"During 2017–18, only about 1.3% of U.S. parents reported that their children used melatonin. To get a sense of the current prevalence of use, Hartstein and colleagues surveyed about 1,000 parents in the first half of 2023.
Among children ages 5 to 9, 18.5% had been given melatonin in the previous 30 days. For preteens ages 10 to 13, that number rose to 19.4%. Nearly 6% of preschoolers ages 1 to 4 had used melatonin in the previous month."
Sleep hygiene is absolute shit. Acquaintances think we're weird for not having a TV in the bedroom. My kids friends have TV, game systems, computers, phones, etc... all in the bedroom and they're in elementary school. No wonder they need drugs to fall asleed. Parents are slamming Xanax and Ambien kids are chewing melatonin gummies.
I completely agree, I think sleep hygiene gets overlooked but that could be main culprit. Andrew Hubermin talks about this on his podcast but basically the blue light/high intensity light from phones, computers, and tv's blocks melatonin. The quality of my sleep is much higher when I don't look at any screens 2-3 hours before bed.
I did candle-only lighting and no screens at all after sundown for a couple weeks as an experiment one time. Candles (ones that don’t smell like a chemical processing plant, anyway) are expensive, inconvenient, and kinda dangerous, and demands of modern life make it hard to keep up, but my life-long “night owl” tendencies were cured in a couple days.
Why can’t we sleep? Because we keep an on-demand world-class carnival in our houses, and light them up super-bright at night. If you describe what we do and how we live, the cause of the overwhelming majority of sleep issues in our society is obvious. It’d be very surprising if that way of living didn’t cause widespread sleep issues.
It's not just screens, common lights produce too much melanopic light for evening use. It's definitely not trivial to pick light sources that are safe to use in the evening without interfering with our circadian rhythm, but it's possible.
And the same, in reverse, applies to workspaces/schools with not enough natural light (or a good simulation thereof).
Yes you're correct, I should have noted that. All light sources can affect melatonin production negatively. Its also vital to get as much light as possible during the day, especially light from the sun or overcast clouds.
> It's definitely not trivial to pick light sources that are safe to use in the evening without interfering with our circadian rhythm, but it's possible.
I won't suggest specific products (local availability is patchy), so I'm going to be more generic:
The main thing is that there are non-visual receptors in our eyes that are used for determining the level of "daylight", and they are most sensitive to light around 480nm [1]. To give the right signals, you want to match daylight's intensity in this part of the spectrum at day, but gradually decrease it to zero in the late evening.
You can look for lightbulbs or LED strips that come with a quantified measure of melanopic vs standard lux (it's sadly not common), or you can look for light sources that come with a graph of the emitted spectrum (a requirement for the new EU energy efficiency label!) and make an educated guess.
Generally, 1800 K or colder(/"warmer") LEDs will have little of the melanopic component, using "monochromatic" orange LEDs is also an option (both dimmed appropriately).
Physical activity at school has been dropping, too, for years—less recess, especially—and it’s hard to fix that at home in the winter when the kids get home at 4:30 and it’s dark at 5. No wonder they have too much energy to sleep.
Reading things like this to me has the same effect as reading that 1/5 (or whetever the current rate is) of people is now obese. But the article doesn't even stop there, the next paragraph:
> researchers analyzed 25 melatonin gummy products and found that 22 contained different amounts of melatonin than the label indicated. One had more than three times the amount on the label. One had none at all. In addition, some melatonin supplements have been found to contain other concerning substances, such as serotonin
It's almost as if humanity, with US often leading the way, wants to destroy itself. Well, or maybe somewhat more precise: one part of humanity is super selfish and only cares about power/money, and drags a large part of the rest with them.
That’s sort of a shocking statement. The primary use case is to feel drowsy and fall asleep. It’s the hormone that induces drowsiness that is readily absorbed by the gut unchanged and impacts systemic levels of said hormone. We not only know it’s effective by like billions of humans trying it trillions of times, we know it’s effective by like nearly every vertebrate animal in biochemical processes we kinda understand sleeping every single day for all of lifes history.
Cocaine isn’t naturally occurring in every vertebrate animal as the hormone responsible for not making you depressed. Plutonium is naturally occurring as well, but it’s not a part of the fundamental biology of all animals. Melatonin is as naturally occurring in animals as blood and its purpose we use it for as a supplement is precisely what it does in the body. It’s nudging the natural levels slightly higher to induce exactly what it does and we desire from it. There’s literally no debate anywhere in any context as to whether it does what it says on the tin, because it literally is the thing that does the thing on the tin.
But, you know, sure. Why not. Of course people did these studies because with positive results you’ll get published and it’s a bit of a softball, since it’s like, exactly what must be the result given the situation:
Results: Of 2642 papers, 23 RCTs met inclusion criteria. Our results indicated that melatonin had significant effect on sleep quality as assessed by the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) (WMD: - 1.24; 95% CI - 1.77, - 0.71, p = 0.000).
Conclusion: We found that the treatment with exogenous melatonin has positive effects on sleep quality as assessed by the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) in adult.
Certainly, if there's medical research indicating that melatonin is safe, all the better. As long as we're following the scientific process to generate a reproducible body of knowledge supporting the assertion that melatonin is safe.
Yeah. My point was though beyond random controlled trials we actually understand melatonin at a really fundamental level, and it’s not just that we understand it, but we identified it in as far as I can tell all vertebrates. That’s stronger than RCT’s. It’s like questioning we know whether blood infusions are actually effective at treating blood loss.
If you've ever had problems falling asleep and taken melatonin to fall asleep, you would have proven it works to yourself. I took melatonin for a couple of years, and without fail, it made me sleepy where normally I would be awake until all hours of the night. Sure, this is comment is anecdotal, but so many people wouldn't be spending money on it if it didn't do what it is known to do, which is making sleep come easier.
>> "Sure, this is comment is anecdotal, but so many people wouldn't be spending money on it if it didn't do what it is known to do, which is making sleep come easier."
"The proposed mechanisms for homeopathy are precluded from having any effect by the laws of physics and physical chemistry.[18] The extreme dilutions used in homeopathic preparations usually leave not one molecule of the original substance in the final product."
It remains a multi-billion dollar industry.
Whether melatonin is closer to medicine or nonsense can't be solved with anecdotes.
>Whether melatonin is closer to medicine or nonsense can't be solved with anecdotes.
I admitted my comment is an anecdote, but that doesn't cancel out the voluminous research and study done on melatonin. We know that melatonin is a hormone that is involved with regulating sleep cycles. I'm not sure what evidence you're looking for but internet trolls love to move goalposts anywhere they want to. Yes, millions of people use melatonin effectively every single night. You can call that an anecdote, but you've provided no evidence that melatonin does not do what it's being used for. All evidence and study points to one thing: melatonin helps people sleep. Just go google it yourself, don't have a pointless conversation about anecdotes.
We're talking about a supplement here, not the naturally occurring hormone. Of course the hormone works as expected and it's absurd to think I was talking about that. You accuse me of trolling while making a post like this. But I think you just misunderstood and aren't trolling. Moving on.
Supplements don't always work like the natural thing they're meant to supplement. Humans are really bad at knowing how inputs affect their health, and it's difficult to go through the long and laborious process of elimination to verify the cause if you've already convinced yourself of something. Self-reporting is notoriously unreliable for this and other reasons.
Please provide some evidence that melatonin does not work to help people sleep. Until you do you're not arguing from a position with any ground to stand on.
All available evidence does point to melatonin being an effective sleep aid. It is known to regulate sleep cycles, and it does so effectively for millions of people every night. It's no mystery or placebo. You can say it is all you want, but you've provided no evidence at all to support your feelings. And homeopathy has nothing at all to do with melatonin consumption as a sleep aid.
You admitted you were posting an anecdote and were under the mistaken impression people wouldn't spend money on something that doesn't work. I provided homeopathy as a very expensive example of how you were wrong.
The burden of proof is on you. Proof might exist, but I'm not convinced you have it. Otherwise, you'd lead with it instead of an anecdote.
"Research shows that a supplement may help people with insomnia fall asleep slightly faster and may have bigger benefits for those with delayed sleep phase syndrome—falling asleep very late and waking up late the next day."
I'm sure you'll try to move the goalposts anywhere you want before you accept that melatonin does in fact put people to sleep.
This is a blog where you'll also find posts taking homeopathy seriously, and this post is based on a survey. Not a study. No scientific research is indicated here. It is not in any way scientifically rigorous. I don't know what you're on about about when you say goal posts or moving them. You said:
>> All available evidence does point to melatonin being an effective sleep aid.
What evidence?
>> "It is known to regulate sleep cycles"
Anecdotally, as best as you've demonstrated. This is not, as you claimed, "voluminous research and study done on melatonin."
If we're going with your silly metaphor, you moved the goal posts.
Anecdotes are not "voluminous research and study done on melatonin." A blog with no standards is not "voluminous research and study done on melatonin."
Show the "voluminous research and study done on melatonin" that you claimed exists or go away. I've made no claims to support. I've only asked you to back your own statements up.
>This is a blog where you'll also find posts taking homeopathy seriously, and this post is based on a survey.
You're seriously trying to say Johns Hopkins Medical Center is just some rando blog to try to prove your pointless point? You're either clueless or a really bad troll.
>What evidence?
Yeah, where's your evidence that it doesn't work?? Crickets.
>Anecdotally, as best as you've demonstrated. This is not, as you claimed, "voluminous research and study done on melatonin."
"It is known to regulate sleep cycles" is not anecdotal. This has been known science for quite a long time, no doubt before you were born, kiddo.
>Again, the burden of proof is on you.
I've provided proof, from a reputable medical source. You've provided nothing but your feels.
PUT UP OR SHUT UP. Without any proof from you, this conversation is really over.
I'm sorry the state of science education is so poor and you don't know how to tell a ghostwritten SEO blog from a scientific publication. You deserved better.
Thanks for the ad hominem, but you've proven nothing, shown no proof of anything, demanded proof and then moved goalposts when provided with citation from a noted medical establishment, and you've argued disingenuously.
I hope you have the day you deserve.
The burden of proof is now on you, so you lose by default since you've provided nothing to back up your claims. And that's the end of this stupid, pointless "conversation".
I've experimented with Melatonin extensively. Different doses, different times, brands, etc. It has never caused an effect that I can notice. So - that's not to say it's not doing something, but to assume it has a noticeable effect on everyone is an incorrect assumption.
I dont want to devalue your experience. But this experimentation is usually not "(placebo) controlled" and not "double blind".
You could! Take a randomly selected real-or-placebo, that's marked as such but you do not know at the time. See if you can feel the difference, not your experience, repeat. Then look at your results. According to placebo science the results may shock you.
I guess there's an exception to every rule! Do you ever feel sleepy at all? I would wonder why someone would use melatonin if they didn't want to sleep, which suggests someone who isn't sleeping well, yet it had no effect. Extensive suggests it wasn't just one dodgy batch of melatonin either.
I hope you're sleeping well now regardless. Lack of good sleep is like slow torture.
When they make melatonin chewables with cartoons on them and sell them at Target, it's bound to have some level of popularity. Especially when they're placed near the front, on prime shelf space.
Among children ages 5 to 9, 18.5% had been given melatonin in the previous 30 days. For preteens ages 10 to 13, that number rose to 19.4%. Nearly 6% of preschoolers ages 1 to 4 had used melatonin in the previous month."