Melatonin and irritability

[PercyPigStoleMyHeart]

Hello, one of my daughter's has started Melatonin and she has notably become more irritable/aggressive since starting it. I wasn't expecting this as a side effect, my husband thinks it's her body adjusting to getting more sleep?? Not sure I completely agree. She has autism, ADHD and it's mainly being used for a sleep disorder- her sleep and quality is very poor. She's 5.

Anyone else experienced the same irritability?

Hi Op, my DS (4) was prescribed melatonin in July, when he first started taking it he suffered from a bad tummy and was irritable in the morning, I was feeling guilty about the side effects but he was getting 10 - 12 hours sleep so decided to continue. The symptoms lasted around two weeks and almost overnight he was absolutely fine. Since taking melatonin his speech and behaviour has significantly improved, plus he only needs melatonin a few times a month now as he’s established a really good sleep routine.

Hope this helps.

DD started it at 15. Can't temper her irritability getting worse it would be bloody hard to tell with a teen with ASD but it's been brilliant. She was suffering so much with labour of sleep previously.

Thank you. It's helping her get to sleep- she's asleep now by 8.30 (instead of 11pm) but then awake screaming one hour later and restless for the rest of the night. Hasn't stopped her sleep disorder so not the magic answer yet. We have appointment with the sleep neurologist this month, not sure I can deal with a higher dose and the mood...

@PercyPigStoleMyHeart Is she taking the liquid? Ask about Slenyto, it’s a slow release tablet that needs to be taken whole (it’s tiny so we hide in yoghurt) but it releases over 6-8 hours and has helped massively with our extended night time wakes.

That reminds me that DD needed to swap to slow release pretty quickly after starting Melatonin.

Her consultant is having to get some special licence to request the Slenyto tablet to be stocked at the hospital pharmacy for her. But the current tablet she is on is slow release.

I find it all so strange when you can order it off the Internet.

We found the nighttime waking improves when we stopped giving my DS the melatonin so early, more in line with his natural rhythm. He now has his tablets at 8:30 and is usually asleep by 9:30 which I know is late for 5yo but is soooooo much better than when he doesn’t take it. We started at 7:30 and that got him to sleep but he’d wake up.