DIAMOND PRINCESS: Melatonin, Japanese Dogs and TIME People of the Year

I'll today take a day-off from reporting on our Diamond Princess cruise, and instead provide summaries of cruise-related matters of possible interest to you.

I saw a New York Times article indicating some concerns about melatonin.  

• Five years ago I asked my doctor about the effectiveness of melatonin to help me get to sleep.  He seemed encouraging, so I bought a bottle.  Never opened it.

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  Last year, I took a long trip, including a 38-day Norwegian cruise from Seattle to Southampton, followed a couple days later by a 12-day Viking European Christmas River Cruise from Amsterdam to Budapest.

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  On about the 30th day of the Norwegian cruise, I began to have difficulty sleeping.  Why I still don't know.  But zero to two hours sleep/night can totally screw up your system, especially if this goes on for two weeks.
• I'm sure I would have taken Melatonin if I had brought it with me on the trip.
• This difficulty continued the full length of Viking cruise.

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  I was close to abandoning the Viking portion and returning home to Honolulu.  I'd never before had anything close to this problem.
• People have died from this malady.  Called Fatal Familial Insomnia, a rare genetic brain disorder.
• I stuck it out and barely made it back to Hawaii.
• At home I slept mostly well.
• However there was a re-occurrence this past August, when a range of problems I had made sleep difficult for more than a week.
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  Then those problems went away, and I have not had difficulty sleeping for the past four months.
• I've slept well on this trip to the Orient, now on day 20 of my Diamond Princess cruise.
• But that NYT article frightened me.  What if I had continued to take Melatonin these past five years?

• 
  So I asked Google AI:

Melatonin is generally safe for short-term use, with mild side effects like headache or dizziness, 

long-term use carries unknown risks, with recent studies suggesting potential links to increased heart failure risk and mortality, though researchers note underlying insomnia might be a factor. It's not FDA-approved as a drug, so quality varies, and it can interact with medications (like blood thinners, diabetes drugs, anticonvulsants) and isn't recommended for everyone, especially older adults with dementia or pregnant/breastfeeding women. 

The latest studies, particularly a significant one presented recently, link long-term melatonin use (over a year) to increased risks of heart failure, hospitalization, and overall mortality, suggesting it's not as harmless as thought, with users having a 90% higher chance of heart failure. While these studies show strong associations, researchers stress they don't prove causation, but call for more research, noting concerns also exist for children and teens due to unregulated supplements, especially gummies, with many ER visits reported for accidental ingestion

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  This latest 2025 study said:  A review of 5 years of health record for more than 120,000 adults with insomnia who had used melatonin for at least a year found they were more likely to be diagnosed with heart failure, require hospitalization for the condition or die from any cause.  You can read the details.
• I can send you to medical journals, but this Time magazine article of a month ago simply headlined:  

Stop Taking Melatonin as a Sleep Aid, Say Sleep Doctors

The Diamond Princess left Japan on November 25, and I will return there for a few days around the 20th January before flying home to Honolulu.  The New York Times had this lighter story.

When Japanese children have a milestone birthday, many go to a shrine. It’s a rite of passage called Shichi-Go-San, or 7-5-3, for kids turning those ages.

Now, dogs are being honored, too. At some Shinto shrines, pets even outnumber children. Japan has one of the world’s lowest birthrates, but pet ownership is booming. A shrine in Tokyo now welcomes more than 350 pets for the ceremony each year, compared with about 50 children.

Dog owners are splurging on wigs, amulets and tailor-made jackets for the occasion. See photos here.

Here are two videos of the Shi-Chi-Go-San ceremony:  for children and now for adult dogs, for they too are celebrated at ages 3, 5 and 7.

The architects of AI are Time Magazine's People of the year.  Who are they?  Read this.

Here is Katy Perry's  Instagram post featuring Justin Trudeau.

Can't leave out the announced wedding date of Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce.

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