My family and I have had melatonin sleep gummies in our household for about six years. Throughout these six years I have taken the gummies various times (with parental permission ). From eighth grade to my sophomore year in high school, I began to feel a bit off in the morning after having the gummies; I was drowsy and grumpy, well more than usual at least.
As a middle schooler, I took melatonin gummies only knowing they make me fall asleep faster. It wasn’t until about eighth grade that I wondered what these gummies were. I learned that the melatonin gummies were named after the hormone melatonin. This hormone helps regulate your sleep cycle. More melatonin is produced during the night to make you sleep. The gummies essentially encourage you to sleep, but the label on the container states: “This product is not intended to treat insomnia or other sleep disorder.”
The brand of melatonin that I use is NATROL. On the container it says there is 10mg of melatonin per serving and the serving size is two gummies, most efficiently, to be taken 30 minutes before bed. Also labeled on the container is the “suggested use” describing the brand and recommended time to take the supplement at night. An important detail written on the case is that “Factors like stress and screen time before bed can interrupt melatonin production and disrupt sleep.”
On a regular night when I take melatonin it’s one or two gummies, but if it’s late and I need to go to bed immediately I take three (with parental permission). Since starting high school I have gotten less sleep. This is most likely because high school starts at 7:30 while middle school starts at 9:30, requiring me to get up earlier nowadays. Also, I would say that I have more homework in high school than I did in middle school. Overall, my sleep amount has definitely decreased more in high school than in middle school, creating about five to six hours of sleep which turns out to be a major problem factor for my drowsiness in the morning.
While I was significantly tired in the mornings, it never really occurred to me it could be because of melatonin. I started wondering “why could I be this dreadfully tired in the mornings?”. My mom also had this problem and the only similar thing we could find before going to sleep was taking melatonin.
I searched online if melatonin could make you more tired in the morning and to my surprise it can! Google says if you take melatonin with only six hours of sleep, then you will be tired. This would make sense because I’ve been going to bed so late.
Many would believe I have the answer to my problem, but one detail still doesn’t make sense. Why would I still be sleepy in the morning from taking melatonin even if I got more than six hours of sleep? I proceeded to search a little deeper online and apparently if you take more than the recommended dose, you can be tired in the morning regardless of the six hours of sleep.
The moral of the story is that melatonin is only useful if you get more than six hours of sleep and take the proper amount of gummies. For the past couple of days, I stopped using melatonin and felt somewhat more refreshed in the morning. Don’t get me wrong, melatonin is perfectly healthy to take( with parental permission ), but it is best to take with the proper requirements listed in this article.
