Has anyone experienced diarrhea with Melatonin use?

wow, I have been dealing with watery diarrhea for 2 mos. now and after reading all these other posts I believe I pinned pointed the issue. I have been to ER twice in a month and have seen 4 doctors and all kinds of tests done and everything came back negative including c-diff. I take the melatonin about 11pm at night and im up about 2am with bad stomach cramps and stomach gurgling and can barely make it to the toilet before I explode and a few times I didn't make it. I even have a colonoscopy scheduled for November which I am not even due for one till 2026 because of this diarrhea. I just threw them in the trash.

So glad to read all these!!! I started taking the Olly Sleep gummies first of November. about 4 weeks in, I started having watery diarrhea and really loose stools. It lasted nearly 3 weeks...and stopped a couple days after Christmas...which happened to be about 5 days after I ran out of the gummies and thus stopped taking them. I was ok til this morning...and guess what...I took the dang gummies before bed last night. So I’m done with them. Not sure if it’s the melatonin or something else in the gummies, but it’s not worth the rushing to the bathroom in the middle of target and the burning diarrhea!!!

Follow up with some good news!! After 3 weeks not taking melatonin, it has returned to normal. More good news for me, I have lost 15 pounds from the 6 months of all the watery poopy diarrhea. Now I just need to keep it off. So, I hope you feel encouraged by this. I will not ever take Melatonin again.

I never comment on these forums, but found that I must just this once. You guys really saved me from a lot of unnecessary tests and visits. I started taking melatonin 10 weeks ago on my doctor's advice and 6 weeks ago started having the symptoms you all have posted here. After taking doctor prescribed antibiotics for 10 days and it not working, we came to the conclusion that my diarrhea was not viral. I started taking inventory of everything foreign I had added to my routine and it was melatonin. Then I came across this site, read what you all had to say and stopped the melatonin last Monday. One week later, today, I have had a normal bowel movement for the first time in 6 weeks. I know it seems odd to celebrate that fact, but this has been a very long journey and I owe the success to you. I told my doctor about it last week. She was doubtful and said to get in touch with her when it worsens. So glad I don't have to take her up on that. Thank you all so much.

Hi all,

I was wondering how is your recovery from melatonin going? I have mild diarrhea in the morning still after 8 weeks.... is this normal?I was taking a lot of melatonin sometimes even when I woke up at 5 am I took some. I have had oral spray which I assume is really strong. I experienced some serious period of depression and anxiety. I am suspecting that I could have IBS but all stool tests are negative OF COURSE. I dont experience any cramps or belly pain nothing I just go to the bathroom 3-4 times with mild diarrhea in the morning..... Did anyone lasted this long???? This is unbelievable!!!! And I still have light anxiety and short term depression in the morning..... and some headaches of course... Everything is much lighter than when I was using melatonin but this serious that it last this long?

PLEASE HELP!!!

I have never posted before on one of these websites, but feel compelled to. I took melatonin for 4 or 5 weeks and thought it was helping me to fall asleep "naturally' which it was. But the last three weeks I have had horrible diarrhea that keeps me housebound every morning. I was convinced that I must be on the way to some horrible cancer diagnosis because how was I supposed to know that some pill that seemed to be working with no side effects would then turn my bowels upside down and inside out. It's awful. Thank goodness for this forum because I found the answer without ANY doctor visits or tests whatsoever. Why doesn't the melatonin label mention anything except nausea????? I have not felt nauseous at all, and not terribly gassy....just incredibly incapacitated by this running to the bathroom. I stopped taking the dreaded "m" yesterday and hope I am one of those people who recovers quickly. Fortunately the "bathroom thing" is generally only an a.m. necessity and I am able to leave the house and do errands in the afternoons without worrying too much. I just could not understand why I felt so normal except for having a serious case of the trots. Thank you Healing Well posters. You can't believe how relieved I was to learn that my problem was not serious, nor was I the first to link melatonin with diarrhea.

My story : Late 50's male, sleep problems for many months. I thought I had sleep apnea (snoring, waking up gasping for air) so I consulted PCP and undertook an in-home sleep study. It came back normal (though I definitely remember waking up a few times during the test.) Anyway, thought I would try some OTC options to help. First, I tried Unisom for a week. It did not really make much of a difference. Then I tried melatonin gummies with 1mg melatonin and some other herbs (chamomile, lavender.) I took two to start and used for a week. They seemed to help me stay asleep better. So I finished the bottle and went back to the store to replace it. Sold out. I looked around for other melatonin and there was a time release 10mg pill. Thought to myself "hmmm, this sounds even better. Just a pill to swallow and time release may have more sustained effect." Started taking one pill at bedtime. I started sleeping more soundly through the night. Felt a little groggy in the AM but it seemed like a decent trade off. Also had some day time sleepiness that got a bit more noticeable as time went on. And sometimes a dull headache. But didn't really think much about it and continued taking a pill at night and sleeping well. about 3 weeks in, I started noticing lower abdominal discomfort and looser stools. I had always had on and off mild dyspepsia in the upper part but not any lower gut issues. Have had a couple of colonoscopies now (single polyp found each time so on a 5 year f/u schedule) but else normal colon. After several days of lower discomfort, I woke up one morning to explosive watery diarrhea. Last time I had that was decades ago during an episode with the flu. I continued to have only watery diarrhea for days. Tried Immodium for 3 days with no improvement. Nothing new in diet, lifestyle, stress, etc. I am a runner (5k most days) and I never have constipation but also never have diarrhea. First time out for a run during this, I had to backtrack after a half mile and somehow made it back to the house in time to not explode my guts into my shorts. After that, I have been careful to try and empty things just before I go out. Probably exploding 10+ times a day. So, after a week of this, thinking probably not bad food or virus. Maybe sudden onset IBS? Started doing a lot of online research around that. Changed up my diet to try and accommodate that condition (limit caffeine, no fried food, etc.) My diet has always been pretty healthy (lots of whole foods.) During my research, I noticed discussion of drugs and vitamins with IBS symptoms. Then I thought, "the melatonin?" First, I found a lot of article about melatonin and improvement of IBS. But I kept digging and found this forum and post. Bingo! Fast forward, after finding this (a week into the diarrhea bout) I am on day 5 after stopping the melatonin. I am still dealing with the diarrhea (and discomfort/gas) but I am hopeful for a resolution now. I can say I feel better (except in my gut) - no more daytime sleepiness or headache now. It is strange though, I still had relatively good sleep so far (though that may be starting to change a bit) It seems like either my system was so loaded with melatonin that I have a lot of carry-over OR perhaps my body is making more to compensate for the loss of the supplement? Just a curiosity for now. I am also a bit miffed, both at myself and at the supplement industry. I will try and post when things return back to normal. Thanks to everyone else for sharing their stories KJ

I started using melatonin in March of this year (2020) because I'd gotten onto a poor sleep schedule--sleeping in late till nearly noon most days, then not feeling sleepy at a normal bedtime hour and staying awake reading or surfing the net till 4 or 5 a.m. and then sleeping till noon again--day after day. A cousin suggested melatonin as it had worked for her to remedy "jet lag." (I'm 77 and the cousin is 66.)

Meanwhile other things were occurring: I was having teeth extracted and the dentist had me on amoxicillin at least twice, and amoxicillin is well known to cause diarrhea, so when I had diarrhea back in March and April, I assumed it was from the amoxicillin (and in part it may have been). The tooth extractions were in April and again in July.

The diarrhea started in April and continued for three months, even after the courses of amoxicillin had ended, but I thought there might be residual effects of the amoxicillin so I didn't expect an immediate cessation of the diarrhea. But eventually I felt worried and tried to get my regular doctor to do something, but it was during the worst of the pandemic so all consultations were by telephone. I was asked to provide a stool sample and the results of that were "inconclusive" and a short time later I was asked to provide another stool sample and the results of that one were again "inconclusive." Meanwhile there were the tooth extractions, more amoxicillin, and azithromicin for bronchitis off and on, so I didn't know what to blame for the diarrhea!

Meanwhile I had fallen into the habit of taking the melatonin every night because it did such a nice job of getting me back onto a sensible sleep schedule--putting me to sleep and keeping me asleep--usually at least 7 hours of non-stop sleep every night. And I did check the Internet about possible diarrhea caused by melatonin but diarrhea was not mentioned as a side effect, nor was it mentioned on the bottle.

For a brief period in June or July I stopped the melatonin and the diarrhea also stopped, but again there were other things starting and stopping--amoxicillin for dental work,, etc. so I was never sure what made the diarrhea stop briefly..

Anyway, with the exception of those few days in July when I was without diarrhea (and without melatonin) I have had non-stop diarrhea ever since early April--and we are now in the middle of October. I had begun to think I would have diarrhea permanently!

As I read the other comments in this thread, however, my own case has not been nearly as bad as some others. There has never been a bit of cramping, never any sick feeling, no nausea, no fever, no sweats--nothing at all that I would have to describe as symptoms of stomach problems, and the bowel movements are no more often than usual--it's just that the bowel movements have been so liquid. What I can say is that I have had the experience of a bowel movement which is all diarrhea, I leave the bathroom and within 30 seconds I feel that more is coming and it's so urgent that I can barely make it back to the toilet in time. Of course that's not normal, but there's never been pain or cramping--just sudden urgency. But that "sudden urgency" only occurred twice in the six months that have passed since April.

By the way, a few months ago I did try that so called BRAT diet: banana, rice, applesauce and toast--till those foods were coming out of my ears--but with absolutely no effect, nor did Kaopectate, Pepto-Bismol or Imodium do a bit of good.

For the last two nights I have not used the melatonin and I plan to stay off it for the next week. There was diarrhea today but only a little. For the past two nights I've slept just fine without the melatonin

I went on line a few minutes ago and found this thread, which is encouraging to me, but my question is why the other sites on this subject don't mention diarrhea as a possible side effect, and why is there no warning of diarrhea on the bottle? On the amoxicillin tablets bottle it states "May cause diarrhea," so why isn't that on the melatonin bottles?

I will return in a few days with whatever result I manage to achieve by not using the melatonin.

I stopped my melatonin usage on Oct. 13th. By about 5-7 days after that, my diarrhea subsided and I have not used it since. Finally back to "normal." I don't imagine I'll ever use melatonin again.

Just checking back in with an update on my experience after discontinuing melatonin. It has been over 8 weeks now and I am "mostly" back to my normal. It definitely has been a SLOW time getting back to things as usual. I have had a lot of irritable bowel-type symptoms for most of this recovery time. I am chalking this experience up to being extremely sensitive to this hormone. I do not plan to ever try it again. For those other really sensitive types out there, be patient, be very patient. KJ

I started taking Melatonin 10mg The beginning of Oct. 2020. We were moving to a new home and it was very stressful. I was having trouble sleeping so I started taking Melatonin. Within a weeks time the diarrhea started. After two week of diarrhea I made a appointment to see my Dr. he did blood work and a CT scan. all negative other the some inflammation in my large intestine. I took 1500mg of antibiotic for a week. It didn't stop the diarrhea. He referred me to a gastroenterologist. He did more blood work a stool sample and a Sigmoidoscopy. Everything came back negative. I'm now trying a gluten free diet. I've been thinking about what have I done different since this all started. I remembered the melatonin. I found this site and I hope this is the answer to my problem.

Post Edited (GeoB) : 12/5/2020 9:27:34 AM (GMT-7)

Same experience here. Took 5mg daily for two+ months to assist with falling asleep. about the sixth week the diarrhea began. By the seventh week it was overwhelming. I was literally afraid to get in the car because I never knew when it would strike. After a week of the diarrhea I stopped the Melatonin when I came across this thread. It was the worst diarrhea ever - for two weeks every single thing I passed was pure liquid - nothing even resembled a solid. I'm slowly getting back to normal after a week on the BRATS diet. Like many others who posted in this thread I was concerned I may have had all sorts of serious and terminal GI issues. YMMV, but I'll never touch melatonin again. Oh, and a secondary side effect of the diarrhea bout was that I developed moderate hemorrhoids from all wiping, even though I went as gently as possible. Fortunately they are beginning to recede.

Post Edited (Betterat70) : 1/23/2021 12:31:34 PM (GMT-7)