You may have thought about taking melatonin, a popular supplement used to get better quality sleep, if it takes you a long time to fall asleep or you wake up a lot at night. But it’s crucial to pay attention to your dosages, just as with any other vitamin. As they say, you can have too much of a good thing, and melatonin is a prime example of this. In fact, a 2022 investigation discovered that between 2012 and 2021, the number of calls relating to melatonin toxicity grew sixfold.
Your brain naturally creates the hormone melatonin to assist control your sleep-wake cycle. According to research, taking a melatonin pill can reduce insomnia and make it easier for people to get to sleep and remain asleep.
The U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) does not control dietary supplements like melatonin, according to HaVy Ngo-Hamilton, PharmD, a BuzzRx Clinical Consultant. Ngo-Hamilton asserts that the typical safe and effective dosing range is 0.5 to 5 mg at bedtime. She advises against taking more than 10 milligrammes per day, but says some people with severe sleep problems may benefit from taking 8 to 10 milligrammes for up to six months.
She advises Best Living, “You should always take the lowest dose of melatonin that helps you sleep.” Continue reading to learn what can occur if you consume more melatonin than your body requires.
Melatonin can help you wake up feeling refreshed if you take the correct quantity of it, but taking too much can have the opposite effect. Ngo-Hamilton claims that too much melatonin can mess with your circadian rhythms, possibly resulting in less restful sleep. You’ll experience increased drowsiness in the early morning hours as a result. It’s possible that you’ll have little energy, need to use the snooze button several times, or struggle to get out of bed.
Ngo-Hamilton points out that while melatonin leaves the body rather fast, these symptoms shouldn’t continue all day. You probably won’t experience drowsiness as a side effect as long as you take a moderate amount of melatonin between 30 and an hour before going to bed and do not need to get up before five hours, according to the expert.
One of the most frequent adverse effects of taking too much melatonin, along with grogginess, is nausea since your body simply attempts to get rid of it. Ngo-Hamilton notes that vomiting is your body’s emergency response to poisoning and that in severe circumstances, you may really vomit.
According to Ngo-Hamilton, too much melatonin might occasionally cause blood pressure to increase. The Mayo Clinic says that this is particularly true if you take blood pressure medication.
Their doctors don’t advise taking melatonin at all if you’re currently taking medicine for hypertension because even safe dosages of it might trigger risky rises in blood pressure. It goes without saying that if you have this disease, taking high dosages of melatonin is considerably dangerous.