If you happen to discover it difficult to go to sleep and keep asleep, you’re not alone. Melatonin is among the most ubiquitous dietary supplements within the U.S., with varied types of it obtainable at most grocery shops and pharmacies. Actually, analysis exhibits that between 1999 and 2018, melatonin use within the U.S. quadrupled1. (It is extra strictly regulated in different international locations.)
That mentioned, analysis exhibits that we don’t actually know sufficient in regards to the security of supplementing with melatonin, particularly utilizing it each night time—typically for years on finish. Because the authors of one examine2 level out: “Though melatonin is mostly thought to be secure, adversarial results have been reported, and information on long-term use and high-dose use are scarce.”
Some sleep specialists fear that utilizing melatonin usually might cut back your physique’s pure productiveness of this essential sleep hormone.
As Seema Bonney, M.D., the founder and medical director of the Anti-Getting older & Longevity Heart of Philadelphia, beforehand informed mindbodygreen: “It is essential to do not forget that melatonin is a hormone, and utilizing any hormone usually can down-regulate your individual manufacturing of that hormone.” Ashley Jordan Ferira, Ph.D., RDN, mbg’s vp of scientific affairs, added: “I’ve not seen good information to indicate that top doses of melatonin is not going to influence your endogenous, pure manufacturing of melatonin.”
