There is a psychiatrist who researches this and she's going to back me up.

I'm Lauren Hartstein.

I'm an assistant professor of psychiatry at the University of Arizona College of Medicine.

And my research focuses on sleep and circadian rhythms in early child development.

So generally, young children don't get to choose their own bedtimes.

And if their internal circadian clock isn't lined up properly with the bedtime that parents are setting or with when they need to be in bed in order to get up at the right time for school or daycare, Their body just simply might not be ready for sleep.

And that mismatch between bedtime and circadian timing can lead to bedtime resistance and difficulty falling asleep.

In my experience, a lot of parents are giving their kids melatonin, and I'd like to generally discourage it for a number of reasons.