Melatonin is possibly safe when taken long-term. It's been used safely for up to 2 years. But it can cause some side effects including headache, sleepiness, dizziness, and nausea.
Short-term use of melatonin may not be harmful but there is insufficient evidence on its long-term safety, according to the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health.
Other side effects of both low and high doses of melatonin can include headaches, excessive sleepiness, blood pressure changes, gastrointestinal problems, changes in other hormone levels and mood problems, McCall says. Keep yourself and your loved ones safe by storing melatonin out of the reach of teens and children.
Some less common melatonin side effects include agitation, fatigue, mood swings, nightmares, skin irritation, and palpitations. 2 More commonly, people experience melatonin "hangover," with symptoms like headache, daytime sleepiness, and nausea.
Regardless of whether it truly helps with sleep or not, Dr. Ramkissoon doesn't recommend taking melatonin long-term.
You should not get any harmful discontinuation or withdrawal effects if you stop taking melatonin. However, you may get your old symptoms back. If you are on a high dose, then the doctor may wish to reduce the dose slowly before stopping it completely.
In the UK and most of Europe, it's classed as a medicine, not a health supplement and as such, requires a prescription. This is because melatonin is considered “medical by function” which means that it requires a drug licence.
In several clinical trials, melatonin was found to be well tolerated and not associated with serum enzyme elevations or evidence of liver injury. Despite wide scale use, melatonin has not been convincingly linked to instances of clinically apparent liver injury.
Do not use melatonin if you are pregnant or breastfeeding or have an autoimmune disorder, a seizure disorder or depression. Talk to your health care provider if you have diabetes or high blood pressure.
Natural alternatives to melatonin, such as magnesium, valerian root, l-theanine, chamomile, and passionflower, are all-natural remedies that have been used for centuries to promote relaxation and help people get a better night's sleep.
The anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidative functions of melatonin have also been observed among kidney transplant recipients. The administration of melatonin led to improved kidney function after renal transplantation.
What is a safe melatonin dose? According to Michael Grandner, director of the Sleep and Health Research Program at the University of Arizona, “melatonin is very safe if taken in normal doses,” which is anything between 0.5 mg and 5 mg.
Sometimes your doctor will recommend that you only take melatonin 2 or 3 times a week to see if that improves your sleep first. Melatonin should only be taken for a maximum of 13 weeks to treat short-term sleep problems in adults, but longer courses may be used on the advice of a specialist.
You cannot build up a tolerance to melatonin. This means that the same dosage of melatonin taken every day will not build up in the body, and you won't need a higher dosage over time to experience the same effect.
Melatonin's target sites are both central and peripheral. Binding sites have been found in many areas of the brain, including the pars tuberalis and hypothalamus, but also in the cells of the immune system, gonads, kidney, and the cardiovascular system (39, 40).
The melatonin system, including melatonin precursor l-tryptophan and the melatonin derivatives kynuramines, is probably implicated in pancreatic physiology and its malfunctioning, resulting in the impairment of pancreatic functions and pancreatic resistance to inflammation and cancer.
In general, melatonin should not be given to healthy, typically developing children under age 3, as difficulties falling and staying asleep in these children are almost always behavioral in nature.
The NDPSC considered that insufficient information was available on the safety of melatonin to allow it to remain exempt from scheduling for human therapeutic use and that it should not be available without prescription.
French authorities are urging certain populations to avoid consuming food supplements containing melatonin after incidences of adverse effects were reported to the country's nutrivigilance scheme.
Eggs and fish are higher melatonin-containing food groups in animal foods, whereas in plant foods, nuts are with the highest content of melatonin. Some kinds of mushrooms, cereals and germinated legumes or seeds are also good dietary sources of melatonin.
Melatonin is generally regarded as safe for seniors by physicians and pharmacists because its side effects are mild, it's not habit forming, and it does not cause withdrawal symptoms if you stop taking it suddenly.