Being able to fall asleep, for those who suffer from insomniacan be a titanic undertaking: you constantly toss and turn between the sheets without being able to sleep a wink. Thus, to try to regulate sleep, very often we resort to supplements based on melatonin.
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It is a hormone which, as experts explain, is naturally produced by our brain during the hours of darkness. It is not considered a sleeping pill and does not forcibly induce sleep, but helps the body find its rhythm. But the hiring prolonged Is this substance safe? He responded to this Matteo Bassetti.
The alarm
The infectious disease specialist reported a study by the American Heart Association in New Orleans, according to which prolonged use of melatonin supplements could be lead to a higher risk of heart failure diagnosis, related hospitalization, and death from any cause.
The research involved 130,828 adults diagnosed with insomnia for over 5 years. «The findings raise safety concerns, but they do not prove that melatonin causes heart failure», writes Bassetti.
Although there are various solutions on the market (tablets, sweets, sprays), the expert warns that use should be limited: «Melatonin is designed for short-term use. In general, good sleep habits (dark room, regular schedule, limiting screens, etc.) can represent safer and more effective strategies in the long term.”
The results of the study
It found that among adults with insomnia, those whose electronic health records indicated prolonged melatonin use (12 months or more) had a probability almost double to develop heart failure over five years compared to matched non-users (4.6% of those taking melatonin versus 2.7% of those not taking it, respectively).
Additionally, participants taking melatonin were nearly 3.5 times more likely to be hospitalized for heart failure than those not taking it (19% versus 6.6%, respectively). And they were almost twice as likely to die from any cause compared to those in the non-taking group (7.8% versus 4.3%, respectively) over a five-year period.
Last updated: Tuesday 3 March 2026, 10.03pm
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