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Hey, shortwavers, Emily Kwong here. Okay, so possibly my favorite thing in the entire world is a good night's sleep.

I mean, nothing makes a bigger difference to my mental and physical health. Without quality

sleep, we're less productive, grumpy. It can even affect our hearts. And for kids, sleep is

crucial for physical, mental, and emotional development. But there are a lot of things

keeping us awake these days. Screens, electronics, stress. Researchers say that, like adults,

kids are having problems falling asleep and staying asleep. So more and more parents are turning

to a supplement called

melatonin as a possible solution. It's like so many parents dream, which is like, is this the

answer? Is there this one gummy or this one thing that can help me get through this part of the

day that can be really, really hard for parents and families? Michael Shulson is a contributing editor at Undark Magazine,

where he writes and edits stories about science.

And he recently looked into why more and more people are using sleep supplements,

especially with their kids.

Melatonin is a hormone, and it's one that our bodies produce naturally.

It's part of the way that the body regulates its sleep cycles and gets you toward bedtime.

Every night, the pineal gland in our brain releases a bit of melatonin.

So when people take synthetic melatonin in the form of a pill or a gummy, it also can have

that experience of helping people feel a little bit

more, a little bit more tired, a little bit sleepy in ways that a lot of people find helpful

for getting to sleep. Melatonin is widely considered, say, for adults in low doses, and for kids

...