Side Effects of Melatonin

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The hormone Melatonin is a naturally occurring chemical in our bodies that helps stabilize and normalize our daily sleep cycles. Purchasing melatonin as a supplement to aid in falling asleep and staying asleep has become increasingly popular in recent years. As with anything else, as soon as something becomes popular, more people start paying closer attention to a products side effects and downside...melatonin side effects are no different.

A good reason to not just accept that melatonin is safe and effective to use is that it has not been reviewed or analyzed by the Food and Drug Administration. The reason that Melatonin is not reviewed and approved by the FDA is because it is a supplement, and as such, can be sold without any reviews or approvals. Because you are essentially 'flying blind' in purchasing melatonin, it is imperative that you buy it from the most legitimate supplies and seller possible. You don't want to buy the cheap or generic stuff because there is no telling what you'll actually receive. It is also important to note that there is no standards for melatonin dosage sizes and so each manufacturer may sell any dosage size, and many actually offer a variety of dosage sizes.

When our body naturally produces and distributes melatonin throughout our body, our system knows and understands how much and for how long it should be produced. Introducing more than our body thinks should be present in the blood stream can be, from a common-sense perspective, a bad idea. We are essentially overriding what our body thinks is the proper amount of Melatonin. Additionally, taking a melatonin supplement means you are also determining the time of day that your body has melatonin in the blood stream rather than allowing it to naturally occur.

Some rare but possible side effects that others have reported included a feeling of dizziness or confusion as well as headaches and aches or pains throughout the body. Melatonin can also highten your sense and feeling of dreams, although this does not seem to be a common side effect.

Overall, you really are taking a risk if you take melatonin. Sure, it is a very small risk because many people have taken it and you already have melatonin in your body anyway. The risk you are accepting is that you are taking the supplement despite the fact that the FDA has neither reviewed nor approved/denied Melatonin's use as a sleep aid. The side effects are minimal, and in our experience not that important when considering how effective melatonin really is.