Sleep researchers at the University of Adelaide are warning doctors and parents not to provide the drug melatonin to children to help control their sleep problems.
Melatonin is a hormone produced in the body with the onset of darkness. It plays an important role in fine tuning people’s circadian rhythms, such as the timing of sleep onset, as well as other biological processes.
In a paper published in the Journal of Paediatrics and Child Health, researchers warn that providing melatonin supplements to children may result in serious side effects when the children are older.
