Have you heard about Lazy Cakes? Someone had the idea that it would be a good to create a brownie treat that is laced with the sleep inducing hormone Melatonin. Actually, melatonin plays a role in our circadian rhythms, but it does have the result of helping many people to fall asleep. Anyway… back to the Lazy Cakes. These brownies are packaged within fun colored wrappers that seem to be aimed at attracting kids to the product. I have no idea if their target market is children, but the Massachusetts authorities are convinced that children are indeed the target.
I really found it interesting how the media will add to the drama of these types of stories. In this instance the expert quoted on TV said the brownies have more than ten times the recommended dose of .3mg of melatonin in each brownie. Our dental office works together with several sleep clinics to help patients with sleep problems, the most common being Obstructive Sleep Apnea ( OSA), and we have found it routine to recommend 3mg (not the .3mg as told in the TV story) of melatonin to help patients fall asleep. If that doesn’t work patients can try to double the dose to 6mg, and I have even heard of doctors recommending 9mg’s of Melatonin.
Having laid down the ground work so you can understand a little about the dosing variations of melatonin recommended by physicians, I would say to the Lazy Brownie makers ” Are you crazy? What were you thinking?”. Come on, a chocolate brownie has caffeine and sugar in it which are not really conducive to relaxing. In addition they packaged it to look like something a child gets in their trick-or-treat bag. Of course there is going to be opposition to it!. It is just a bad idea all around. Oh, and another thing, the supplemental facts on the Lazy Cakes packaging says that there are 4mg’s melatonin per serving, and one serving is half a brownie. Dudes!, no one eats half a brownie!
If you want to know more about melatonin and if it is a good option to treat your sleep problems just call your physician or give our office a call for a complimentary consult.