If Melatonin Isn’t Addictive, Why Can’t I Stop Taking It?
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Melatonin has become the choice du jour of sleep aids, with research finding its use has substantially spiked in the past couple decades. And it’s easy to understand why: Beyond being an accessible over-the-counter supplement, it has also gained a glowing reputation as relatively safe and low-risk—a far cry from its habit-forming prescription counterparts. As is widely touted, it’s a hormone your body naturally makes. And yet, you probably wouldn’t be here if it was always as easy to stop taking melatonin as it is to start.
If TikTok is any indication, plenty of people are struggling to shake their nightly melatonin habit, and studies suggest more folks are also turning to higher doses of the stuff. You probably don’t want to feel like you’re reliant on any pill or potion to doze off—but the truth is melatonin is just not a great sleep aid: There isn’t much evidence that the supplement can really help you fall asleep any faster or stay asleep any longer.
A 2013 meta-analysis investigating the effects of melatonin found that, on average, it reduces sleep latency (the time it takes to fall asleep) by seven minutes and increases sleep time by eight minutes—which isn’t nothing but isn’t a huge shift either, Deirdre Conroy, PhD, clinical director of the Behavioral Sleep Medicine Program at the University of Michigan, tells SELF. (Where melatonin has been shown to help is in instances when you’re trying to sleep at odd hours—due to work shifts or jet lag from changing time zones, for example—and in the treatment of circadian rhythm disorders, Dr. Conroy adds.)
So if melatonin is a natural hormone that doesn’t do much for sleep disorders like insomnia, why might you feel like you’re hooked on your nightly hit? Below, experts explain why the supplement can be sneakily hard to quit and how to kick the habit for any reason.
You can’t get addicted to melatonin—but cutting it out can still be tough.
Melatonin is fundamentally different from sleep medications like benzodiazepines (or “benzos,” like Valium and Xanax) and “Z” drugs (like Lunesta and Ambien), both of which work by binding to certain receptors in the brain to make you sleepy. These drugs are known to be habit-forming when used for too long or at too high of a dose. When you stop taking them, you can experience physical withdrawal symptoms like anxiety, faintness, shivering, and, yes, trouble sleeping or “rebound insomnia,” Jennifer Martin, PhD, a spokesperson for the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and professor of medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at University of California Los Angeles, tells SELF.
Melatonin, by contrast, is not addictive and will not trigger the associated withdrawal symptoms, Dr. Martin says. That’s because, instead of working on the part of your brain that makes you feel sleepy, it acts on your circadian rhythm (a.k.a. your 24-hour body clock). Your brain’s pineal gland naturally makes melatonin when it gets dark out, signaling that it’s time to sleep, rather than full-on knocking you out. A melatonin supplement mimics that effect, Dr. Martin says, so having one at nighttime—when your brain is already making the hormone—won’t bring much benefit. For the same reason, cutting out a melatonin supplement won’t have much impact, either; your brain’s production of it keeps chugging along regardless of what you add (and then take away).
The reason it can still feel so tough to stop taking melatonin is likely because you’ve developed the expectation that it’ll help you get better sleep, Dr. Martin says. The placebo effect is super powerful in this context because “in order to fall asleep, you have to stop trying to fall asleep,” she says. And popping melatonin can lead to that result: “You think, Now I’ve done something that is going to help me, and you relax,” Dr. Martin says. When you go on to snooze like a baby, your brain links that success to the supplement when it probably has more to do with you being less worried about dozing off after you took it, she explains.
Just associating a pill or gummy with the reward of sleep can be enough to translate into psychological dependency, Sam Kashani, MD, a board-certified sleep medicine specialist at UCLA Health, tells SELF. Especially when that reward is the promise of “breaking free from the prison” of another restless night, he says.
Experts don’t fully understand the long-term effects of popping melatonin regularly.
The good news is that taking melatonin is generally considered low-risk. Plenty of people take it under the guidance of a doctor to treat circadian rhythm disorders and seem to tolerate it well, Dr. Martin says, “but what we don’t know is if it can cause issues in people who don’t actually need the extra melatonin.”
In fact, there’s a lot we don’t know about long-term use, given the lack of longitudinal studies (ones that follow the same people over time) on the supplement, Dr. Kashani says. And that absence of information, in and of itself, makes it riskier to consume on the reg.
Another wrinkle is what, exactly, you might be taking when you ingest any melatonin product—or any supplement, for that matter. Because supplements aren’t under the same Food and Drug Administration scrutiny as drugs, there’s no telling whether they contain what they say they do and in the stated quantities. In the case of melatonin, specifically, a 2023 analysis of various brands on the market found that the majority contained much more of the hormone than what was noted on the label—up to 347% as much, topping out at over 13 milligrams per serving. This is “really problematic,” Dr. Martin says, as the most efficacious studies on melatonin (for circadian disorders) have used just one milligram or less.
Especially at high doses, melatonin can also trigger side effects, though they’re usually mild; among the known ones are daytime grogginess or drowsiness, as well as dizziness and headaches. Some folks have also reported a spike in disturbing or bizarre dreams, Dr. Martin adds. (But again, we don’t know whether any of these are more likely with long-term versus short-term use.)
How to stop taking melatonin if you feel like you need it to fall asleep
Remember that melatonin doesn’t make you physically tired.
It may sound silly, but reminding yourself that a melatonin supplement is not addictive and does not affect your brain like a sleeping pill can help you mentally detach from it. Again, unlike someone who is weaning themselves off one of those drugs, you won’t experience physical withdrawal, and “there is nothing in your body that needs to be reregulated,” Dr. Martin says. She recommends ripping off the “proverbial Band-Aid” while giving yourself grace for what happens next. Because psychological dependence is a real thing, acknowledge upfront that for a couple days you probably will have worse sleep, but then things should level out.
If you’re feeling anxious about going cold turkey, it might also help to remember that “taking something”—a hormone, a drug, a swig of alcohol—is far from the only solution to a sleep issue, Dr. Kashani says. In actuality, the non-medication practice of cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) is recommended by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine as the first-line treatment for insomnia, he says (more on that below).
Brush up on your sleep hygiene.
Taking melatonin at night may have helped create a strong signal to your brain that it was time for sleep—but you can also condition your body to read the room by making your evening environment and behaviors more conducive to rest, Rebecca Robbins, PhD, sleep scientist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and sleep expert at Oura Ring, tells SELF.
It might feel overwhelming because “there’s a laundry list of sleep hygiene recommendations out there,” she says. But rather than trying to tackle them all, she suggests just testing one at a time. Maybe one day you try avoiding caffeine or nixing that Diet Coke in the evening (when it’s likely to dampen your ability to doze), she says. Or perhaps you skip the after-dinner booze, if you tend to reach for a glass or two. You could also invest in blackout curtains to ensure your bedroom stays dark while you’re asleep, or make a concerted effort to rip your eyes off your damn phone (I know!) for an hour before bedtime to keep the blue light from suppressing your natural melatonin. The goal is to figure out what has the biggest impact on your sleep and focus your efforts there.
Replace your nightly melatonin with a different relaxing habit.
Part of the reason you might get hooked on melatonin has to do with the ritual of it—popping the supplement each night shortly before hopping into bed trains your brain to connect the two. When you cut it out, it might leave behind a void, which Dr. Martin suggests filling with some other activity that shifts your body into a sleep-focused state. That could be listening to a gentle meditation or podcast hosted by someone with a dreamy (or droning) voice, reading a chapter of a book, doing some doodling, taking an “everything” shower, or anything else that’s giving “bedtime routine” energy.
Set and stick to a consistent wake-up time.
Your sleep-wake cycle operates on a rhythm, and the time when you get out of bed each morning is like a metronome, setting the pace: When you open your eyes each day and get exposure to light, your body takes that as a cue that it’s time to be awake, slowing down melatonin production—which then makes it likelier that it kicks back on at a predictable time in the evening. That’s why both Dr. Kashani and Dr. Martin emphasize the importance of waking up at the same time every day.
And, yes, that means weekends too. You may feel the need to sleep in if you’ve missed out on some z’s during the week, but Dr. Martin’s general rule is not to push your wakeup time back much more than an hour to avoid tripping up your circadian rhythm.
Only get into bed when you’re feeling sleepy.
The longer you spend tossing, turning, and wishing you could doze off, the more you’ll view your bed as a place for wakeful anxiety. “That’s when your mind starts running and ruminating and catastrophizing, and the next thing you know, you’re in a perpetual cycle of insomnia,” Dr. Kashani says.
So whether you’ll be asleep for six hours or six minutes, you should only get into bed when your eyelids feel heavy (even if that means waiting until the wee hours of the morning), while still sticking to the wakeup time you’ve set, he says. This way you’ll “amplify your circadian drive to sleep,” he explains. Within a few days, you’ll start to feel yawny earlier in the evening, closer to a bedtime that will lull you into a full night’s shuteye.
Seek out some professional help.
If you’re regularly struggling to clock six to eight hours a night, with melatonin or not, Dr. Conroy recommends seeing a sleep medicine specialist if you can. Depending on your situation, they can offer a variety of insomnia treatments including CBT-I, a therapeutic technique that research has shown to be more effective than medication. It works to tame the anxious thought spirals that can leave you staring at the ceiling all night while also shifting your behaviors in a sleep-promoting direction.
The idea is to shed that feeling of dread that can creep up when you anticipate a bad night of sleep. Of course, that’s easier said than done—which is why Dr. Martin has one more tip: “When people are getting off melatonin, I suggest they take the money they’re saving by not buying it anymore, and do something nice for themselves.” A manicure! A dinner out! Really, anything goes. As she says, “Reward yourself for doing the work.”
Related:
Why a Full Moon Might Mess With Your Sleep, According to Science
I’m a Sleep Specialist. Here’s the Bedtime Habit I Swear By for Better Rest
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