Kudos to those who don't use cell phones in bed.
From frantically scrolling, through following the latest news to social networks - the blue light of the smartphone is forever lurking.
Studies show that screen time has a devastating effect on sleep.
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The reason comes down to melatonin, a hormone produced in the pineal gland.
Melatonin plays a key role in regulating the body's cycle of wakefulness and sleep.
It is sometimes called, somewhat eerily, the "hormone of darkness", because its level is low during the day, but jumps as soon as it gets dark.
Anything that increases light during sleep - such as the dim blue glow of electronic screens - will therefore disrupt melatonin production and make sleep more elusive.
That could help explain why as many as one in three American adults don't get the seven to eight hours of sleep most people need.
It's no surprise, then, that millions of people are turning to melatonin supplements to help combat insomnia, jet lag, or difficulty sleeping after a night shift.
And while melatonin is only available by prescription in the UK, in the US it is available over the counter and can be found on shelves alongside vitamin supplements.
Children are even given melatonin "gums" from an early age to help them sleep through the night.
Then again, there is growing concern among some doctors that melatonin may not be as safe as it is made out to be.
During the coronavirus pandemic, Michael Tous, a pediatric emergency medicine physician at Boston Children's Hospital, noticed a disturbing trend.
The number of children admitted to his ward because of an overdose of melatonin skyrocketed.
"We started meeting small children who accidentally swallowed melatonin and adolescents who came to us after taking melatonin with the desire to harm themselves," Tous tells BBC Buducnost.
A 2022 study co-authored by Tous found that between 2012 and 2021, the number of annual calls to poison control for childhood melatonin overdoses jumped 530 percent.
By 2020, poison control received more calls about children overdosing on melatonin than any other substance.
It is important to point out that the majority of children in both studies did not have any symptoms.
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This finding was confirmed in a later study from June 2023, which showed that the number of children presenting to emergency rooms in the US from melatonin overdose has increased by 420 percent over the last decade.
"The increase in poisonings is most likely secondary to the increase in melatonin use," says Toce.
"The sale of melatonin has increased in recent years, as has its pediatric use. Children are poisoned by what is in their environment; therefore, increased availability of melatonin will lead to increased toxicity."
It is important to point out that the majority of children in both studies did not have any symptoms.
If they did, they were mild, such as stomach upset, vomiting and drowsiness.
However, in Tous's larger study, which looked at 260.435 cases of melatonin intake, nearly 300 children required intensive care.
Five children had to be put on ventilators, and two died.
Melatonin has also been linked to other infant deaths.
A 2019 study documented two separate cases involving a nine-month-old and a thirteen-month-old child, both of which showed no signs of life.
The toxicology test in the blood showed a high level of melatonin in both cases, and melatonin was found in a bottle with a pacifier of a thirteen-month-old child.
However, in both cases there were other factors that could have played a role in their deaths.
The first baby was found to have been co-sleeping with an older sibling, while the second was left in an overheated room - both known to be risk factors for sudden infant death syndrome.
Meanwhile, there have been reports of unwanted consequences in adults as well.
A study from May last year presented the case of a 21-year-old woman who died as a result of taking an overdose of melatonin and diphenhydramine (DPH).
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Also, they died from a sedative that is mainly used to treat allergies, insomnia and symptoms of the common cold.
Meanwhile, another adolescent experienced severe hypotension (low blood pressure) after attempting to overdose on melatonin.
However, it is possible that these deaths or serious adverse events were not caused by melatonin at all, but by some unrelated or unknown condition.
Part of the problem is that because it is classified as a supplement, melatonin is not regulated by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
Rigorous clinical trials have not been conducted, so we do not fully know the effect this hormone has on our bodies.
We do not know how it reacts in contact with other drugs and supplements, and the amount of melatonin in different products varies greatly.
"It really is the Wild West out there," says David Ray, professor of endocrinology and co-director of the Sir Jules Thorne Institute for Sleep and Circadian Neuroscience at the University of Oxford.
"People have done studies where they've gone and bought these products and measured the amount of melatonin in them and it's happened in more than one case that it doesn't match what it says on the package."
There is no known mechanism by which melatonin could cause these deaths and extreme side effects.
Studies in rats and mice show that melatonin has toxic effects if given in extremely high doses (more than 400 mg/kg), but this is tens of thousands of times higher than the recommended dose for treating sleep disorders, which varies between 2 and 10 milligrams.
We know that melatonin receptors can be found all over the body, even in the reproductive, cardiovascular and immune systems, but its effects outside the brain are insufficiently known.
However, millions of people take melatonin every day without any known side effects.
"All drugs have side effects, so compared to other drugs used to treat sleep, it's considered very safe," says Sanford H. Auerbach, associate professor and director of the Sleep Disorders Center at Boston Medical Center.
“However, I think the concern is mostly about the unknown. If you give it to a developing child, what will the consequences be 10 years from now? We don't even know how much melatonin is too much because those studies just haven't been done yet."
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