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Long-term use of melatonin supplements to support sleep may have negative health effects
(newsroom.heart.org)
this post was submitted on 08 Sep 2026
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My anecdata of about six months trial of melatonin just made restful sleep more difficult. I was tired for the first hour or two, then the wakefulness returned. Sometimes I would dose another round of melatonin but it just made me so sleepy the next morning I was prone to making boneheaded mistakes at work because I just couldn't shake it off. That alone was enough to leave the bottle of melatonin unfinished, let alone dying of heart failure jfc I just wanna snooze
Benadryl is my go-to for knocking myself out. I do feel drowsy the next day but when I absolutely need sleep, I'd rather that than another 5 hour (or less) night.
Benadryl makes me irritable and I'm not sure why otherwise I'd be taking that honestly. It's cheap, like under two bucks for a hundred tabs, and it worked, but I was really really crabby the day after, dependably.
fully anecdote but yup same, i had to stop using it as a long term insomniac.