Should Kids Be Taking Melatonin?
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Who is discussing melatonin and why is sleep important for kids?
Hey, Shore Wavers, Emily Kwong here. Okay, so possibly my favorite thing in the entire world is a good night's sleep. I mean, nothing makes a bigger difference to my mental and physical health. Without quality sleep, we're less productive, grumpy. It can even affect our hearts. And for kids, sleep is crucial for physical, mental, and emotional development. But there are a lot of things keeping us awake these days. Screens, electronics, stress. Researchers say that, like adults, kids are having problems falling asleep and staying asleep. So more and more parents are turning to a supplement called melatonin as a possible solution.
It's like so many parents dream, which is like, is this the answer? Is there this one gummy or this one thing that can help me get through this part of the day that can be really, really hard for parents and families?
What is melatonin and how does it work in the body?
Michael Scholzen is a contributing editor at Undark Magazine, where he writes and edits stories about science. And he recently looked into why more and more people are using sleep supplements, especially with their kids. Melatonin is a hormone, and it's one that our bodies produce naturally.
It's part of the way that the body regulates its sleep cycles and gets you toward bedtime.
Every night, the pineal gland in our brain releases a bit of melatonin.
So when people take synthetic melatonin in the form of a pill or a gummy... It also can have that experience of helping people feel a little bit more tired, a little bit sleepy, in ways that a lot of people find helpful for getting to sleep.
Melatonin is widely considered safe for adults in low doses and for kids with certain neurological and neurodevelopmental conditions that get in the way of a good night's sleep.
I think it's really important to understand that when families are seeking to help their children get a better night's sleep, it's not just like an abstract health goal that they're trying to solve. They're often really speaking into very real challenges and very real problems that are affecting all parts of a family and are also really affecting their kids flourishing.
But some experts worry that we don't know enough about how regularly taking melatonin affects kids in the long term. So today on the show, melatonin and kids. What the research says, how melatonin is being used, and how to navigate obstacles for getting kids enough Cs. I'm Emily Kwong, and you're listening to Shortwave, the science podcast from NPR.
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Okay, so Michael, we are talking today about melatonin. It is a hormone that the human body naturally produces. But I want to hear more about the history of this supplement. This is synthetic melatonin that a lot of people have started taking, and some people are giving it to their kids. When did people start taking melatonin?
So you really start to see an uptick in people taking melatonin in the 1990s. And there's this funny way in which you both have a lot of marketing and interest in it and research sort of coming and saying it. And at the same time, you have this moment when supplements... are being deregulated in the United States, meaning Congress has gotten together and said, we're going to put a lot fewer restrictions on supplements and make it easier to sell things and make claims. You know, you could find these articles where people are like, whoa, melatonin is the new hot thing. What do we make of it? And there's anxiety around that. And there's excitement around that.
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Chapters
7 chapters
1
Who is discussing melatonin and why is sleep important for kids?
0:30–1:24
2
What is melatonin and how does it work in the body?
1:24–5:22
3
When did melatonin start being used as a supplement and how has its use evolved?
5:22–7:04
4
How has melatonin use among children changed over time?
7:04–8:37
5
Is melatonin marketed specifically to kids or their parents?
8:37–9:23
6
Why is it important to know that melatonin is a hormone and not a vitamin?
9:23–9:48
7
What are the concerns about melatonin regulation and perception?
9:48–13:36