The use of the supplement melatonin by U.S. adults has more than quintupled between 1999 and 2018, a new study has found.
Melatonin is sold over the counter as a dietary supplement in a range of doses and is popularly purchased as a sleep aid. Information on it’s efficacy, long-term safety and prevalence of use is lacking, however, researchers from the Mayo Clinic noted.
The investigators examined data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) between 1999 and 2018. Study participants included more than 55,000 adults aged 20 years and older. Participants reported their dietary supplement use with in-home verification for 94% of the participants.
Not only did use of melatonin steadily increase, but more respondents began taking doses greater than 5 milligrams per day starting in 2005. Use of high-dose supplementation more than tripled over the study period, Naima Covassin, Ph.D., and colleagues reported.
High-dose use was very low overall, increasing to 0.28% in 2017-2018. But the estimates raise safety concerns, Covassin and colleagues said. The actual content of melatonin in over-the-counter supplements may be many times higher than what’s listed on the label, they explained.
“Our findings highlight the importance of well-designed clinical studies to look at the long-term safety of melatonin use in different populations, as well as whether it can effectively help people with sleep problems,” Covassin concluded.
The research was supported in part by the National Institutes of Health’s National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.
The study was published in JAMA.
