Vapes With Melatonin: What You Need To Know

It seems like daily, there is a brand new vaping product that deems our attention. One of these products is melatonin vapes, which claim to help you fall asleep, which sounds like a dream come true, but what exactly are these vapes? What ingredients do they use? and what do you need to know before buying these devices? We will answer these and more questions in today's blog.

Table of Contents:

1. What is Melatonin?
2. What Are Melatonin Supplements?
3. What is a Melatonin Vape?
4. What You Need to Know About Vaping Melatonin
5. Conclusion

What is Melatonin?

According to the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH), melatonin is a hormone produced by the brain in response to darkness. It helps with the timing of your circadian rhythm and with sleep. 

The circadian rhythm is your body’s 24-hour clock, which tells your body when it’s time for bed and when it’s time to get up. If you have a stable circadian rhythm, your brain will naturally produce melatonin when it’s time to sleep and stop producing melatonin when it’s time to get up. However, when your circadian rhythm is interrupted due to jet lag, increased stress, or even exposure to light before going to bed, you will struggle to go to sleep. And this is where melatonin supplements come into play (Brar, 2021). 

What Are Melatonin Supplements?

A melatonin supplement is a synthetic form of the hormone, meaning it is made in a lab, and later turned into a pill, gummy, or even a liquid (Brar, 2021). These supplements are used by people who have trouble sleeping who claim that these supplements aid them when it’s time to go to bed. 

According to Michael Friedman, an otolaryngologist and sleep medicine expert at Chicago ENT melatonin supplements can “help successfully facilitate the transition from wakefulness to sleep, by helping to increase the levels of melatonin naturally being produced in the body, the supplements promote consistent, quality sleep, which is why we recommend it to patients (Brar, 2021)." 

What is a Melatonin Vape?

There are many melatonin dietary supplements on the market. All advertised to help with sleep, the latest of these being melatonin vapes. 

Melatonin vapes are marketed as the fastest-acting melatonin supplements on the market. Instead of being ingested orally (like melatonin pills), melatonin vapes are also called melatonin diffusers through the bloodstream via inhalation. 

When a pill is digested, it first needs to be metabolized by the liver. However, when you vape melatonin, the vapor reaches the lungs, where the alveoli immediately diffuse the vapor into the bloodstream (Pandika, 2021).

However, the ingredients found in melatonin vapes are similar to those found in regular disposable vape disposables, however, with none of the nicotine or flavorings. Instead, a Cloudy diffuser, perhaps the best example of a melatonin vape, comprises melatonin, lavender extract, l-theanine, chamomile extract, grape extract, propylene glycol, vegetable glycerin, with the last two staple ingredients of any vape juice (Cloudy, 2021). 

What You Need to Know About Vaping Melatonin

One problem with vaping melatonin or using melatonin diffusers is that dosages are not controlled as they are with pills. So one, in theory, could vape more melatonin than necessary since every brand has different dosages they claim work best. And because they technically reach the brain faster (since they enter the bloodstream through inhalation) once could easily intake more melatonin than necessary. 

For example, Cloudy, the most well-known melatonin diffuser brand, in each of their devices has about 0.5 milligrams per puff, recommending seven per night for the device to have immediate effects. This is equal to about 3.5mg of melatonin, less than 1.5mg of the recommended amount of melatonin in pill form, which is 5mg (King, 2020). 

However, getting the correct melatonin dosage is tricky, and most people use more than they need to fall asleep faster. This opens up the possibility that melatonin could disrupt your sleep cycle and have the opposite effect than the one desired. 

We recommend that you consult a medical professional before taking any melatonin diffuser or melatonin vape to see how your body will respond. In addition, you need to know if it could negatively react with your current prescription medication or affect current clinical conditions. 

However, you should know that because this is a current product, the long-term side effects are not known, and although there are some studies on vaping, there are few on vaping melatonin and its long-term impact on the body. 

Conclusion

As with any new product, the jury is still unsure whether melatonin diffusers and melatonin vapes are safe to use. That’s why we recommend that you first consult your doctor or a medical professional on the likelihood of how these products can affect your body.

References

1. Melatonin: What You Need To Know. (2021, July 1). NCCIH. https://www.nccih.nih.gov/health/melatonin-what-you-need-to-know
2. Brar, F. (2021, February 5). Should You Really Be Using a Melatonin Diffuser Before Bed? Shape. https://www.shape.com/lifestyle/mind-and-body/melatonin-diffuser-pen
3. Cloudy. (2021, January 7). Ingredients. https://trycloudy.com/pages/ingredients
4. Pandika, M. (2021, May 21). You can vape melatonin now — but should you? Mic. https://www.mic.com/p/you-can-vape-melatonin-now-but-should-you-20697802
5. King, S. K. (2020, January 15). Can Melatonin Vapes Safely Help People Sleep? Rolling Stone. https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/melatonin-vaporizer-thc-cbd-cloudy-dream-inhalehealth-937115/