Eight hours: The minimum amount of sleep the average teenager aged 13-18 should have, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Archive. However, this doesn’t come naturally for many. In fact, according to the National Sleep Foundation, eight out of ten teenagers fail to meet the recommended amount of sleep for their age. For many, an easy fix is to take some form of sleep medication, commonly over-the-counter melatonin.

Melatonin is a hormone produced by the brain that helps to regulate the sleep cycle, and circadian rhythm. It has also become a popular dietary supplement sold over the counter to improve sleep, formally called exogenous melatonin. Melatonin products are not approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which means they are less regulated than most prescription drugs. Labels on these supplements can sometimes be deceiving. A 2022 study by the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) Network found that the quantity of melatonin in tested supplements ranged from 74 percent to 347 percent of the labeled amount.

Pediatric Psychologist and Redwood Parent Michelle Purvey has seen this first-hand in her practice.

“In [melatonin] supplements, there’s variability in the amount of synthetic melatonin in the pills and chewable [supplements]. You think you’re giving your child the amount labeled on the bottle, but there could be more or less. There’s a higher risk of overdosing,” Purvey said.

In a September Bark Survey, 43 percent of students reported they use melatonin, or another sleep medication weekly. These students may be reaping the benefits now, but increased melatonin levels from sleep drugs can disrupt one’s natural sleep cycle, and have serious side effects. What typically starts as just a nightly habit can begin to feel necessary for sleep, and cause psychological dependence on these supplements. Purvey finds that this dependence often stems from anxiety.

“If you really believe melatonin helps you sleep
and then your parents say, ‘No, you’re using [melatonin] too much, you can’t have it,’ the child or teen could be awake [and worry that they will not be able to fall asleep],” Purvey said. “The worry, the anxiety, is going to keep the teen awake. When you worry, it increases stress hormones, cortisol, adrenaline, naturally putting your body in a fight or flight response. So psychologically, yes, especially if you have anxiety, it can increase the risk [of becoming psychologically dependent on melatonin].”

Junior Kate Kozubik started her melatonin use in eighth grade because of her sleep problems.

“I had really bad insomnia starting in eighth grade. There were times I [wouldn’t] fall asleep until six in the morning, so it got to a point where I didn’t have any other options: I started using melatonin,” Kozubik said. “Overall stress and an overactive mind [caused my insomnia], and I just thought that a simple supplement would help, but it didn’t necessarily fix the problem. It didn’t work all the time; it definitely wasn’t a fix. I still wasn’t getting enough sleep.”

Kozubik notes that melatonin wasn’t just an easy fix. In fact, people can use melatonin in the wrong context or for the wrong reason, which can lead to side effects, Purvey says.

“Let’s say it’s midnight, you need to go to sleep, and you’re tossing and turning. You’re a teenager, you take melatonin at 12:30 in the morning: It’s too late. You’re gonna be knocked out in the morning because you need to have a restful eight hours of sleep. You’re gonna feel more drowsy, so [taking melatonin can] actually increase the side effects of drowsiness,” Purvey said. “You have to take it earlier. If you’re not gonna get eight hours to sleep, I wouldn’t even take it because you’re gonna feel [bad] in the morning.”

Junior Vivienne Fitzgerald has noticed a dependency on and increased tolerance for melatonin.

“I increase [my intake] on nights when I’m going to bed earlier than I have been for the last couple weeks,” Fitzgerald said. “I think I’ve been using it for so long that my body depends on it, because I’ve been using it since I was nine or 10.”

Purvey describes the side effects of using too much of a supplement, calling it the rebound effect. In certain cases, taking too much of a supplement can have the opposite effect of what it was taken to combat: Taking melatonin can sometimes lead to insomnia.

“The rebound effect means that after you take melatonin, you can have more problems with sleeplessness or insomnia. So it can make it worse. [Another example of] that rebound is if you take Tylenol for a long time, the rebound of that could be more headaches,” Purvey said.

This usage isn’t only at Redwood. The use of melatonin among children and teenagers has become increasingly common. A 2017-2018 study conducted by the JAMA Pediatrics found that 1.3 percent of parents in the United States reported that their child had consumed melatonin in the past 30 days.

The lack of regulation and increased usage have some health professionals worried. Director of the Behavioral Sleep Medicine Clinic at the University of Alabama at Birmingham Justin Thomas is mainly concerned about the lack of regulation and the mislabeled dosage amounts of melatonin.

“You can be getting anywhere from almost no melatonin to almost four times over what the dose on the box is,” Thomas said in a WBRC News 6 article.

These concerns are valid, as nearly 11,000 Emergency Department visits were attributed to melatonin intake between 2019 and 2022, according to the CDC. A 2022 CDC survey states that the amount of pediatric melatonin ingestions reported to poison control centers has risen by around 530 percent between 2012 and 2021.

Sleep is extremely crucial for the youth. According to the National Library of Medicine, the brain does not fully develop until the age of 25. Sleep is essential for teens for their physical and mental health.

“Sleep is crucial for brain development, but also your mood, cognitive behavior, emotional behavior and social development,” Purvey said.

This is not to say that melatonin only has negative effects, but it shouldn’t be the only solution. Instead, it is important to practice good sleep hygiene, and focus on more sustainable ways to fall asleep.

“[Melatonin] should support your circadian rhythm, so you can improve your sleep. The idea is it’s supposed to support that process and not be used long term,” Purvey said. “During the day, you [should do things] to help with that [cycle naturally], which is getting enough sunlight, enough movement in your day and have a pre-sleep routine without using screens for two hours before you go to sleep. That’s called sleep hygiene. You have to prepare your brain for sleep.”