Have you ever taken Melatonin to improve sleep?

Melatonin works well if you take it about an hour before your scheduled bedtime. Otherwise, it will leave you groggy in the morning. Also, you may have to experiment a bit to find your correct dose: I take half of a 3 mg pill and sleep like a baby, but others might need more. Also, be prepared for funky dreams.

Melatonin gave me some of the best sleep of my life.

Yes it does. I take magnesium before bed. Knocks me out.

The best thing to help me sleep has been CBD. I order them off groupon for better prices and eat a couple gummies before bed.

It did put me to sleep, but it gave me nightmares and left me groggy. I may try it again with a smaller dose because long term use of benedryl, which is also effective, correlates with dementia, although causation is not proven.

Yikes r5.

Thanks for the warning RE Benedryl.

Benadryl also causes weight gain if you take it often.

I’ve been thinking of trying it too but I hate having nightmares and vivid dreams.

r7 I figured that was because it increases appetite (in my experience)

Be cautious about taking melatonin with any other sleep aid--my doctor, who originally suggested it when I complained of intermittent insomnia, said to never take more than 10 mg and not to mix it with other sleep-inducing drugs or supplements. I can't imagine how much 10 mg would knock someone out! She suggested I start with 1 mg and work up from there until I found an effective dose.

Best sleep I've ever had was from taking surgical grade anesthesia

melatonin and valerian root work well for me

I love having vivid dreams, even if they're nightmares

I like breaks from reality in a controlled context

I take 10 mg of melatonin but not all brands seem to work for me and I only take it after I can't sleep for several nights. The drugs with PM on the label makes me drowsy the next day. I never checked but It probably contains the same drug as Benadryl. The drowsiness is worse than if I get little or no sleep.

Gave me awful nightmares at the recommended dose. I have friends who say it helps them a lot and they sleep peacefully. Worth a try.

It works really well for me and does not make me groggy the next morning. If I forget to take it or run out, I toss and turn all night.

Yes, and it hasn't done a damned thing.

Be careful with Benadryl not just because it's now a known cause of dementia, but also because it's an anticholinergic. That means it decreases your choline levels. Decreased choline levels can prevent you from entering REM sleep - and thus prevent you from dreaming.

I take NatureMade melatonin because its ingredients are verified by USP, so pharmaceutical grade. A 10mg dose puts me to sleep for about 4 hours and then I'm wide awake at like 2am. But a 20mg dose leaves me asleep all night. According to LexiComp, a standard dose varies greatly from 0.5mg to 70mg, so trial & error until you find what's right for you.

I tried Melatonin and I still had problems falling asleep. I also noticed that I had to get up more often to pee in the middle of the night. Good that it works well for many people.

Melatonin works well for a lot of people. Trazodone is the only thing that’s ever worked for me.

Melatonin knocked me out, but left me very groggy in the morning.

Unfortunately, the best sleep aid for me is fresh air, sunshine and exercise (swimming or hiking).

A very subtle but effective sleep aid. It didn’t work when I was younger but now at 50, it seems to really help. Used to have to use Ambien - and melatonin is a much healthier, if less effective, help. It’s real benefit has been allowing me to go back to sleep when waking up in the middle of the night. But also helps to calm me going to bed - which is my biggest issue.

Curious if there are any down sides?

I usually don't have trouble falling asleep, but I've tried melatonin for the times when I do, and it's never done a thing for me.

Related question: I've never been able to sleep on planes, but I'm looking at a couple of overnight flights in the next six months ... what's the best prescription drug for sleeping on planes, and do they have any drug interactions or cautions for medical conditions?

Started taking a 10mg Melatonin at bedtime several days ago based on what I read here. Lovely sleep cycle and only have to get out of bed if I need to pee. Best of all (contrary to Benadryl) I don't wake up with a massive hangover. Best purchase I've made in a long time.

I have and I don't like it...gave me headaches if I took more than the tiniest amount. What works for me now is collagen powder (apparently it is the glycine content?) and plain magnesium powder. I started remembering my dreams when I started taking collagen...that didn't happen for me with melatonin.

Benadryl is safe. The biggest issue is the side effects which is a "hangover" (which does go away over time in some people) and it can make you to sleepy to safely drive.

If you are having trouble sleeping and you know there is no medical reason, AND you're over 40, the real reason you're tired is you're not getting enough exercise. If you were you'd sleep. You need to start hitting the gym and I mean aerobic exercise, bike, run, stair stepper, treadmill, swimming or even fast dancing.

I get a lot of exercise but don't always sleep well. 1mg melatonin is very useful and unlike others I find in get up less often for that early morning pee. I suppose we all metabolize it at different rates as the 10mg doses mentioned above would leave me near comatosed. Even 3mg lasts longer than I'd want it to. Starting with 1mg and adding to it until you find a useful dose seems good advice to me!

Jeez r10 we're talking about sleep aids, not heroin.

I use 6 or 9 mg and that works, most of the time. Not a great quality of sleep, though. Been meaning to try valerian or magnesium. My fallback is zolpidem, but only sparingly.

Exercise helps but not in the evening. Sometimes too much workout can make you too tired and/or wired to fall asleep.

If you think anticholinergics like benadryl are safe please review the side effect list I've posted below.

I much prefer masturbation.

Melatonin was a game-changer for me. I take 6mg every night and sleep well with no grogginess in the mornings.

It really depends on a person’s individual chemistry and what their body needs to complete the sleep cycle. For me it changed my life; for my mom on the other hand, it really didn’t make a difference for her and so she stopped taking it.

I strongly recommend giving it a try - agree with other people’s advice to start with 1 mg and then work your way up.

I have, and no longer do. I found it gives me very unpleasant dreams.

The thing that works best is to have a sleep routine: going to bed at the same time every night (almost impossible when you like to go out), having a cup of lukewarm milk or any herbal tea to signal the body that you are going to bed, warm, maybe half a glass of red wine (but never more or you're going to wake up in the middle of the night unable to go back to sleep), faint warm lights, night light on electronic devices if you have to use them to get rid of blue light, jerking off/having sex, white noise, ASMR (it does work for me), spooning your lover, a cool bedroom, and melatonin if it helps.

Benadryl is okay for the odd insomnia, but it's profoundly anticholinergic and therefore exposes you to higher risk of dementia down the road if it becomes part of that sleep routine. I'd feed lots of Benadryl to Trump, only because he is my worst enemy and I know it will precipitate his downward spiral.

Some helpful info on this thread, thank you!

Until I recently started taking Melatonin I took Benadryl for years but I could only take it 2 days in a row and then I'd have to stop for at lest 3 days. Any more than that and I would literally wake up crazy, unable to function for a couple of hours other than to turn on the TV sit in a comfortable chair until I could think straight again. I'm 66 so I suppose my age has a lot to do with it. But I'm very glad to have found something that works and doesn't do what Benadryl did to me.

You guys are taking way too much of the stuff. That could explain the unpleasant side effects.

The recommended dosage is like .3 or .5 mg.

Cherries have melatonin and are far healthier than a mere supplement.

Scotch and Trazedone work wonders!

There are dozens of apps that will help you fall asleep, here are some recommended in the link. I like sleep stories and some ASMR recordings - but it has to be a particular voice. Normally, women's voices seem a bit shrill and high pitched to me, but I am a fan of Emma Whispersred. She just came out with new ASMR recordings for commuting and for bedtime. Very soothing and relaxing. Not into the hairbrushing shit that's on her YouTube page.

It helps me a lot.

Still the best thing for me to sleep, though, is cannabis. It's legal in my state, so I have a cannabis-infused gummi before I go to bed, and I sleep like a dream.

My problem is not falling asleep. It's staying asleep. If I go to sleep at 11pm I will always wake up to pee around 3. Getting back to sleep is very hard most of the time. Now that I've started taking the 10mg Melatonin getting back to sleep after peeing is no problem at all and I don't wake up again. Before, once I finally got back to sleep I'd wake up every hour until I'd finally get out of bed around 5 to 5:30am. Now I'm sleeping soundly up to 7am most mornings.

Got a big bottle of it off of Amazon. 10 mg. And it does nothing. But I recently got off antidepressants. So that might have something to do with it.

Works for me but I have to take 10mg.

I used to take 20mg, but read you really shouldn’t take more than 10mg a day.

I hope this wasn't the result of the Melatonin, but I had a bad night last night for the first time since starting it. Awful dream of me waking up and finding a group of people in my front yard loading their cars with my things. I got up, saw that my computers, TVs and other things were gone. I went outside and confronted one of the people (a guy) and saw my desktop computer sitting in the back seat of his car. I called 911 and told them to get out to my house fast. Then the people started to leave and I raced around taking pictures of their cars and license plates. Then I grabbed the guy I had confronted around the neck and wrestled him to the ground telling him he was going nowhere until the cops got there. I woke up before that happened, at 3am. Got up to pee and couldn't get back to sleep until 4:30, then woke up at 5:15 for good.

I hope it was a one time thing. If it happens again tonight I'm going to stop taking it. Dreams like that keep me upset for hours after I wake up.

You might try reducing your dose, R24. I have weird dreams if I take 3 mg, but sleep just fine at 1.5. Also, give yourself a 1-night break from the stuff every few days, and it seems to reset the dream overload.

Its a carcinogen so, no.

Source, R46? Peer-reviewed studies have shown it helps protect against certain cancers. It's low melatonin that is linked to cancer, not supplemental melatonin.

Didn’t help me get to sleep at all but I had bad dreams when I finally did fall asleep.

Nothing is as great as halcion was. We all took it when we had to rotate to the night shift. Five hours uninterrupted sleep, woke up feeling totally refreshed .

When they first released it some elderly people had hallucinations, so they lowered the dosage from 1mg to 0.5 mg and recommended 0.125 mg for older adults.

Then assholes like Burt Reynolds claimed they were addicted to it in order to explain their shit behavior and cover up their Coke habits. Families started suing because someone committed suicide or got into a car accident, or whatever.

It was so far better than ambien and had no side effects if you took it in the prescribed dosage, unlike Ambien.

I currently work the overnight shift, and was having problems with the interruption to my sleep cycle. I started taking melatonin. I started out with 3mg and it helped but still woke up after about three hours. I decided to up my dosage to 10 mg, and now I sleep like a baby. No weird dreams, no grogginess, just pure uninterrupted sleep.

No bad dreams last night and had a good night's sleep. So hopefully the nightmares won't be constant.

Interesting to see the dreams issue pointed out. I hadn’t connected it to the melatonin - but realize it is perhaps.

Melatonin isn’t enough though. I still rely on Ambien, Damn Fed better keep their hands off it. Focus on OxyContin or heroin. Enough with the attempts to restrict helpful, less harmful drugs for adults. At 51, if it gets me through a few more years in a restful state, I should be able to take it.

I take 20 mg because 10 doesn’t work for me. Also I use Thumderstorm ambient sounds on Alexa

I like melatonin, but I'm quite sensitive to it. I can't take more than .75 mg or I'm hungover the entire following day. .50 mg works well with me too. I used to take 3 mg pills many years ago and could only take them on the weekend since I would be spaced out until very late the following day. I even wet the bed a time or two with those heavy doses, that's how deep my sleep was.

I take 4 benedryl in the afternoon for occipital nerve headaches, have been for about 5 years. I’m normally able to take about an hour nap, after I’m fine. I’m responding to some of the comments about dementia and weight gain.... neither so far

I take SugarBear sleep vitamins. They have melatonin in them

Five miles per day walking/running does it for me. Also, I can get up pee during the night and immediately go back to sleep. No meds, thank you.

I just took 25 mgs. I need a lot for it to work. I take extra B vitamins in the morning to kill the hangover.

I'm now officially old. Tomorrow I have an Amazon box coming. One of the items is a nighttime pee bottle so I won't have to get completely out of bed, and walk to the bathroom to pee waking myself up. Jesus, I've reached the express lane to nursing home care.

Lol - great idea R59. I may end up getting one of those this week.

I took 3mg first night, dreamt I was being raped by a giant-penised demon. So I took 10mg the next night ....

I don't know how people take Ambien. I feel like a total zombie the next day. One time, I sleep-walked into my neighbor's backyard and started hitting their gazebo with a rake. Thank god I woke up before they caught me. That scared the shit out of me and I haven't taken it since.

fffffff

I am shocked at all the stories about sleepwalking on Ambien. I’ve taken it for 15 years and never once had anything similar happen. And it gives me a perfect sleep with no hangover. Melatonin gives me a hangover.

I have a question and maybe someone can help. I took antidepressants (Mirtazapin) for several years and although they tell you you can not get addicted to antidepressants, I totally did and it took me several years and a couple of attempts to finally get off of it. Problem is, it has totally fucked up my sleep pattern. It always started when I first reduced the dosage (it took me hours to fall asleep and I was usually awake after 3 hours). When I was too exhausted I often took a sleeping pill (Zopiclon) but that really stopped working after a while. Anyway, I'm no longer taking antidepressants (4.5 months now) and I had hoped my natural sleep pattern would finally return, but no luck so far. After I stopped the antidepressants I took 1-2 Benadryl each night, but I'm really scared after reading here that it causes dementia. How long do you have to take Benadryl to get dementia or any related side effects? I've also tried magnesium, tea, valerian etc. but nothing really helps. If I don't take any meds at all, I'm usually up all night and only fall asleep around 5 for maybe 2-3 hours. I really feel like I haven't slept well for years now. My psychiatrist is not really an option.

Does anyone here maybe have experience with antidepressants and insomnia? Could Melatonin help me or am I just replacing one drug with another? Melatonin is also a hormone and I'm a bit worried about that. How long can you take it and will my insomnia get worse or return when I eventually stop taking it? I also read you should only take it for 3 weeks maximum. Any advice/help would be appreciated because I'm really desperate for a good night sleep.

Well R65 since you're not on any other meds now I see no reason you shouldn't at least try Melatonin. Others may disagree with me, but as serious as your sleep issues seem I would recommend starting with a 10mg tablet. They're cheap in any pharmacy or wherever they have a well stocked vitamin aisle.

R1 summarized it completely and succinctly.

[quote] Nothing is as great as halcion was. We all took it when we had to rotate to the night shift.

Who is "we all"? Are you a multiple?

I'm also very sensitive to melatonin. I buy the Trader Joe brand of 500 mcg. I used to only take 1/4 of that 500 mcg pill. Now I take 1/2. Luckily I do not have sleep issues but keep melatonin around when dealing with time zone changes and need help a couple of nights to get to sleep at a certain time. I've read that long term usage can result in depression.

It helps to me get to sleep but the sleep isn't that great nor long. Actually I feel like I sleep a little less than usual. I used to have really vivid dreams but have noticed the last couple of times I have taken melatonin--no more crazy dreams. Reading about 10-20 mg usage here, I think I would be a zombie for a week at those dosages. But I wander if I should try a higher dosage to sleep longer? I have noticed that in the last couple of years, I no longer sleep 8 hours, much closer to 6-6.5. Especially in the summer. I hate it and want to get back to 7-8 hours of sleep daily.

melotonin doesn't give me crazy dreams but valerian does

I bought Valerian tea and it kept me UP. Drove me nuts that I couldn't fall asleep.

Valerian didn't help me get to sleep at all, even at a higher dose.

r69, did you notice TJs recently changed their supplier of melatonin?

Exercise doesn't help me to sleep. I've backpacked on multi night trips over mountain passes and laid awake in my tent for most of the nights.

R73, the packaging changed, but I didn't take notice of the supplier's name. I rarely do for TJ's products.

I bought some today based on this thread. Does it work the first time you take it or do you have to take it over a period of time?

R75, it worked right away for me along with the vivid dreams. I take a very small dosage so if I'm stubborn and refuse to turn off the laptop, then it doesn't work for me. So keep in mind, it doesn't knock you out like some medication. Taking a small dosage, it works if I put myself in a situation to succeed, turning off screens, getting into bed, read, etc.

I'm going to take a dosage tonight, even though it's a Friday. I notice my sleep time is creeping towards 1AM and I want to nip in the bud.

I second Trazodone.

Ambien is fail-safe. Don’t take too much, though, or you'll sleep-eat.

R71, Valerian has a relaxing effect. If you're lucky, it'll send you asleep, if not, the wheels in your brain start turning. It depends on your body chemistry. I've found that it tends to improve sleep quality regardless.

R80, thanks for the confirmation. I couldn't believe how incredibly unhelpful it was as a sleep aid. I was up and hyper for hours.

R81, I found that it worked for a while, but eventually I had the same result as you did. Ditto for magnesium, though I continue to take it for health reasons, and it does work under some conditions.

5 mg doesn't do anything for me.

Is 10 mg safe?

Pot is better

Traz makes me light headed

Why are you all taking such high doses? The recommended dose is up to 5mg.

Mine comes as 10 mg. But 5 is ok. Bigger issue is quality. Never sure what brand to buy.

ZZZquil gummies have been helpful to me sometimes

I take melanja Trump to go to sleep

R83 With melatonin, less is more in terms of effectiveness, and more can be actually have the opposite effect. This has been an established fact according to research. However, not many prescribers outside of mental health know this. A small dosage, about 10 times less than what's available commercially, is the most effective for maintaining sleep and most importantly for healthy reset of sleep pattern. Studies have shown that as little as 0.3mg of melatonin is more effective than higher dosage. Why? Because when you expose your brain's melatonin receptors to too much melatonin, it ceases to be respond to melatonin and over short period of time, the higher doses of melatonin actually decreases sleep time.

The pineal gland is an endocrine organ in our brain that's also known as the "third eye" because it's responsible for relating information about environmental lighting to different parts of our body. In that sense, it's responsible for partly controlling our biological responses. It releases melatonin which is directly responsive to light. The pineal gland is like a light transducer that processes information from the retina and turns it into a hormonal input. Your eyes senses/ sees darkness, then that information gets transmitted up the sympathetic nervous system to the pineal gland. Pineal gland tells your brain, hey it's time to sleep. Exposure to light directly affects the synthesis and release of melatonin, and this is why our melatonin levels are low during daytime and high during night. That's basically how it works, without going over how melatonin is also produced by other tissues in the body, or that it's also involved in reproductive hormones. You see, maintaining circadian rhythm and regulating reproductive hormones are closely related

With higher dosages of melatonin, you're setting yourself up for failure, you're basically wasting money to make sleep pattern worse than if you'd never taken it. Also, at higher dosages you're going to induce hypothermia or noticeably lower body temperature. As for which brands to buy. This is the one to get, and many of my colleagues from psychiatrists to fellow NPs love this brand because it's free from fillers, just pure active ingredients.

What if you’ve been taking 9 mg, r90, can you go directly down to .5 mg?

Yep. Knocks me out.

BTW, you can feel like you have a hangover the next day but if you really have issues sleeping, go for it.

To the people taking magnesium, have you noticed any difference in your weight since you started? Google says it can help with weight loss, among a whole bunch of other good stuff. Also do you take it as a supplement by itself or do you take magnesium citrate?

I do not notice any benefits of magnesium other than the one I take it for--keeps me regular. I take about 200mg before bed and I'm doing my business every morning. It's a low dose and not the only reason I'm regular, but it's part of a overall program of diet, water and fiber intake. I take the cheapest off the shelf stuff, magnesium oxide.

Seconal - hard core!

Has anyone found a good dosage for Trazedone?

[quote]. I take about 200mg before bed and I'm doing my business every morning.

Wow, you are either a big person and/or you eat a lot of food that stops you up. I can only take 50mg every three days or more otherwise I'm a shit machine. I take it for the effect on my muscles. I'm vegan and weigh about 110 pounds, I don't need help to get me moving. If I took 200mg nightly I would never leave the bathroom.

Has anyone tried one of those weighted blankets? Do they work?

Some wine and 100 - 200 mg Trazodone at night puts me into a deep sleep. I may have strange dreams but I sleep for -8 hours.

I have used Remeron in the past and loved it but it caused weight gain.

Herbal shit/melatonin doesn't work for me - I have chronic insomnia and need big guns to sleep.

Just take a Xanax. This melatonin shit makes you fall asleep for an hour or two and then makes you wake up in the middle of the night and you won’t get back to sleep.

Where is everyone getting all this Xanax?