Millions of Americans reach for melatonin every night, treating the supplement like a harmless sleep aid sold next to vitamins and fish oil. It’s natural, it’s over-the-counter, and it seems safer than prescription sleeping pills. But new research is revealing an uncomfortable truth: long-term melatonin use might come with serious cardiovascular risks that most users have no idea they’re taking.
The Heart Connection
Researchers recently discovered that chronic melatonin users face alarming health risks. People using melatonin long-term were almost twice as likely to die compared to non-users, and they faced 3.5 times higher risk of hospitalization for heart failure. These aren’t small numbers or statistical anomalies. These are significant risks for something most people consider as benign as chamomile tea.
The supplement industry has long marketed melatonin as safe because it’s a hormone naturally produced by your pineal gland. Your body makes it, so supplementing must be fine, right? That logic is now facing serious scrutiny as evidence mounts that chronic supplementation creates problems your natural production never would.
The issue isn’t melatonin itself but how we’re using it. Taking it occasionally for jet lag or shift work adjustment is one thing. Popping it nightly for months or years is something entirely different, and researchers are finding that pattern of use correlates with cardiovascular events at rates that should concern anyone with a bottle in their medicine cabinet.
Why This Matters Now
Melatonin use has exploded in recent years. Sales tripled over the past decade as sleep problems became epidemic and people sought alternatives to prescription medications with obvious side effects. The supplement felt like a natural solution to a modern problem – until researchers started looking at long-term outcomes.
The heart failure connection is particularly troubling because most users have no idea cardiovascular risk is even on the table. When people weigh whether to take melatonin, they’re thinking about next-day grogginess or maybe vivid dreams. They’re not considering whether they’re increasing their odds of heart-related hospitalization.
Part of the problem is regulation. Because melatonin is classified as a dietary supplement rather than a drug, it doesn’t face the same rigorous testing or dosage standards that prescription sleep medications do. Bottles on store shelves contain wildly varying amounts – sometimes much more than the label claims. You might think you’re taking 3mg but actually getting 10mg or more.
What Doctors Want You to Know
Medical professionals are increasingly urging caution around casual melatonin use. The supplement should be a short-term tool, not a nightly habit maintained for years. If you’re reaching for melatonin every single night, that’s a sign of an underlying problem that deserves actual medical attention rather than indefinite self-medication.
Sleep issues often stem from fixable causes: poor sleep hygiene, untreated sleep apnea, anxiety disorders, or lifestyle factors. Masking the problem with nightly melatonin means those root causes never get addressed, and you accumulate cardiovascular risk in the process.
Doctors also point out that many people take melatonin incorrectly even when they do use it. It’s not a knockout pill you take right before bed. Melatonin works by signaling to your body that darkness is coming, helping regulate your circadian rhythm. That means taking it 30-60 minutes before you want to sleep, in a dose much smaller than most people use.
The Path Forward
If you’re a chronic melatonin user, this research doesn’t mean you should panic or quit cold turkey. But it does mean you should talk to your doctor, especially if you have any cardiovascular risk factors. There may be better, safer alternatives for your specific sleep issues.
Consider cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia, which has excellent success rates without any medication. Look at sleep hygiene basics: consistent bedtime, dark room, no screens before bed, limited caffeine. Address underlying anxiety or stress through therapy rather than suppressing symptoms with supplements.
The melatonin industry won’t advertise these risks because supplements exist in a regulatory gray zone where they don’t have to. But the research is clear enough that anyone taking melatonin nightly for extended periods should reconsider whether the benefits outweigh newly understood risks.
Your body makes melatonin naturally when it needs it. Flooding your system with it every night for years was never part of the evolutionary plan, and we’re now discovering that deviation comes with a price. Sleep is essential, but so is your heart – and protecting both requires more than a bottle of supplements from the drugstore shelf.
