Melatonin overuse has become a very common phenomenon in the United States.
In a recent interview with the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), Judith Owens, MD, MPH, director of the Center for Pediatric Sleep Disorders at Boston Children’s Hospital, said an increasing number of children are taking melatonin. Some pediatricians recommend melatonin to parents, who give their children melatonin in an attempt to solve their sleep problems. According to Dr. Owens, melatonin is not a panacea for the problem, and many of these children eventually end up in a sleep clinic.
In 2020, 933 American parents participated in an online survey that showed that 38 percent of their children had sleeping difficulties (pdf). Among these children, 44 percent were given melatonin products by their parents….