MINNEAPOLIS, March 5, 2008—A KARE-11 news item warns that many Twin Cities parents are using melatonin to help their children sleep at night, and quoted an MMA member, Michel Cramer-Bornemann, M.D., as saying that there are better ways to ensure a healthy night's sleep for a child.

Cramer-Bornemann, co-director of the Minnesota Regional Sleep Disorders Center at Hennepin County Medical Center, told the reporter he worries about giving children pills to get them to sleep.

"What I'm seeing in general is people are looking for quick and easy solutions to problems,"  he said. He wants parents to understand that kids don't just fall asleep the way adults do.  "We need to set aside a nice time for that transition."

Melatonin is an $80 million a year business, and it is growing 7 percent per year.

Relaxing bedtime rituals and appropriate environment  help, he said. "Taking the TV outside of the room. Setting aside 30 to 40 minutes of quiet time in a dark quiet space."

Since melatonin is a hormone, Cramer-Bornemann is concerned about what it does to a child's hormone levels. The brain is also a concern. "The brain continues to develop until age 25." 



Complete KATE-11 report