With the return of the holidays and the school year, many children (and also many adults) have problems to recover their routines. Among those habits, going to bed early is one of the most troublesome. The children have spent two months enjoying relaxed schedules, going to bed late, taking naps and, when it’s time to put on their pajamas and go to bed, the hare jumps.
According to information published by the Spanish Association of Pediatrics, “in Spain between 91.2% and 76.1% of students believe they have problems sleeping.” Childhood sleep is usually a cause for concern for families, especially when children have some type of disorder such as insomnia, common in adolescence.
The human body produces melatonin naturally, but when not being able to sleep becomes a problem, we turn (for a few years) to the artificial formula from pharmacies. Before, this supplement was hard to find, but today it is available to everyone, including use in children.
Studies related to taking melatonin in children are scarce, but in recent times it has been publicized with an apparent normality despite the request for prudence from pediatricians. Health professionals prefer to continue recommending sleep hygiene measures and individually evaluate the situations of children with a specific pathology.
The Medicines Committee of the Spanish Association of Pediatrics recommends in its Melatonin File (updated in March 2022) that before its use, it is preferable to consult with the primary care pediatrician. And it describes clinical use in children as a “treatment of insomnia in children and adolescents from 2 to 18 years of age with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) or Smith-Magenis syndrome, in whom sleep hygiene measures have been insufficient” .
On the other hand, the report “Use of oral melatonin in pediatrics” explains that melatonin may be recommended in children from 6 months, for short periods of time stipulated according to the age of the child.
However, the study, prepared jointly by the Spanish Association of Pediatrics (AEP), the Spanish Sleep Society (SES), the Spanish Society of Extrahospital Pediatrics and Primary Care (SEPEAP) and the Spanish Association of Primary Care Pediatrics (AEPap), advises against “the generalization of its clinical use in the treatment of delayed sleep or insomnia in healthy children without medical supervision.”
