Discover Magazine: The publication investigates how inhaling melatonin came to become a new trend and if the practice could damage the lungs.
“If you’re inhaling melatonin plus an essential oil, plus propylene glycol, is that trade-off worth getting a faster melatonin effect?” says Marc Sala, assistant professor of medicine at Northwestern University specializing in pulmonology and critical care. “Especially compared to just taking the pill 30 minutes before bedtime?”
To cut the answer short: probably not safe. Inhaling anything besides oxygen or something a medical professional prescribed comes with its own set of health hazards. If you inhale any sort of vape liquid concoction, you’re covering the insides of your lungs with a vapor that has risks that are yet to be understood completely. At the very least, we don’t know if it’s safe yet.
“When we think about vaping, the use of inhaling something that also has additives is in general just something that we don’t recommend,” says Sala. “I personally would never recommend inhaling melatonin, whether or not inhaling it as a sleep agent would be effective. Taking it [orally] has fewer uncertainties.”
So maybe play it safe and stick to swallowing a melatonin pill when you need to fix your sleep cycle.
