Intervertebral disc degeneration (IDD) is one of the main reasons of low back pain. With the advent of the elderly society, its incidence is increasing year by year. Due to numerous pathogenic factors involving intervertebral disc degeneration, the pathogenesis is still unclear, and there is no effective drug for IDD. As a kind of neuroendocrine hormone secreted by pineal gland, melatonin (MT) has been widely studied in tumor, age-related degenerative diseases and so on because of its excellent anti-oxidation stress, anti-inflammatory and anti-apoptosis effects. This paper reviews the mechanism of MT to delay IDD and provides a reference for future research.