Rise in melatonin use to help children sleep leads to safety warning

Medics fear hormone is being overprescribed despite little evidence of its effectiveness

Tens of thousands of children and young people are being given the hormone melatonin to help them sleep, prompting concern that the medicine is being handed out too readily with little evidence of its effectiveness and safety in long-term use.

Melatonin, a hormone the body produces naturally in reaction to darkness and which helps prepare us for sleep, has been authorised for use among the over-55s, and has been hailed as a less addictive alternative to drug treatments for insomnia.

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