Answers (8) No, just a few hours. How much do you take? I take it and I find that I need to take it about 2 -3 hours before I want to sleep. There are other tricks to sleeping that will help it work better. Like the room has to be totally dark, no computer or tv for 2 hrs before bedtime. Sometimes drinking a glass of milk helps, it doesn't have to be warm. If you have aches and pains, taking something for that helps too. ok thank you, it just hasnt seemed to help me and i have taken 5mg for 3 nights i just dont know what else to do i just cant get a good sleep im up every 1-2 hours a night and it takes minimum 30 minutes to get back to sleep!! been goin on for about 2 weeks now Hello mamaang32. It varies from person to person. Melatonin is (my own opinion) not a very successfull sleeping drug. I would not perscribe if I were a physician. If getting a solid nights rest, sleep is not what happens, I would recommend a benzodiazepine especially created for sleep. Halcion and Dalmane will give you six to eight hours of uninterupted sleep. Downside is that being a benzodiazepine, they can be habit forming. Trazodone (Antidepressant) is popular. Its perscribed off label to help regarding sleep, non habit forming and easy/kind in regards to side effects. Regards, pledge I totally agree with Pledges answer. I tried