likely originated in primitive bacteria as antioxidant defense against rising oxygen levels. Conserved across bacteria, plants, fungi, and all animals — a molecular fossil of the Great Oxidation Event.
First role: free-radical scavenger in mitochondria and chloroplasts. Receptor-mediated sleep signaling evolved later in complex animals — melatonin was cellular armor before it was a bedtime story.
Found in virtually every organism tested — cyanobacteria to humans. When @MelatoninEra says "bless the maker," the maker is 2.5 billion years of selection pressure saying: keep this molecule.
Plants produce melatonin too. Theobroma cacao — Food of the Gods — carries its own melatonin content and provides the lipid lattice for Mélange delivery. Ancient intelligence, modern experiment.