Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Melatonin - the bad and good

Our DD10 (ADHD inattentive type) has always had the worst time falling asleep. Her brain just whirrs and whirrs. She is miserable unless allowed to read or draw - which she does for hours and hours. That sounds ok but the reality is that during school session she would not get enough sleep. So, the doctor recommended melatonin, and it works like magic. However, if one reads about melatonin, there are all kinds of warnings about the danger of melatonin usage and puberty issues. The warnings are never specific so I dug deeper and saw that it may delay puberty (studies of rats and such). What information have you all found? Is it something I should be concerned with, or do I decide that a good night's rest outweighs the danger of the small amount she takes at night (I quarter a 5 mg tablet so tiny tiny amount).

My DD10 has been taking melatonin for the past year and a half and it has been life changing. She used to lie awake for hours unable to fall asleep, wake up during the night on a regular basis and be very, very active in her sleep. Now she falls asleep pretty much right away and stays asleep even though she remains very active. (Talking, rolling about, throwing off blankets, kicking, etc.) It's been a while since we found her sleepwalking but that can be hit or miss - we have to be awake and in the room where she is walking to know its happening. She is a good size kid so was started on 3 mg. On non-school nights we didn't give it to her and she would have the same falling asleep/staying asleep issues so we started using it every night instead. About 6 months ago the 3 mg dose stopped being effective so we started with 5mg. (She is basically the size of a small adult now.)

I wish we found a delayed puberty side effect! I am stressing that one big time and dream of finding a "pause" button... Shortly before her 10th birthday we saw the first signs of impending puberty. From what I have read this seems to be totally normal timing. She has one friend who is extremely overweight who is way ahead of her in that regard and several who are significantly underweight or serious gymnasts who are behind her. This also jives with what I've read. So from my n=1 sample no such side effect.

I don't know anything off-hand about melatonin, but I do know that growth hormone is released primarily during sleep, so it makes sense that a person who is not sleeping adequately during latency/pre-pubertal years might actually be experiencing more maturational delays than one who is. So maybe the two offset?

Hello there,

If I may add our family's experience with melatonin.

Upon the advice of our pediatricians (2 of them), our DS7 who has fear of the dark (so he needs brighter night light) in addition to high churn mind, caused all of us to lose sleep for years.

We are keenly aware of concerns regarding this and started him on 1 mg, then 3 then 5 mg (in the particular brand we use). We have remained stable at 5 mg for over 3 YEARS now.

We have weighed the risks for our DS and so far have found only the ff benefits:

1) Falls asleep within 1-2 hours vs 4-5 hours

2) Sleeps for 8-10 hours vs 6-7 hours

3) Has increased body weight, muscle mass, improved attention

4) Has grown! 5 inches since and now approaching 50% percentile finally

5) DH and I also now have more restorative sleep since taking it ourselves.



Note:

DS7 was an extreme case when younger, he was on some weird sleep pattern that nearly did me in! He would be asleep for 10 hours, awake for 13 hours, sleep for 3, awake for 3, asleep for 10 and again! For nearly 4 years!!!

I have literally high-fived DH at 6 am as he took over for me as DS3 had been awake since 10 pm - DS's schedule just stayed the same day or night, no matter what we tried.

When his medical issues surfaced, we had to schedule procedures which required herculean efforts of sleep prep leading to appts. When at least 2 of his peds heard about what we were going through, we were told to try Melatonin. We read a lot about this topic and thank goodness for us, it has only been a positive for our family.

We recommend it under the right circumstances and again, it has been a miracle for our family. Please do research various brands as purity, dose, etc. vary of course.

All the best,

Lucky

DD11 has been taking it for about a year, and like others, it has been a miracle for our family. She takes 2 mg, and our pediatrician (who is pretty conservative) has told us that that is fine, but she shouldn't go over 3 mg. She she is growing like a weed, but our pediatrician thinks she has another year to go before menses. She previously had the same diagnosis as the OP's daughter, but it has now been updated to a diagnosis of ASD.

Anecdotal: DS12 has taken melatonin during school year (when he takes stimulant med) for three years and he entered puberty early-ish (has facial hair already, despite small stature). DD11 takes it occasionally (no meds, but terrible sleeper) and entered puberty early-ish as well.

I had never heard about this potential side effect. In our case, if it *did* delay puberty, I'm grateful.

We've used melatonin for several years -- me, DS12 and DD9 -- and don't have any puberty happening here. It is a godsend for getting to sleep, for me when I have to go to work in the morning and for the kids when they have to get up for school. We haven't noticed any side effects whatsoever.

Greenlotus, something which helps me (not ADHD, but take a long time to go to sleep because can't switch off) is listening to something on a timer (podcast or book or guided meditation). It helps me relax into sleep by engaging my interest, but because I'm lying down in the dark I'm more likely to fall asleep. Probably not a magic bullet for your daughter, but might be helpful.
I had thought that unless there was some medical issue (AsD, in particular), that your should never take melatonin for more than three nights in a row because it would mess with your body's production of it. Is this no longer the recommendation? I use it on myself or kids roughly once a year if/when sleep times are way out of whack (on occasion bedtime will creep to close to 10pm, which leaves kids tired, but not tired enough to go to sleep at 8, or sometimes the lingering traces of jetlag will leave them tossing and turning in bed!), for one or two nights. Kids get half a tablet, I take a full one.

We do Not use melatonin as it is not available on prescription for children where we live, but have had good results with magnesium citrate when Ds1 took hours to fall asleep every night. Just in case you want to try an alternative.
A recommended dosage is 200 mg, you may have to play around with it because a overdose will give you diarrhea. Pleasant side effect if your kid happens to be a picky eater as well and you have a hard time getting those fruit and veggies in so your kid is constipated, you may have normal bowel function instead, without meds or other side effects.

Hello everyone,

We use melatonin for the kids for a few nights in a row when we are travelling to get them over jet lag. We have not used it more regularly, but we are lucky that our kids are relatively good sleepers.

I just wanted to make another suggestion about an alternative that maybe could be beneficial in conjunction with melatonin if nothing else.

I don't know if there has been much discussion on this forum over the research coming out lately on blue light exposure and its effects on melatonin production, but we have found wearing blue light blocking glasses in the evenings can really help with sleep. I got some for myself first when I started waking between 3-5 in the morning and having trouble falling back asleep. Then when my daughter was taking 1-1.5 hours to fall asleep, and being really hard to wake in the morning, I decided to get her a pair. And we found when she wears the orange glasses for a couple of hours before bedtime, she falls asleep better, and she also wakes up earlier and feeling more refreshed.

She is not thrilled with everything having an orange tinge, but you do get used to it.

Anyway, not sure if it will help anyone else, but I just thought I would throw it out there as something else that works pretty well for us.