How to help your kids sleep better without using melatonin, as studies cite the potential dangers of overusing the hormone supplement

We know sleep is important, but many haven’t figured out how to ensure a good night’s rest without grabbing a bottle of melatonin supplements, sleep doctor says

Dimming lights and stopping screen use early, having a good bedtime routine and consistent waking time can negate the need for melatonin

Reading Time:5 minutes

Melatonin is sold as a sleep product, often in child-friendly supplements, but recent studies show the dangers of taking too much. A sleep expert offers tips to get your children a good night’s rest. Photo: Shutterstock

Published: 7:15pm, 27 Dec 2023

As the mother of two children, aged six and 10, Dr Deepa Burman is keenly aware of impulse buys in grocery store checkouts, placed precisely at kids’ eye levels.

As a paediatric sleep medicine specialist and co-director of the Pediatric Sleep Evaluation Center at UPMC Children’s Hospital in Pittsburgh, in the US state of Pennsylvania, she also notices the arrangement of products in medication aisles, especially sleep products like melatonin – a naturally occurring hormone that causes sleepiness.

With labels claiming superior sleep for kids and decorated with cartoon characters, images of soundly sleeping children and fonts that appear to be written in crayon, even she isn’t immune to those marketing ploys.

“Melatonin is right at parents’ eye level. Even as a sleep doctor, sometimes I wonder, is my child getting a good night’s sleep?” she said.

Melatonin medications are often put at parents’-eye levels in shops, says associate professor of paediatrics Dr Deepa Burman. Photo: University of Pittsburgh

But despite the disarming appearance of the labels – and the often confectionery-like supplements inside, supplied as gummies in a variety of kid-friendly colours and fruit flavours – Burman has long known about the lurking dangers of melatonin misuse, knowledge that was reinforced by a pair of studies published over the past year.

In a study in the Journal of the American Medical Association in April, researchers examined 25 brands of melatonin gummies available in the United States. They found anywhere from 74 per cent to 347 per cent of the labelled quantity of the hormone.