Sleep is for the week; Why melatonin overdose is trending amongst children
In 2021 over 50,000 calls were made to the center disease poison control center. For kids overdosing on ingesting melatonin. Last year wasn’t a coincidence either. The past decade saw a 530% increase in children overdosing on melatonin. While melatonin is a healthy over-the-counter supplement, it should still be kept out of children’s reach. There were only 4 deaths out of the hundreds of thousands who ingested the pill. Furthermore, children who were five and younger were the biggest victims of melatonin overdose. However, what is more, telling isn’t the fact that children are overdosing. But why are their parents taking melatonin in the first place? Sleep is for the week; why melatonin overdose is trending amongst children.
“One of the problems meditators experience is that there is a slight, almost subconscious, guilty feeling that they ought to be doing something rather than just experiencing what goes on. When you begin to feel that you ought to be doing something, you automatically present millions of obstacles to yourself. Meditation is not a project; it is a way of being. You could experience that you are what you are. Fundamentally, sitting there and breathing is a very valid thing to do.
Chogyam Trungp-The individual path of liberation
Insomnia is a real epidemic that began with the invention of the light bulb, for more, read our sleeping your way to the top book review. Today, at least 30% of Americans suffer from sleep-related issues and it’s probably a higher number. Stress is the number one cause of insomnia. If parents embraced spiritual teachings and established an inner foundation along with a meditation routine, they would notice their sleep issues would decrease. The problem is people are still in work mode and attached to the world. Without a spiritual foundation, we remain attached to the world and its issues. We are swayed by the stories in the media, we even believe politics determines our lives.
Although kids 5 years and younger were the biggest victims of melatonin overdose, young age is no excuse for kids overdosing. The biggest increase was during the pandemic out of the ten-year study. This time period is when parents were on lockdown, at home, being able to take a break from the demands of work. Even if the pandemic being stressful causes insomnia a spiritual foundation still is the best defense. Our issue as first-world American, citizens is that our comfort of living has been brainwashed into being solution-focused. In the words of Thomas Sowell, “there are no solutions, just trade-offs”. This acceptance of reality is the beginning foundation of beneficial spiritual practices such as Buddhism. It’s about accepting suffering as a part of life. There can’t be a solution to everything. Often when we try to come up with a solution we end up making things worse.
Hence, a high number of insomnia cases in this country. We can’t sleep because were trying to solve problems in our heads, in our sleep. Rather than meditate, and accept reality as it is, were taking sleep supplements. We’re living in a time where everyone is easily offended and sensitive. And as a result, we’ve forgotten about the healing art of laughter. Injecting more laughter in our lives lightens our spirit and makes acceptance more accessible.
“All of my teachers have had a great sense of humor and have valued humor as an important part of the spiritual path. It is a key part of being friendly to ourselves. Many of us go through our days haunted by our imperfection. We think there’s something fundamentally wrong with us. Some people react to this feeling by making themselves busy all the time- rushing around frantically, with a high level of stress”-
Pema Chodron-Welcoming the unwelcome
If we can’t be friendly to ourselves then we can’t be friendly to others. This means recognizing the story we’re constantly telling ourselves about others and ourselves. It means not being a slave to blue light technology before bed also. If we just stopped and listened, we can hear our spirit tell us to stop and relax and just be. What we resist, persists. Distracting ourselves from the problems of the world and technology isn’t good if we can’t sleep at night. Our inability to sleep is our bodies’ way of telling us that something isn’t right. What thoughts we’re ingesting is just as important as the food. In March 2022, seven kids overdosed on sleeping pills in one house. Clearly, people are distracting themselves with technology rather than watching kids.
Besides melatonin, studies found that Iron, high blood pressure, and diabetes were also popular medications being ingested by children. This tells us that the parents are living an unhealthy lifestyle. Healthy living starts with a healthy mind and food, the stomach is the second brain after all right?
In conclusion, the more technology becomes ingrained in our lives the more insomnia we will have. The sooner we accept that there is no one size fits all solution for life, the sooner our souls will be at rest.