I discuss melatonin's effects on sleep & its safety; I segue into the general benefits of sleep and the severely disrupted sleep of the modern Western world, the cost of melatonin use and the benefit (eg. enforcing regular bedtimes), followed by a basic cost-benefit analysis of melatonin concluding that the net profit is large enough to be worth giving it a try barring unusual conditions or very pessimistic safety estimates.
The outcome was an abort for a reason that's not generally applicable. (Using melatonin prevented me from waking up in response to high or low blood sugar, which matters only for diabetics like me, but is an absolute showstopper, since failing to wake up in response to low blood sugar could be fatal.)
Ah, only just saw this. That's a shame. But for the benefit of anyone else reading this, I'm also a insulin dependent diabetic, and so far I've observed that on melatonin I do still wake up in response to low blood sugar. Therefore this may be a thing that varies between individuals.
Full essay: http://www.gwern.net/Melatonin