Best Melatonin Gummies

Melatonin is among the most popular natural sleep supplements. While it is available in a wide range of forms, including tablets and sprays, melatonin gummies have risen in popularity as a tasty way to settle in for the night.

Given the size of the supplement market, it can be challenging to pick the best melatonin gummy for your needs. Choosing a gummy involves personal preferences — such as dosage, flavor, and price — as well as factors such as the manufacturer’s reliability. Familiarizing yourself with the facts about melatonin and potential safety concerns will allow you to select melatonin gummies with confidence.

In-Depth Reviews

What Is Melatonin? The Ultimate Guide

Known as the sleep hormone, melatonin is produced by the pineal gland, located in the center of the brain. The pineal gland is highly sensitive to light, with darkness prompting melatonin production and light causing its production to slow and stop. Through this mechanism, melatonin plays a critical role in regulating the circadian rhythm that tells us when to sleep and wake.

While your body creates its own melatonin, you can also take this critical hormone in the form of supplements, including melatonin gummies.

How Are Melatonin Gummies Made?

Supplemental melatonin is either natural or synthetic. Natural melatonin is extracted from the pineal glands of animals or made with microorganisms and is less common than synthetic melatonin. While many people are interested in naturally sourced supplements, synthetic melatonin produced in a laboratory is indistinguishable from the natural hormone.

Melatonin gummies are usually made with a sweet, chewy base. Their effect is generally the same as taking melatonin in pill or tablet form.

Most melatonin gummies have a fairly long shelf life before expiration, but they should be kept in a cool, dark place.

Are Melatonin Gummies Safe for Kids?

It is crucial to speak with a medical professional before adding melatonin to your child’s sleep routine. Melatonin is generally considered safe for short-term use in children and adolescents, but it may have side effects such as bedwetting or dizziness. There is also some evidence which suggests that long-term melatonin use may delay puberty. Infants should not be given melatonin.

In addition to ordinary sleep difficulties, melatonin may be particularly beneficial for children with ADHD or autism spectrum disorder who have trouble sleeping.

How to Choose Melatonin Gummies

The melatonin gummy market is crowded, making it difficult and confusing to decide on a brand. There are a number of important factors to consider, and learning more about what makes a product effective can make it easier to choose the best melatonin gummy for your specific needs.

What to Look For in Melatonin Gummies

Some supplements are more effective than others. In the case of melatonin gummies, effectiveness often comes down to the reliability of the supplement company to supply the advertised dosage of melatonin. However, other factors — such as flavor, price per gummy, and determining the correct dosage — are also important but are dependent on your unique circumstances. By considering your needs and choosing a reliable brand, you’ll be far more likely to select a melatonin gummy that works well for you.

Melatonin Content

Most melatonin gummies are available in doses of 1 to 3 milligrams, sometimes expressed as 1,000 to 3,000 micrograms (mcg). A serving is usually 1 to 2 gummies. While it might seem like a good idea to choose the highest dosage available when you need help sleeping, melatonin dosage is highly personal, and smaller amounts may have a better effect for many people.

Starting with a low dose and increasing it until you feel the effect is often a good way to find your appropriate dosage, but your doctor can offer advice specific to your personal circumstances.

Other Active Ingredients

Melatonin supplements often contain other active ingredients that may help promote sleep. Deciding whether to choose one of these varieties is primarily a matter of personal preference. However, the presence of additional components may make it more difficult to accurately determine what melatonin dosage is effective for your needs.

Some active ingredients may also be inappropriate for you or cause unwanted side effects, so speak to your doctor before switching to a multi-ingredient variety.

Price

While melatonin tends to be an affordable supplement, melatonin gummies are usually more expensive than tablets or pills. Some products may have higher prices due to their brand name, additional active ingredients, or other factors such as marketing costs. As long as you choose a reliable brand, there’s no reason to stretch your budget when buying melatonin gummies.

Flavors & Gummy Types

Different brands of melatonin gummies use natural or artificial sources to provide a wide range of flavors. Gummy varieties with various textures are also available, including vegan products made from fruit pectin. None of these factors make the gummy more or less effective, so the best approach is to choose a melatonin gummy that suits your palate and that you will enjoy taking.

Brand Reputation

The Food and Drug Administration does not regulate supplements like melatonin, so it is important that you choose a melatonin gummy made by a brand you trust. Some melatonin supplements have been found to contain a higher or lower dosage than stated or include impurities or potentially dangerous compounds such as serotonin.

Reputable brands often use third-party testing or have certifications from organizations like NSF International, ConsumerLab.com, or U.S. Pharmacopeia (USP).

When Should You Take Melatonin Gummies?

While it can vary depending on the dosage amount and a person’s individual needs, melatonin should generally be taken about an hour before bedtime. Most melatonin supplements start working within half an hour, but you may want to experiment with timing to find what works best for you.

In general, melatonin should be taken for short-term adjustment or to help alleviate jet lag. People with delayed sleep-wake phase disorder may also benefit from melatonin, though they should consult their doctor before starting any new supplement. While some research has indicated that melatonin may be useful for shift workers or people with insomnia, these studies are not always high-quality, and some research has discovered conflicting results.

Can You Use Melatonin Regularly?

Most adults experience few side effects when taking melatonin, so it can be tempting to assume that there’s no harm in taking it regularly. However, both manufacturers and doctors stress the importance of speaking to a medical professional if you want to take it regularly or for long stretches of time.

Ongoing sleep difficulty can also be a sign of sleep conditions that may require further treatment, so your doctor may also want to make sure that your sleep problems have no underlying causes before signing off on a melatonin regimen.

Melatonin Is No Replacement for Good Sleep Hygiene

Practicing good sleep hygiene involves having a collection of pre-sleep habits and routines that encourage, rather than impede, healthy sleep. Avoiding electronics before bed, restricting your bedroom activities to sleeping and sex, limiting caffeine later in the day, and adhering to an appropriate sleep schedule are all steps that can help you sleep better.

Before you start taking melatonin, you should make sure you are practicing good sleep hygiene. This may alleviate the need for a supplement altogether, but it will also make melatonin more effective by providing the right circumstances for you to drift off.