Your article on black-market melatonin using parents promotes a disturbing fact: Families are left in any safe, effective sleep support (‘I feel a drug business’: Parents use Black-market melatonin to help their children sleep, 15 June).
Our report Dreaming of Change: A Manifesto for Sleep Revelated nine of 10 adults in the UK today experienced sleep issues. About 14 million people can live without insomnia insomnia, and even one of six of those who have symptoms received a formal diagnosis.
Despite the national institute for health and care (nice) recommendation of cognitive bedrional therapy for at least 2009, face to face rarely applies to NHS. Nice also recommends saving digital cost-IT for more than three years and yet it has never been funded for the patients in the country. Without access to effective drug interventions, families return irregular sleeping aids without desperation. But melatonin is not a seizure-all solution – and ineffective use, especially for children, bring risks.
We have to encourage a national sleep strategy. That includes national digital cbt information, funds for CBT-i in each local care care, and better GPS training, which often has little choice. Despite the known injuries and guidance advised their hazards, NHS data shows over 5m prescriptions for droppings for three logs since 2015.
Parents should not rely on imported supplements to help their children sleep. sleep a basic part of health, not a luxury. It’s time for the government to treat it.
Vicki Beevers
CEO, love love
