{"id":807138,"date":"2026-08-08T19:32:18","date_gmt":"2026-08-08T19:32:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/807138\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T19:32:18","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T19:32:18","slug":"how-melatonin-can-mess-with-kids-sleep-and-impact-development","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/807138\/","title":{"rendered":"How melatonin can mess with kids’ sleep \u2014 and impact development"},"content":{"rendered":"

Almost half<\/a> of American parents give their kids melatonin to help them sleep. Could it actually be doing the opposite?<\/p>\n

A new study<\/a> suggests that melatonin, the second-most popular supplement<\/a> for kids after multivitamins, may reduce the time they spend in a critical phase of sleep that affects memory, learning, and emotional development.<\/p>\n

Melatonin use has exploded over the last 20 years. While it\u2019s thought of as a \u201cnatural\u201d solution to get restless kids to bed, there\u2019s growing concern about long-term use<\/a> and side effects like nightmares<\/a>.<\/p>\n

About half of American parents give their kids melatonin for sleep. Suzi Media \u2013 stock.adobe.com<\/p>\n

Perhaps what\u2019s most concerning is that because it\u2019s a supplement and not tested for safety or efficacy by the FDA, the actual dose delivered to kids has been shown to be anywhere between only 74% to nearly 3.5 times<\/a> the dose on the label.<\/p>\n

\u201cMelatonin is a hormone that our body naturally produces,\u201d said\u00a0Dr. Daniel Bigman, child adolescent psychiatry attending physician at Northwell\u2019s Zucker Hillside Hospital and Cohen Children\u2019s Medical Center.\u00a0\u201cSo, whenever there is anything that we give to children that can alter hormones, that can cause a kind of a domino effect with things in our body.\u201d<\/p>\n

How melatonin might affect kids\u2019 REM sleep<\/p>\n

The new study looked at how 684 children slept with a polysomnogram, which looks at different stages of sleep.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt looks at if our sleep is interrupted, how we breathe, and so forth,\u201d Bigman said. \u201cThis study looked at the difference between children taking melatonin and those who do not.\u201d<\/p>\n

Researchers found that children who took melatonin had less rapid eye movement sleep, aka REM sleep, overall compared to kids who didn\u2019t take the supplement.<\/p>\n

\u201cREM sleep is also thought of as the dream stage, or the dream sleep, because this is where most of us will experience dreams,\u201d Bigman said.<\/p>\n

Melatonin pills or gummies are not assessed for safety or efficacy by the FDA before they hit the market. Mdv Edwards \u2013 stock.adobe.com<\/p>\n

More importantly, there\u2019s evidence that this stage of sleep is crucial for memory, learning, and emotional development. Research indicates drugs like antidepressants and ADHD medication that affect REM sleep<\/a> could hurt young brains\u2019 development for this reason.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile it\u2019s hard to understand exactly the reason why, or if the melatonin was even the primary cause, I think what\u2019s more important is that that there potentially is a relationship.\u201d<\/p>\n

Using melatonin <\/p>\n

Melatonin is sometimes recommended for kids struggling with sleep \u2014 but Bigman notes \u201cthere should be caution because we don\u2019t know everything about its effects.\u201d<\/p>\n

With limited FDA involvement in regulation of supplements like melatonin, \u201cit is\u00a0hard for us to know to quantify what it is that\u2019s happening \u2026 as well as its long-term effects, because there isn\u2019t robust data to truly understand how melatonin affects children\u2019s brains, specifically in sleep.\u201d<\/p>\n

There\u2019s also the question of whether kids getting melatonin actually need the pill or gummy. Things like iron deficiency, enlarged tonsils, and even nightmares could be keeping the child from a good nights rest. And melatonin won\u2019t necessarily fix the problem.<\/p>\n

Sleep hygiene, like putting away screens before bed, should be assessed before melatonin is used, experts say. SistersStock \u2013 stock.adobe.com<\/p>\n

Bigman says he\u2019ll only recommend melatonin in the event a child is diagnosed to have a circadian rhythm or sleep-wake cycle disorder. This is when they\u2019re staying awake long into the night and sleeping during the day.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we do prescribe melatonin, the doses are very small or where the times given are very strategically done. For example, sometimes we dose melatonin four, five, or six hours before the time we want them to sleep at a very, very low dose,\u201d he explains. <\/p>\n

\u201cGiving a large amount of melatonin may not be beneficial just because we want someone or a child to sleep.\u201d<\/p>\n

Instead, the first line of defense should be sleep hygiene. That\u2019s a consistent bedtime with a good routine that signals the body it\u2019s time to wind down \u2014 like a bath or relaxing without a device. Screens should be put away 30 minutes to an hour before bed.<\/p>\n

And kids should also have a sleep-friendly space to get some shut eye: somewhere quiet and dark. Bigman also suggests looking at physical activity, sugar, and junk food intake.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll these things could potentially contribute to difficulty with sleep,\u201d he said. Parents should shoot for their kids to get eight to 10 hours of sleep a night.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Almost half of American parents give their kids melatonin to help them sleep. Could it actually be doing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":807139,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[151,97,110544,148,8115,673],"class_list":["post-807138","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-children","tag-health","tag-melatonin","tag-parenting","tag-sleep","tag-wellness"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/807138","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=807138"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/807138\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/807139"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=807138"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=807138"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=807138"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}