Giving your child melatonin may not be the sleep schedule saver you think

RAPID CITY, S.D. (KEVN) - As kids go back to school, the one thing that may linger from the holidays is a poor sleep schedule. Going to bed later over winter break can make it harder for kids once it’s time to hit the hay earlier in the day.

As a parent, it can be tempting to search for easy remedies to get your child to bed, and a melatonin-infused gummy may seem like an easy fix.

Melatonin is the hormone that your brain produces in response to darkness when it’s time to fall asleep. If you have a hard time falling asleep, artificial melatonin is an easily accessible and relatively healthy way to ease yourself into dreamland.

However, if taken for too long, it can permanently affect a person’s sleep patterns.

“It’s a very short-term sleep solution. The best long-term way of getting to sleep is good, consistent sleep habits, but those are difficult, especially in children. It takes a lot of coordination, it takes a lot of care, it takes a lot of fighting with your kids. Melatonin can help them get to sleep but it does not keep them asleep,” says Doctor Greg Anderson with Black Hills Pediatrics.

Continued use of melatonin over a long time will require the dosage to be increased, making it harder for your child to get back on track.

“I’ve noticed that if you started at a milligram every night, after a couple of months you have to go up to two milligrams, and after a couple months you have to go up to three milligrams. It just doesn’t work long-term because your body gets too used to having it. You have to stop the medication for six months to a year, let your body reset, and then you can go back to it,” Dr. Anderson concludes.

One tip Dr. Anderson has is to put screens away at least an hour before bed.

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