Does anyone here take Melatonin for sleep disorders?
I can't remember the last time I slept through the night and It's really taking a toll on me.
I don't want to take sleeping pills but I will occasionally take a couple of Gravol to help me sleep but I usually wake up with that Gravol hang over and end up feeling like shit for the entire day.
If you take Melatonin, how much do you take and for how long? How well does it work? Are there any side effects?
Thanks!
From what I understand, melatonin is a natural substance in the body that helps to regulate your sleepiness. I don't think that it will make you sleep more soundly, and I don't know if it will help you sleep for a longer period of time. I have heard of it being used to alleviate jetlag - where you want to trick your body into wanting to fall asleep earlier than usual.
That said, I don't think that it has any substantial side effects, so why not try it? It should work immediately as it is a natural but chemical thing (as opposed to light therapy and some others) so you'll know quickly if it's worthwhile.
But don't take my word for it - ask a doctor or a pharmacist for more specific advice. Or is it available freely?
I've taken melatonin. I'm wary of sleeping pills but have a very difficult sleep pattern to maintain. Basically, I have no internal sleep clock, so for a few weeks to months I'll be a night owl but then my bedtime will slowly try to go a few hours longer, to a few hours longer than that, until my sleep pattern has completely shifted. It causes a lot of problems with being tired during the day when it slips into night owl territory. I haven't taken melatonin in awhile though, but I don't remember any side effects. It didn't knock me out when I took it, just if I was already tired but was having trouble falling asleep it helped relax me into it. The melatonin I took was available sans prescription at the drug store. I don't remember a hangover feeling or any grogginess the next day. I would take 2 to 4 pills from a non-prescription bottle from a pharmacy. I don't remember the brand name or anything like that though, I haven't needed it in awhile. Hope that helps.
I've heard it recommended, but haven't tried it myself. Been thinking about it though, as I've been having trouble falling asleep due to stress from school. Let me know what happens if you try it.
I'll be taking it tonight. I'll let you know.
I have no problem falling asleep - it's staying asleep that's my issue. I usually wake up at 2:30a and then can't get back to sleep. I'm hoping this will help.
I was considering similar options, but I need to do some more research about seratonin , seratonin uptake and melatonin.
If it doesn't seem to help - consider taking it at 2:30am.
There's also 5-HTP "the intermediate metabolite between the amino acid L-tryptophan and serotonin." Regular tryptophan was contaminated a few years back, but 5-HTP is OK. It helped me.
I've been taking melatonin every night for several years. Without it I can't get to sleep, but I usually wake up a few times during the night because I have to pee, which has nothing to do with melatonin, it's my overactive bladder.
For awhile I tried a combination of melatonin and valerian root, but my dreams got far more vivid than they already are, which made for an exhausting night, so I switched back to melatonin only and I take 6 mg each night about 2 hours before I want to be asleep.
I've had a lifelong problem with sleep from a combination of constant anxiety and being a natural night person existing in a morning person's world. On the nights before the occasions when I have to get up early, i.e. before 10am, it doesn't matter how many damned melatonin I take, I ain't getting to sleep, due to the sheer anxiety of having to get up early! If an alarm is going to wake me up in the morning, I usually end up waking up every few minutes to look at the clock. Fan-damn-tastic.
I've had no hangover from melatonin, it isn't perfect but it's better than drugs and I just deal with it sometimes not working.
Hmm....Dh has trouble sleeping, so I'm curious about your results, NKB. Also, is this a natural substance? -- where do you get it? -- drug store or health store?
The resident overnight worker checking in here. I take Melatonin quite frequently since I've cut waaaaaaaaaaaay down on Ambien. I usually take it about an hour before going to bed. At first it really didn't seem to do much for me but now I get better results. I try to only take it no more than once or twice a week -- but since I work overnights my use is more long term than someone who ocassionally has trouble sleeping.
I find with Melatonin I get more sleep and have an easier time getting back to sleep if something wakes me up during the day. It also doesn't hit me like a ton of bricks like some sleep aids do.
Melatonin is a natural substance in your body so I've always found it with the vitamins and other supplements at the drug store as opposed to the aisle with the sleep aids. The brand I take is 3 mg per tablet. Our health reporter (who is also an RN) advised me last week that you really only need to take 1.5 mg at a time but I've yet to try breaking the pills in half.
It didn't seem to make a difference for me last night but I'll try it for a few more nights
Anastasia: I usually have to get up to pee a couple of times as well but that's where my problem starts. I can't get back to sleep.
It's not so bad now because I'm not working and therefore can sleep in but once I get back to work, I'll have to get some sort of order back in my life and that will be difficult.
Another thing to consider is SAD LED lights.
We are at very low light levels now and that treatment helps with sleep.
(02-22-2010 09:47 AM)PrairieGirl Wrote: [ -> ]Hmm....Dh has trouble sleeping, so I'm curious about your results, NKB. Also, is this a natural substance? -- where do you get it? -- drug store or health store?
Like Horseracer said, it's natural, I avoid pharmaceuticals as much as I can. I buy mine at Costco in the vitamin section. Your DH can also try valerian root and see if he has better luck with it than I did. There's a product I bought online called Restabs, it's got melatonin, valerian root and several other natural sleep things in it, but it didn't work for me at all, maybe because of the dosage strength, I'm not sure.
I guess I'll be the lone voice of dissent. Melatonin gives me terrible headaches. I have no idea why. I've tried both the supplement version and Rozerem, which is the prescription that works chemically just like melatonin. Both have the same effect on me.
Not that I would trust Wikipedia completely, but they do recommend doses of less than 3mg. I suppose the side effects might result from higher doses? Or... you have enough sunlight and darkness in your life and melatonin won't help you sleep.
They did say that more vivid dreams occur at higher doses, so if that's true then it's a good way to know if one's dose is getting too high.
3 mg doesn't do anything for me, so I've been taking 6 mg for about three months now and it's better. I don't have side effects, maybe I've built up a tolerance?
Mine are 3mg and I have taken two, two nights in a row. Nothing. I'll try three tonight.
Somehow, I had got the impression that melatonin was a treatment that you take in very low doses consistently for effect.
I am alarmed that you are considering 9mg at a time when you have only tried two doses before this.
Please do some research before you do so.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melatonin
"Dosage
Studies from Massachusetts Institute of Technology have said that melatonin pills sold as supplements contain three to ten times the amount needed to produce the desirable physiologic nocturnal blood melatonin level for a more rapid sleep onset. Dosages are designed to raise melatonin levels for several hours to enhance quality of sleep, but some studies suggest that smaller doses (for example 0.3 mg as opposed to 3 mg) are just as effective.[79] Large doses of melatonin can even be counterproductive: Lewy et al.[80] provide support to the "idea that too much melatonin may spill over onto the wrong zone of the melatonin phase-response curve" (PRC). In one of their subjects, 0.5 mg of melatonin was effective while 20 mg was not."
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When I tried melatonin on the advice of my gynecologist, she specifically told me that most of the products were too high in dosage. She said to look for 1 mg. tablets and start there, then work up no higher than 3. I had the headaches even at 1 and 2 mg.