For this research, researchers analyzed 30 melatonin dietary supplements bought from native grocery shops in Canada (one of many few international locations, along with the U.S., the place melatonin is accessible with out a prescription). They examined to see how the quantity of melatonin within the complement matched as much as the quantity listed on the bottle.

“Melatonin content material was discovered to be extremely variable between samples and much, with no sample noticed between model, type of complement, labeled worth, or presence of different natural extracts,” the research’s consequence part reads. The precise quantity of melatonin ranged from -83% to +478% throughout the samples examined—that means that some had ranges that had been 478% increased than what was listed on the bottle (whereas others contained much less melatonin than what was promised on the Complement Details label).

“Moreover, lot-to-lot variability inside a specific product various by as a lot as 465%,” provides Ellen Wermter, FNP-BC, a household nurse practitioner and spokesperson for the Higher Sleep Council.

“Even scarier,” Christina Graham, R.N., a registered nurse and Noom coach, says of the eye-opening research, “testing additionally discovered serotonin in 26% of the samples. Serotonin is extra strictly managed and the presence of unlabeled serotonin in vital portions might result in critical unintended effects.”