Melatonin is a hormone that your body produces at night. You can get gummies or some sort of substance to artificially produce more help with the timing of your Circadian Rhythm and with sleep. Being exposed to light in the dark, at night, can cause your body to stop producing melatonin. The most recommended dose in adults is 10 mg.

A new study was conducted to gain more research on the hormone and brands selling this hormone to people. One jar of gummies labeled “Melatonin” might not even have melatonin in the actual gummy, but CBD or cannabidiol. Some containers will lie to you about how much of the hormone they will produce. “One product contained 347% more melatonin than what was actually listed on the label of the gummies,” said study co-author Dr. Pieter Cohen, an associate professor of medicine at the Cambridge Health Alliance in Somerville, Massachusetts. The US Food and Drug Administration says, “It is currently illegal to market CBD by adding it to a food or labeling it as a dietary supplement.” However, most of the tested products that contained CBD openly advertised that the compound was added into the melatonin supplement. “Four of the tested products contained levels of CBD that were between 4% and 18% higher than on the label,” Cohen said. It’s concerning to have CBD in these melatonin supplements because parents can buy them for their childern. While, there is no studies that support giving CBD to minors, and is only recommended to children over 1 if they have intractable seizure disorders.

Not only are these supplements bad for your bodies’ natural production of melatonin, it also has many other side effects. According to National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, a department of the National Institutes of Health, not only is there potential harming interactions with these medications as well as allergic reactions with melatonin, it gives heavy side effects to children. These side effects can range from drowsiness and headaches, to increased bed wetting.