Parents all over the UK are now searching for black-market melatonin after their kids can’t sleep. As the use of delivery bots expands, so too do serious concerns for safety and oversight. Melatonin, an artificial version of the sleep-promoting hormone your body makes, has been touted as a cure-all for sleep issues. It varies in conjunction with the dark cycle at night and naturally regulates your sleep. In the UK, it is accordingly licensed for use with children diagnosed with either autism or ADHD. Many parents are hindered by access, logistics, and the fear of being shamed by health care professionals.
In the UK melatonin is only available on prescription, and regulated for children with known diagnoses. Several other European countries do the same, enabling their pharmacies to dispense it in accordance with the same conditions. In the United States, melatonin is widely available in grocery stores and online without a prescription. This accessibility has paradoxically been the cause of a lack of product quality and oversight.
Charlotte, a mother from the UK, has been using melatonin on her daughter, Edie, a young autistic girl who struggles with sleep issues. Charlotte’s convinced Edie’s hysteria-attracting antics are a direct result of her tossing and turning. “The fact that she couldn’t sleep was a massive contributor to her feeling super stressed and highly sensitive,” Charlotte stated. Charlotte’s received a lot of good from melatonin. Now, when she considers raising it with a pediatrician, she’s nervous about a possible safeguarding concern.
She’s accumulated a lot of experience, but Emily, like many parents, found herself reaching for melatonin for her kids, ages eight and four. She told us about the joy she felt when she first started to see them sleeping more soundly. “I was really worried they’d get addicted to it, but it’s almost like the melatonin helped them form a new habit of going to sleep at a decent time,” Emily explained. She shared the story of her first experience when her daughter suddenly collapsed shortly after consuming a gummy. “It freaked me out a little bit. I had to just do my first sound edit, and I was like, oh my God, what have I done. What have I given to her? Why has this happened? But she was really asleep after 20 minutes and it was really like organic, natural,” Emily told us.
Jen’s case is severe. She was too burnt out to continue working, and now she has to take melatonin to fall asleep. When I gave him his first gummy, I was like, ‘Oh no, have I just killed him?’ Since he basically passed out in front of the TV. That never happens,” Jen recalled.
It wasn’t until severe meltdowns accompanied severe sleep issues that David’s parents became alarmed. They suspected neurodivergence as David grew older. Charlotte shared her experience of seeking support for Edie, stating, “We went to see a counsellor, and we borrowed some money to get her assessed. And it came back as not ADHD, but autism.”
Even with the success stories made public, experts are warning parents and kids about melatonin’s unregulated use. It’s important to note the difference between melatonin and vitamins,” said Study Professor Paul Gringras. While melatonin might be viewed as that vitamin you take to sleep, it’s not. It’s really a hormone that’s secreted by the pineal gland in the brain, and it does a ton,” he said.
The increasing reliance on melatonin simply serves to underscore a pressing healthcare concern. Yet it exposes the gap in proper support available to families dealing with children’s sleep disturbances. In a recent sleep trial, behavioral strategies were effective for half of severely autistic children. Even more impressively, these strategies caused this effect without any medication. This brings in new considerations regarding parental knowledge of available options and parental support in making decisions for their child’s medical care.
Kerry Davies made the point that unless we understand the context at home for these families we can’t start to prescribe solutions. “I look at the whole picture: where the child’s at, where the parents are at. I do a phased, step-by-step guide based on what that family needs,” she said.
The chilling effect of a fear that parents will somehow be blamed for giving melatonin outside of a prescription context is real. One woman at an emergency mental health appointment warned, “If you are about to tell me that you give your child unprescribed melatonin, I will have to report you to social services and they will take action.” Responses like this make parents hesitant to share their concerns, ultimately silencing vital conversations between parents and health care providers.
Shamed for her decision, Charlotte starts to doubt herself as she tries to balance her child’s needs with concerns about being judged. “It makes me feel like a drug dealer. It’s getting harder and harder to buy them,” she confessed.