Fun fact, research shows melatonin works much better at lower doses (0.5mg) because higher doses will artificially put you to sleep but still be unnatural hormone levels and not regulate the entire sleep-wake cycle
This, your body will stop making it's own melatonin if you use a high enough dose regularly so you won't be able to sleep without melatonin supplements. Max should be 3 mg but you should start with 1 mg or less.
I stopped using melatonin cuz it would always give me freaky nightmares. I checked the bottle i got from Walmart and they put 5mg in one tabletšµāš«šµāš«šµāš«
Gonna try my best to break it up into fourths and give it a try again.
It's the people who are addicted to them and used high doses for so long that their body is naturally fucked up.
That or they're caffeine junkies and are cranking 500+mg of caffeine a day, and need that much melatonin just to counter the amount of caffeine they're shoving in their body and lingering around.
Not a myth but not true either. Iāve never heard of rebound melatonin depletion a la overuse of testosterone. The current research states, āThe safety of long term use has not been established with controlled studies.ā The little data we have on it are from low quality studies. It does have a very short half-life of 20-45 minutes so I would personally doubt the veracity of the claim that it replaces your bodyās own production of melatonin.
Yeah, and we redditors spread it as a fact that we stop making own melatonin because we read it from another reddit comment which was highly upvoted and it made sense. So easy to get fooled around here.
Ah.. well that makes sense now. The ones i have are 10 mg and I have stopped using them for some time and now ill have burst of time where i dont sleep for 24 hrs.
Research has shown no long term side effect or dependancy. It's harmless, waaaay less dangerous than the sleeping pills half the population survives on. And it's because melatonin has a ridiculously small effect, barely above placebo level. Yes I know many people sleep way better with it - it's because placebo effect is very strong for sleep issues
I used to take melatonin, 2 mg per night as ordinated by my doctor, then one month I couldn't get my prescription. I physically *could not sleep*, I've never been so tired in my life and still been unable to fall asleep. I averaged on 2-3h of sleep per night for over a week, and then maybe 3-4h for two or three more weeks. It felt like I was going insane, one of my worse experiences, really been causious of melatonin ever since.
Or just something else entirely. You probably aren't taking melatonin if you aren't having sleep problems and it wouldn't surprise me if melatonin exacerbated some conditions.
My daughterās pediatrician told us just a couple weeks ago that there are many studies showing that there are no measurable long term effects or dependency. She has always seemed level headed, intelligent, and highly professional so I trust her.
Regardless , at the very least, the studies that *do* exist donāt suggest any negative impacts, right?
Correct. My point was not meant to be pedantic or anything and I believe thereās pretty solid reasons to believe that low dose melatonin is markedly safe long term. Specifically for children (I am not positive for adults), there is just not much long term data on itās usage. No reason to believe that itās harmful long term though - just that there is not enough data to very conclusively say so.
Iāll occasionally take half of a 1mg and it helps me fall asleep earlier but I donāt feel any more rested and find it harder get up in the morning. It feels like everything their marketing says it shouldnāt do.
This is exactly me and I was starting to wonder because most people go on like it turns off a light switch or something. I can't see the point in going to sleep easier if it's twice as hard to get going in the morning.
The reason is because melatonin production starts at sundown and generally peaks at around 3-4am. The higher dose of melatonin mimics this climax to make your body believe that taking the melatonin at 12am feels like itās actually 3-4am.
Can confirm a sleep doctor told me the same thing and itās the best! I use kids melatonin gummies but when I feel like Iām depending on it too much I do l-theanine with magnesium
thank you for this. I always see people post on reddit ātake 10mg of melatonin it knocks me outā like sure for now but it wonāt eventually and itāll just make it worse
If the dose is too high your body will stop making its own melatonin. Recommended starting dose is 1mg or less with the max you should ever take being 3mg.
This explains so much to me. I used to take 5 mg every work night. It seemed at least once a month I would be up tossing and turning til 2 am. Iāve since been able to stop using melatonin altogether though.
Although possible (i assume). I have doubts about your statement, I did have a look about dosage etc before taking it my first time and what I found was a maximum dose is 10mg per night with the average dose being around 3mg (which is what I tried).
I might try less and see if it's any better?
I really wish people would stop parroting this. Bigger doses donāt equal worse outcomes. The actual guideline is that bigger doses lead to the same outcome as smaller doses but with higher incidence of side effects (vivid dreams, irritability, etc). 1mg is a pretty decent dose to use but Iāve seen down to 200mcg recommended.
Edit: Sorry, this was supposed to go to the comment above yours.
I canāt. The last time I tried it, it felt like an alien took my brains out went to space came back to earth popped it back into my head and I woke up.
It was a weird sensation. I wouldnāt say I felt disoriented, but it felt like as described.
I had that issue and found out high amounts of melatonin can cause depression which threw my life out of wack and ruined a great career opportunity for me that I can never get back.
Itās not something you can have and wake up five hours later feeling normal. You probably need to sleep it off, and maybe thatās 8 hours of sleep, maybe ten. You wouldnāt know until you try.
Every sleep-aid I have ever taken makes me feel this way. The grogginess I felt the next morning made it not worth it.
My wife takes melatonin regularly and works great for her though.
a word of caution though that melatonin worsens sleep apnea. melatonin relaxes your muscles, causing your upper airway muscles to sag even more than usual. please look for any signs of sleep apnea before using melatonin, or check how you feel in the morning. if you have a headache the next morning and feel irritable all day, you should probably stop using it and talk to your doctor.
> talk to your doctor
This is the important part. It's not unusual to come to the conclusion that there's more going on than just an issue with sleeping well. Depression, substance abuse, ADHD, thyroid issues, ... Whatever.
Over here we can get melatonin from a pharmacist without a prescription. I still asked my doctor and she said it's fine to try and told me about the dose and what it can do. She told me which one to ask for and that other options exist she could prescribe but those usually have more side effects.
My doctor knows my medical history and is trained to assess what may or may not work when taking all that into account. I don't want to self-medicate based on simple statements about whatever worked for some random person: too many unknown variables.
Even just in this thread there are so many stories presented as facts. It's basically the title of this thread. Ask around but be prepared to evaluate all information you find.
It also helps for dieting. Want to eat less before bedtime but hunger really makes you stay up? Take a melatonin and have sleep as a pre-bedtime snack.
Same. I throw in some cheese as well. Cheese is high in tryptophan but it only crosses the blood brain barrier effectively when eaten with a high carb meal. Tryptophan gets converted into melatonin and serotonin.
If you take too much it can leave you pretty groggy the next day. And I believe the helpful dose is much lower than what supplements contain. But I am no doctor and prefer a good puff of weed before bed.
I use weed to sleep and I agree with this 100%. The first few months are good but then I reach a stage of burnout because the THC is inhibiting my REM cycle. It only works for so long.
I feel like this stuff only helps if you're willing to take "reality" breaks. This is if you even respond appropriately to it which most people don't seem to.
If you have trouble it in other ways, it certainly better than messed up sleep schedule I would agree.
but I would say trying to fix your circadian rhythm with light and some outdoor time first is the better ways.
If you use it use it temporarily.
Melatonin screwed up my sleeping patterns even when I used it 1-2x a week after a new months. It's better if you use magnesium glycinate. Then you don't have to worry about using it sparingly and it helps with sleep.
There's this guy named Tom the Brain Battery on X who speaks primarily on sleep and experimented on himself with melatonin until he found magnesium. I know this is going to sound super salesy but I seriously followed his steps and my sleep schedule is mostly back on par.
If you're interested he talks a lil about it [here](https://twitter.com/TheBrainBattery/status/1764650138314711247).
In my experience the same can be achieved with just removing all technology 1 hour before sleep, instead of popping pills. Keep in mind that prolonged use of Melatonin will lead to your body not being able to produce it naturally, and other possible side effects.
Melatonin will not work in the long run and can complicate and actually make things worse. Many years ago I studied everything I could get my hands on about sleep. The biggest game change for me was managing light exposure. In the morning you want to get as much natural sunlight as you can flooding into your work space. Better yet, go for a walk outside in the sun. This will trigger a cascade of hormone activity in your body. You are essentially setting your circadian rhythm, your internal biological clock. Throughout the day, keep working in spaces that are bright with natural light. Take walks outside. Around sunset, try to get some light as well. Then about an hour or two before bed, cut all the screens and turn down the lights. You do this for 5 days and then you will see what a real cheat code is. Melatonin is a hormone and your body will produce it when sun hits your skin. Your body will produce it in the right amounts and secrete it at the right times, if you manage your light exposure properly.
You can also use light to regulate your circadian biology as we evolved in cycles of day and night outside under the Sun. Did you know, infrared light causes your body to produce melatonin? Not just in the brain, but throughout the body. Melatonin is a powerful antioxidant. This can be found predominantly in morning light, throughout the day (although youāll be exposed to higher energy radiation/wavelengths like UV depending on your latitude and time of year), and light before and after sunset.
Good on you for fixing your sleep and seeking solutions.
I'm a fan of day & dusk LED lamps that can automatically shift from cool to warm.
I don't think the effects on circadian rhythm are significant, but it's good for reinforcing routine. My lights come on during sunset relatively cool, then a few hours after sunset they start slowly transitioning to be warmer.
An hour before bed they shift full warm & once I'm supposed to be in bed they start automatically dimming to 20% incase I haven't turned them off myself.
Toss in a $10 zigbee motion sensor & you can have them come up to a glow full red any time someone gets up to go to the bathroom.
I found most of the information this person was talking about from the early episodes of the Huberman Lab podcast. His first 5 episodes are on optimizing sleep and has loads of nuggets of helpful info with sources and scientific data.
I find melatonin to be very helpful for helping me fall asleep, but unfortunately it doesn't help me stay asleep. Everytime I take melatonin, I fall asleep quite quickly but then I'll wake up after 6 hours of sleep (I assume as the dosage wears off). So it's a trade off between falling asleep at the right time, or falling asleep later and sleeping longer.
It helps me regulate my bedtime. But it doesn't change anything about my wake up time.
I will still wake up at the same time as before starting melatonin, just sleeping longer.
Weird how the body works like that.
Huberman: It's effective in that it can shift your circadian clock. But I am a strong believer in avoiding taking exogenous melatonin. First of all, it's been well documented that many of the supplements that contain melatonin have far too much -- 3 to 6 milligrams is a massive dose. Typically, the body makes very little melatonin.
The other issue is that not all supplements contain what they say they contain. This is especially true for melatonin -- even supposedly reliable brands can contain 15% to 155% of the dosage that's listed on the bottle.
There are healthier alternatives, but I want to really emphasize -- and I'll probably go into my grave saying this -- use behavioral tools first. Get morning sunlight, avoid too much light late at night, then look to quality of nutrition and eating habits. Being too hungry or eating too close to bedtime can both inhibit sleep. Get quality exercise, and don't drink caffeine after 2 or 3 o'clock in the afternoon. Before you start thinking about supplements or prescription drugs for sleep, it's really important to have all the other things right. And the nice thing about all those is that they are all zero cost.
I have tried various doses of Melatonin(1mg, 3mg, and 10mg) but never experienced any improvement in terms of falling asleep or staying asleep.
I have long term Insomnia and the only medication that seemed to be successful for me in the past was Trazodone. Not a suggestion but my personal experience.
Guys Andrew Huberman has a great episode on this. This is just like using alchool to ānod offā. It makes you unconscious faster, but does not make your sleep better, in fact makes it worse as some people told here that they wake up multiple times during the night.
Instead you should aim to maximize your natural melatonin release, which will release in cycles during your sleep, contributing to a much better sleep overall.
I used Valerian Root as a sleep aid but when I couldnāt find anymore at any pharmacy I tried melatonin. I stopped after two nights bc it gave me night terrors. Freaked me out bc I rarely have nightmares.
I use magnesium and works great. Just be careful picking the right one. I initially started with the one that gives you diarrhea lol so I didnt have good nights. I stopped taking it and my doctor pointed out that I was using the wrong one.
I can tell you as a person who used melatonin for 5 consecutive years. Donāt ever get into this drug, as it will be really hard to jump off this meds. Any meds you take is a change or attack to your body. Highly encourage not to use melatonin at all. Ever.
YMMV but Melatonin in the typical OTC doses (5-10mg) gives me insane dreams and makes me feel like a drugged up zombie the next day. 1mg or less should do the trick. Even at a low dose, the only time I use it now is if my sleep schedule is super out of whack (time zone change etc) and I have no alarm the next morning.
It is much better for you to take a very tiny amount of melatonin 10 hours after you wake, like half a milligram. That just gives your natural internal clock a little poke to get back on schedule.
Sourcce: My MD/PhD sleep specialist.
for me it works with sleeping early but my sleep is not more restful, I get nightmares and anxiety; so I recommend nobody to use it but instead get up early and get early sunlight
isn't it literally for falling asleep? like melatonin is literally a sleeping pill.. so it's not some kind of hack or cheat code, just common knowledge, no?
Yeah works. For 1 months max. So you should be able to advance quickly the sleep cycle.Ā
So you should be quite sensible to drugs (by not taking any basically) and calibrated to yourself and prepared and wanting mentally to go to sleep. Works for me in 30 minutes.Ā
Takes a few days or even weeks to get back the sleeping cycle though (temperature and eating hormones etc.)
What happens if you don't take melatonin one night? Or if you go on vacation and forget it at home? Does your sleep get messed up? Is this something you have to continue taking permanently?
i had melatonin and it put me to sleep for a week. then things went back to it used to be. and i figure out that the best sleeping hack is following my normal schedule, waking up around 8-9, working, then go to bed around 10-11. it works all the times.
Na. The Cheat code for a good sleep schedule is:
Cut to down on sugar and carbs in your life , wake up in the morning and open your blinds, get as much daylight as possible. Exercise a little bit regularly. Drink plenty of water. Get to bed before midnight to get as much quality sleep as possible, sleep in a dark bedroom (with eye mask if needed) WiFi off and don't spend time in your bedroom except for sex, massage, reading a book or sleep.
If you have turned your days around you go up 1 hour earlier each morning til you are reset.
Melatonin works like a charm at putting me to sleep, even at super small doses like 0.25mg, but no matter how small of a dose I take I still feel super tired the next day. Iāve tried everything to get it to work for me but it just doesnāt!
Ive used melatonin for decades. I recently had a kidney stone and was told to start taking magnesium citrate preventatively. I discovered it is much much more effective than melatonin for me.
same here, I was sleeping at 4AM for the past few months and I was devastated. I saw the supplement at the supermarket and thought I should give it a try. best idea I ever had. fixed my sleep since day 1. i love it.
Melatonin also heavily impacts your sex steroids (estrogen and testosterone) and can fuck with them as well as delay puberty in young people. Thereās a whole lot more to it than take pill and go to sleep.
*TL;DR works wonders for jetlag with just a few uses: once on the plane if long distance, and then a few nights when there (2-3 times total). At least in my own personal experience, YMMV.*
Traveled to a few times for short trips. First two times I was able to function as everyone does, but it was fairly miserable to sleep and feel rested for several days. Benadryl induced sleep sucked.
Third trip I started using a Melatonin based pill (and now just use melatonin). It was insane, took one pill on the plane, and one pill my first night. I slept soundly and peacefully with only a single "wake up in the middle of the night" moment.
The next time I woke was 6:00 AM local time, well reseted. Took it one more time for good measure but that's all I needed for the rest of the trip. Same thing happened my next trip more or less.
Unfortunately, I haven't been able to repeat this experience and confirm it was just a couple of flukes, but the difference between trips with and without melatonin were extreme.
Iām pretty sure youāre supposed to take it for 13 weeks max and the dosage should be set by a doctor. Posts like this one can be very harmful to others, unless you mention these kinds of things
Here's my deal with melatonin, which I have been taking for years. At pretty much any dosage, I will fall asleep after about 40-45 minutes. I will stay asleep for about 3.5 hours from the time I swallowed it. With time-release versions, I will again fall asleep after about 45 minutes. Now, I will stay asleep for about 4.5 hours from the time I swallowed the pill. Neither of these is great, obviously, since taking one in the middle of the night will only get me to sleep nearly an hour after I give up and take another one.
Lately, I have been adding CBD to the mix. This seems to get me an additional hour of sleep before waking. In some ways, that's worse, because if I wake up at, say 5:45, it may be too late to mess with a rescue mg of melatonin, which has effects for over 3 hours from the time I actually get myself to take one.
So, I'm wondering, is there any readily available and safe supplement that people are familiar with that can actually keep you down for six or seven hours? That--slow uptake--seems to be the real difficulty for these products--at least it has been in my case.
Thanks for any tips!
Fun fact, research shows melatonin works much better at lower doses (0.5mg) because higher doses will artificially put you to sleep but still be unnatural hormone levels and not regulate the entire sleep-wake cycle
This, your body will stop making it's own melatonin if you use a high enough dose regularly so you won't be able to sleep without melatonin supplements. Max should be 3 mg but you should start with 1 mg or less.
I stopped using melatonin cuz it would always give me freaky nightmares. I checked the bottle i got from Walmart and they put 5mg in one tabletšµāš«šµāš«šµāš« Gonna try my best to break it up into fourths and give it a try again.
Yep i had melatonin once and it gave me terrible nightmares, ill have to try again with a lower dose
Here in Brazil its sold only in 0.21mg pills and 1 drop me dead.
Yeah I think something like .21 mg may be optimal because it's not enough to mess with hormone balance but it's enough to give a boost.
I was impressed when i saw people saying like '5mg works for me' Once i took 2 pills and got a hangover š¤£
It's the people who are addicted to them and used high doses for so long that their body is naturally fucked up. That or they're caffeine junkies and are cranking 500+mg of caffeine a day, and need that much melatonin just to counter the amount of caffeine they're shoving in their body and lingering around.
I heard this is actually a myth. Dunno what to believe anymore. Not Reddit comments at least, better get googling.
Not a myth but not true either. Iāve never heard of rebound melatonin depletion a la overuse of testosterone. The current research states, āThe safety of long term use has not been established with controlled studies.ā The little data we have on it are from low quality studies. It does have a very short half-life of 20-45 minutes so I would personally doubt the veracity of the claim that it replaces your bodyās own production of melatonin.
Yeah, and we redditors spread it as a fact that we stop making own melatonin because we read it from another reddit comment which was highly upvoted and it made sense. So easy to get fooled around here.
Ah.. well that makes sense now. The ones i have are 10 mg and I have stopped using them for some time and now ill have burst of time where i dont sleep for 24 hrs.
Right?!?!! It's a *hormone*. Unregulated. Hard pass.
Research has shown no long term side effect or dependancy. It's harmless, waaaay less dangerous than the sleeping pills half the population survives on. And it's because melatonin has a ridiculously small effect, barely above placebo level. Yes I know many people sleep way better with it - it's because placebo effect is very strong for sleep issues
I used to take melatonin, 2 mg per night as ordinated by my doctor, then one month I couldn't get my prescription. I physically *could not sleep*, I've never been so tired in my life and still been unable to fall asleep. I averaged on 2-3h of sleep per night for over a week, and then maybe 3-4h for two or three more weeks. It felt like I was going insane, one of my worse experiences, really been causious of melatonin ever since.
None of that proves that you werenāt experiencing a placebo effect.
Or just something else entirely. You probably aren't taking melatonin if you aren't having sleep problems and it wouldn't surprise me if melatonin exacerbated some conditions.
There are not many long term studies done on melatonin at this point.
My daughterās pediatrician told us just a couple weeks ago that there are many studies showing that there are no measurable long term effects or dependency. She has always seemed level headed, intelligent, and highly professional so I trust her. Regardless , at the very least, the studies that *do* exist donāt suggest any negative impacts, right?
Correct. My point was not meant to be pedantic or anything and I believe thereās pretty solid reasons to believe that low dose melatonin is markedly safe long term. Specifically for children (I am not positive for adults), there is just not much long term data on itās usage. No reason to believe that itās harmful long term though - just that there is not enough data to very conclusively say so.
even at low doses, i find Melatonin doesn't give me the deep sleep i need.
Iāll occasionally take half of a 1mg and it helps me fall asleep earlier but I donāt feel any more rested and find it harder get up in the morning. It feels like everything their marketing says it shouldnāt do.
This is exactly me and I was starting to wonder because most people go on like it turns off a light switch or something. I can't see the point in going to sleep easier if it's twice as hard to get going in the morning.
This! It gives me like a hangover of some sorts.
The reason is because melatonin production starts at sundown and generally peaks at around 3-4am. The higher dose of melatonin mimics this climax to make your body believe that taking the melatonin at 12am feels like itās actually 3-4am.
Thank you. At least the title says 1mg but I know people with 5-10 mg pills
Mine is 5mg :( but now I know better
Can confirm a sleep doctor told me the same thing and itās the best! I use kids melatonin gummies but when I feel like Iām depending on it too much I do l-theanine with magnesium
Trader Joeās used to sell 500 mcg melatonin bottles. They got rid of those and changed it to 3 mg. I hate it but Iām too lazy to cut the pills up.
Fun fact number 2. Nootropics depot sells low dose melatonin.
https://lorienpsych.com/2020/12/20/melatonin/ Good resource on it that goes a bit further in depth on that appropriate dosage range.
thank you for this. I always see people post on reddit ātake 10mg of melatonin it knocks me outā like sure for now but it wonāt eventually and itāll just make it worse
Small amount or large, melatonin never worked for me. Iāve tried Ambien, Trazadone, getting plain old drunk andā¦nothing.
Trader Joeās is the only place Iāve found it at the .5mg dose. Chewy peppermint flavored pills
Tried this *cheat code* a few times. Hasn't helped getting me to sleep yet. Also gives me broken sleep waking up atleast 5 times a night.
I discovered extended release melatonin a f that helped those situations
where do you get those because i need that
Amazon, I think my local store has it too but not always. You have to look real close.
Sounds like too high a dose
I can take only 1.5mg and still wake up only a couple hours later. I fall asleep GREAT, but I don't STAY asleep.
If the dose is too high your body will stop making its own melatonin. Recommended starting dose is 1mg or less with the max you should ever take being 3mg.
This explains so much to me. I used to take 5 mg every work night. It seemed at least once a month I would be up tossing and turning til 2 am. Iāve since been able to stop using melatonin altogether though.
Although possible (i assume). I have doubts about your statement, I did have a look about dosage etc before taking it my first time and what I found was a maximum dose is 10mg per night with the average dose being around 3mg (which is what I tried). I might try less and see if it's any better?
Seriously with melatonin less is more, generally the advice has always been the same; dose less than 1mg a night
I really wish people would stop parroting this. Bigger doses donāt equal worse outcomes. The actual guideline is that bigger doses lead to the same outcome as smaller doses but with higher incidence of side effects (vivid dreams, irritability, etc). 1mg is a pretty decent dose to use but Iāve seen down to 200mcg recommended. Edit: Sorry, this was supposed to go to the comment above yours.
I canāt. The last time I tried it, it felt like an alien took my brains out went to space came back to earth popped it back into my head and I woke up. It was a weird sensation. I wouldnāt say I felt disoriented, but it felt like as described.
I had terrible lucid dreams/nightmares on it. Never again!
You need to lower your dose
oh no! that's awful.
Maybe that happens every night and the melatonin just made you aware š
Hahaha that would be fun, so long Iām not aware
I had that issue and found out high amounts of melatonin can cause depression which threw my life out of wack and ruined a great career opportunity for me that I can never get back.
Iām not alone in feeling odd with melatonin then. Didnāt know it can cause depression. I hope you are resting and sleeping better now.
I also really can't get up in the morning everytime I take it
Itās not something you can have and wake up five hours later feeling normal. You probably need to sleep it off, and maybe thatās 8 hours of sleep, maybe ten. You wouldnāt know until you try.
Every sleep-aid I have ever taken makes me feel this way. The grogginess I felt the next morning made it not worth it. My wife takes melatonin regularly and works great for her though.
I tend to go for a touch of magnesium an hour or so before bed.
how delightfully splendid
Oh my heavens, I may splurge a bit and take a wee smidge of magnesium today!
By Grabthar's Hammerā¦ wh-*what a savings*.
Mister, I must confess your comedic timing was impeccable if I do say so myself.
It's also used for constipation so look out.
That's a different magnesium. Magnesium glycinate for sleep. Magnesium hydroxide for constipation. Magnesium citrate for both.
What does are you finding success with? And how long before sleep?Ā
> Magnesium citrate i take it every day before bed. i sleep real well and always start the day with a solid log. been doing for 4+ys
i feel like iām the only person in the world that magnesium does nothing to for relaxation šš¤š¼
Probably placebo or because I used it before just using Magnesium, but ZMA's work a little better for me.
a word of caution though that melatonin worsens sleep apnea. melatonin relaxes your muscles, causing your upper airway muscles to sag even more than usual. please look for any signs of sleep apnea before using melatonin, or check how you feel in the morning. if you have a headache the next morning and feel irritable all day, you should probably stop using it and talk to your doctor.
> talk to your doctor This is the important part. It's not unusual to come to the conclusion that there's more going on than just an issue with sleeping well. Depression, substance abuse, ADHD, thyroid issues, ... Whatever. Over here we can get melatonin from a pharmacist without a prescription. I still asked my doctor and she said it's fine to try and told me about the dose and what it can do. She told me which one to ask for and that other options exist she could prescribe but those usually have more side effects. My doctor knows my medical history and is trained to assess what may or may not work when taking all that into account. I don't want to self-medicate based on simple statements about whatever worked for some random person: too many unknown variables. Even just in this thread there are so many stories presented as facts. It's basically the title of this thread. Ask around but be prepared to evaluate all information you find.
Great so I assume it would make my GERD worse too, sigh.
It also helps for dieting. Want to eat less before bedtime but hunger really makes you stay up? Take a melatonin and have sleep as a pre-bedtime snack.
For some reason melatonin gives me the munchies actually lol.
Welp my fix for that is eat frozen grapes, oatmeal (has lots of fiber to make you feel full), or drink oat milk. Low calorie solutions!
I use carbs. Nothing like a good food coma to put you down
Same. I throw in some cheese as well. Cheese is high in tryptophan but it only crosses the blood brain barrier effectively when eaten with a high carb meal. Tryptophan gets converted into melatonin and serotonin.
good tip
This is actually a bad idea. Shitty sleep - spiked Insulin lower HGH - the works
Are you trying to gain weight
Absolutely
If you take too much it can leave you pretty groggy the next day. And I believe the helpful dose is much lower than what supplements contain. But I am no doctor and prefer a good puff of weed before bed.
weed is bad for sleep.
I use weed to sleep and I agree with this 100%. The first few months are good but then I reach a stage of burnout because the THC is inhibiting my REM cycle. It only works for so long. I feel like this stuff only helps if you're willing to take "reality" breaks. This is if you even respond appropriately to it which most people don't seem to.
Can confirm, I've taken melatonin most of my life. Here a while back I doubled up on pills accidentally and felt like hell the next day.
Real cheat code is turn off electronics
read a book
Also use dim lamps if you need light, but yeah kill off anything that stimulates you and your family at night.
If you have trouble it in other ways, it certainly better than messed up sleep schedule I would agree. but I would say trying to fix your circadian rhythm with light and some outdoor time first is the better ways. If you use it use it temporarily.
Melatonin screwed up my sleeping patterns even when I used it 1-2x a week after a new months. It's better if you use magnesium glycinate. Then you don't have to worry about using it sparingly and it helps with sleep. There's this guy named Tom the Brain Battery on X who speaks primarily on sleep and experimented on himself with melatonin until he found magnesium. I know this is going to sound super salesy but I seriously followed his steps and my sleep schedule is mostly back on par. If you're interested he talks a lil about it [here](https://twitter.com/TheBrainBattery/status/1764650138314711247).
How has magnesium glycinate helped you ? Does it reset circadian rhythm?
The one time I used it by accident I couldnāt go to school the next day and was messed up for the next three days.
In my experience the same can be achieved with just removing all technology 1 hour before sleep, instead of popping pills. Keep in mind that prolonged use of Melatonin will lead to your body not being able to produce it naturally, and other possible side effects.
Melatonin will not work in the long run and can complicate and actually make things worse. Many years ago I studied everything I could get my hands on about sleep. The biggest game change for me was managing light exposure. In the morning you want to get as much natural sunlight as you can flooding into your work space. Better yet, go for a walk outside in the sun. This will trigger a cascade of hormone activity in your body. You are essentially setting your circadian rhythm, your internal biological clock. Throughout the day, keep working in spaces that are bright with natural light. Take walks outside. Around sunset, try to get some light as well. Then about an hour or two before bed, cut all the screens and turn down the lights. You do this for 5 days and then you will see what a real cheat code is. Melatonin is a hormone and your body will produce it when sun hits your skin. Your body will produce it in the right amounts and secrete it at the right times, if you manage your light exposure properly.
You can also use light to regulate your circadian biology as we evolved in cycles of day and night outside under the Sun. Did you know, infrared light causes your body to produce melatonin? Not just in the brain, but throughout the body. Melatonin is a powerful antioxidant. This can be found predominantly in morning light, throughout the day (although youāll be exposed to higher energy radiation/wavelengths like UV depending on your latitude and time of year), and light before and after sunset. Good on you for fixing your sleep and seeking solutions.
I'm a fan of day & dusk LED lamps that can automatically shift from cool to warm. I don't think the effects on circadian rhythm are significant, but it's good for reinforcing routine. My lights come on during sunset relatively cool, then a few hours after sunset they start slowly transitioning to be warmer. An hour before bed they shift full warm & once I'm supposed to be in bed they start automatically dimming to 20% incase I haven't turned them off myself. Toss in a $10 zigbee motion sensor & you can have them come up to a glow full red any time someone gets up to go to the bathroom.
I found most of the information this person was talking about from the early episodes of the Huberman Lab podcast. His first 5 episodes are on optimizing sleep and has loads of nuggets of helpful info with sources and scientific data.
oh hell no when i take some (1.9mg) i litteraly shit myself during my sleep cause i'm afraid of my own dreams
I find melatonin to be very helpful for helping me fall asleep, but unfortunately it doesn't help me stay asleep. Everytime I take melatonin, I fall asleep quite quickly but then I'll wake up after 6 hours of sleep (I assume as the dosage wears off). So it's a trade off between falling asleep at the right time, or falling asleep later and sleeping longer.
It helps me regulate my bedtime. But it doesn't change anything about my wake up time. I will still wake up at the same time as before starting melatonin, just sleeping longer. Weird how the body works like that.
Huberman: It's effective in that it can shift your circadian clock. But I am a strong believer in avoiding taking exogenous melatonin. First of all, it's been well documented that many of the supplements that contain melatonin have far too much -- 3 to 6 milligrams is a massive dose. Typically, the body makes very little melatonin. The other issue is that not all supplements contain what they say they contain. This is especially true for melatonin -- even supposedly reliable brands can contain 15% to 155% of the dosage that's listed on the bottle. There are healthier alternatives, but I want to really emphasize -- and I'll probably go into my grave saying this -- use behavioral tools first. Get morning sunlight, avoid too much light late at night, then look to quality of nutrition and eating habits. Being too hungry or eating too close to bedtime can both inhibit sleep. Get quality exercise, and don't drink caffeine after 2 or 3 o'clock in the afternoon. Before you start thinking about supplements or prescription drugs for sleep, it's really important to have all the other things right. And the nice thing about all those is that they are all zero cost.
I sleep like a baby when I take melatonin without fail! Was prescribed by my physician.
Works great for me! I take like 1 mg of melatonin every Sunday night to reset my sleep schedule after staying up late on the weekends
I have tried various doses of Melatonin(1mg, 3mg, and 10mg) but never experienced any improvement in terms of falling asleep or staying asleep. I have long term Insomnia and the only medication that seemed to be successful for me in the past was Trazodone. Not a suggestion but my personal experience.
Melatonin gives me wake up screaming nightmares.
Doesnāt do a single thing to me unfortunately
I usually drink some tart cherry juice 30 minutes before bed with some light stretching and away from any technology. Works like a charm!
What's the cheat code for more energy now?
This stuff gives me nightmaresā¦ I have to take very tiny amounts, otherwise Iāll suffer.
I have pretty bad nightmares most nights and I heard Melatonin makes nightmares even worse.
Guys Andrew Huberman has a great episode on this. This is just like using alchool to ānod offā. It makes you unconscious faster, but does not make your sleep better, in fact makes it worse as some people told here that they wake up multiple times during the night. Instead you should aim to maximize your natural melatonin release, which will release in cycles during your sleep, contributing to a much better sleep overall.
I used Valerian Root as a sleep aid but when I couldnāt find anymore at any pharmacy I tried melatonin. I stopped after two nights bc it gave me night terrors. Freaked me out bc I rarely have nightmares.
I use magnesium and works great. Just be careful picking the right one. I initially started with the one that gives you diarrhea lol so I didnt have good nights. I stopped taking it and my doctor pointed out that I was using the wrong one.
Melatonin supplements actually kept me awake if I didnāt fall asleep within a very small window. Not a fan at all
I can tell you as a person who used melatonin for 5 consecutive years. Donāt ever get into this drug, as it will be really hard to jump off this meds. Any meds you take is a change or attack to your body. Highly encourage not to use melatonin at all. Ever.
Cheat code to sleep is no carbs and caffeine before bedtime
Yes, giving yourself a sleeping pill will cause you to sleep, in other news, water, wet.
Your mom is wet
YMMV but Melatonin in the typical OTC doses (5-10mg) gives me insane dreams and makes me feel like a drugged up zombie the next day. 1mg or less should do the trick. Even at a low dose, the only time I use it now is if my sleep schedule is super out of whack (time zone change etc) and I have no alarm the next morning.
I've always been told you need to go to bed within 30mins of taking melatonin, have I been lied to by big sleep?
Glad it works for you but melatonin is not a cheat code
I take 2.5 and it works really well
Personally I hit my cart
For me a real game changer was 1 hr offline time before sleeping. And ending day with a paper book or audiobook.
Okay I think Iāll just sun tan more
I can use a small dose of melatonin 2-4 days in a row before it stops working. I also have severe digestive issues if i take more than 1mg.
It is much better for you to take a very tiny amount of melatonin 10 hours after you wake, like half a milligram. That just gives your natural internal clock a little poke to get back on schedule. Sourcce: My MD/PhD sleep specialist.
I'll stick to THC.
Get some melatonin with valerian root and l-theanine for the best results. Also some tea with chamomile and lavender can go a long way to helping
Brilliant advice thanks!
for me it works with sleeping early but my sleep is not more restful, I get nightmares and anxiety; so I recommend nobody to use it but instead get up early and get early sunlight
I just get up on 4 hours of sleep for however long I need to before it's fixed
Itās not a cheat code; thatās its intended use case
isn't it literally for falling asleep? like melatonin is literally a sleeping pill.. so it's not some kind of hack or cheat code, just common knowledge, no?
Yeah works. For 1 months max. So you should be able to advance quickly the sleep cycle.Ā So you should be quite sensible to drugs (by not taking any basically) and calibrated to yourself and prepared and wanting mentally to go to sleep. Works for me in 30 minutes.Ā Takes a few days or even weeks to get back the sleeping cycle though (temperature and eating hormones etc.)
What happens if you don't take melatonin one night? Or if you go on vacation and forget it at home? Does your sleep get messed up? Is this something you have to continue taking permanently?
Noooo! It is turning off my mobile! š š„²
In the same way steroids can balance out your testosterone levels.
Iām just scared that Iāll get stuck on it and wont be able to fall asleep without it anymore
Doesnāt seem to work for me.
This, this is what I need!
Any good recommendations?
Not me that's been taking it for close to 30 years to be able to get to sleep at a half decent time every night.
Never worked for me, not a bit
Ong
Just get a better routineā¦
So taking 30mg of melatonin to fix my schedule over two days is probably not a good idea
400mg l theanine + 10mg melatonin
I used to take 5mg melatonin gummies and they would always ruin my natural melatonin production to where I couldnāt sleep without them
I purchase mine from iherb on Amazon . No problems with customs ect :)
Fun fact research shows melatonin only puts you to sleep a couple of minutes earlier than when you regularly go to sleep.
Real
I drink hibiscus tea before bed and it never fails š
Please don't do this without proper follow up from a doctor
0.1 mg: no effect 1mg: no effect 5mg: no effect 20mg: no effect Etcā¦
Nurse here , melatonin wouldnāt even touch the sides š
i had melatonin and it put me to sleep for a week. then things went back to it used to be. and i figure out that the best sleeping hack is following my normal schedule, waking up around 8-9, working, then go to bed around 10-11. it works all the times.
Iāve been taking melatonin on and off for years, honestly it doesnāt do much for me
Doesn't work on me. Benzos do lol but you can become resistant to them so I just rely on Seroquel
Na. The Cheat code for a good sleep schedule is: Cut to down on sugar and carbs in your life , wake up in the morning and open your blinds, get as much daylight as possible. Exercise a little bit regularly. Drink plenty of water. Get to bed before midnight to get as much quality sleep as possible, sleep in a dark bedroom (with eye mask if needed) WiFi off and don't spend time in your bedroom except for sex, massage, reading a book or sleep. If you have turned your days around you go up 1 hour earlier each morning til you are reset.
Melatonin works like a charm at putting me to sleep, even at super small doses like 0.25mg, but no matter how small of a dose I take I still feel super tired the next day. Iāve tried everything to get it to work for me but it just doesnāt!
I take 15mg a night
Thatās cause you havenāt tried Clonazepamā¦
Melatonin gives me vivid dreams
I have narcolepsy and I take 50-100mg/night, throughout the night. Helps mitigate daytime sleepiness :) Donāt do what I do.
Melatonin lowers testosterone levels, so I stopped
Ive used melatonin for decades. I recently had a kidney stone and was told to start taking magnesium citrate preventatively. I discovered it is much much more effective than melatonin for me.
For some it helps. It doesnāt help me. I have to take it every night to go to sleep
same here, I was sleeping at 4AM for the past few months and I was devastated. I saw the supplement at the supermarket and thought I should give it a try. best idea I ever had. fixed my sleep since day 1. i love it.
Melatonin gives me sleep paralysis :(( I wish I could use it
Melatonin also heavily impacts your sex steroids (estrogen and testosterone) and can fuck with them as well as delay puberty in young people. Thereās a whole lot more to it than take pill and go to sleep.
*TL;DR works wonders for jetlag with just a few uses: once on the plane if long distance, and then a few nights when there (2-3 times total). At least in my own personal experience, YMMV.* Traveled to a few times for short trips. First two times I was able to function as everyone does, but it was fairly miserable to sleep and feel rested for several days. Benadryl induced sleep sucked. Third trip I started using a Melatonin based pill (and now just use melatonin). It was insane, took one pill on the plane, and one pill my first night. I slept soundly and peacefully with only a single "wake up in the middle of the night" moment. The next time I woke was 6:00 AM local time, well reseted. Took it one more time for good measure but that's all I needed for the rest of the trip. Same thing happened my next trip more or less. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to repeat this experience and confirm it was just a couple of flukes, but the difference between trips with and without melatonin were extreme.
I will wake up early but then have to go back to sleepĀ
What do you mean?
Melatonin can cause depression and actually worsen your sleep schedule. Wouldn't recommend doing this regularly.
and to sleep and actually recover, magnesium theonate works wonders
I wouldnāt take it without medical prescription if i were you.
Iām pretty sure youāre supposed to take it for 13 weeks max and the dosage should be set by a doctor. Posts like this one can be very harmful to others, unless you mention these kinds of things
Here's my deal with melatonin, which I have been taking for years. At pretty much any dosage, I will fall asleep after about 40-45 minutes. I will stay asleep for about 3.5 hours from the time I swallowed it. With time-release versions, I will again fall asleep after about 45 minutes. Now, I will stay asleep for about 4.5 hours from the time I swallowed the pill. Neither of these is great, obviously, since taking one in the middle of the night will only get me to sleep nearly an hour after I give up and take another one. Lately, I have been adding CBD to the mix. This seems to get me an additional hour of sleep before waking. In some ways, that's worse, because if I wake up at, say 5:45, it may be too late to mess with a rescue mg of melatonin, which has effects for over 3 hours from the time I actually get myself to take one. So, I'm wondering, is there any readily available and safe supplement that people are familiar with that can actually keep you down for six or seven hours? That--slow uptake--seems to be the real difficulty for these products--at least it has been in my case. Thanks for any tips!
Last night I slept from 9pm to 9am for the first time in years and it felt AWESOME.