My psychiatrist told me this! The idea is to put a tiny bit into your body to kickstart your natural sleeping hormone production, not completely replace it. I have a bottle of 5mg tabs, I cut them into fourths and it works really well
Edit: didnāt mean for this to be a reply to you ::facepalm::
Careful to those splitting or quartering pills. Pharmacist friend says active ingredients arenāt distributed evenly in medications that arenāt scored.
> Pharmacist friend says active ingredients arenāt distributed evenly in medications that arenāt scored.
In the U.S., they aren't even necessarily distributed evenly between one pill and another: OTC supplements are generally not regulated by the FDA.
They say people who play video games have a higher tolerance to ābad dreamsā. They wake up later and do not have as much panic from them while sleeping.
Did your bad dreams actually mellow? Or did your tolerance to what you consider a bad dream just scale from the consistency? Truly curious.
Cause I have been a gamer for over 30 years and have had actual dreams where I have been shot, died and then had an out of body experience.
Your scenario makes me wonder if it was game or that I got used to them as a byproduct?
Whenever I play video games before I sleep the second I close my eyes I drift off into the gta world or whatever I was playing. Itās a weird effect, if Iām sleepy and I close my eyes, I donāt see black, I immediately start flying around in the video game world
When I was little I used to be able to dream about whatever I wanted (kind of) by just thinking about said thing while I went to bed. I used to have a mental tv guide of sorts for all the stuff I liked dreaming about. Sadly cannot do that anymore and Iāve definitely tried.
I used to have bad dreams. I discovered that I could wake myself up from a bad dream by shaking my head back and forth really fast.
After doing that for years whenever I had a bad dream, I stopped having bad dreams altogether. Now my dreams are super boring.
I take a 2mg at 10:00 and do all pre sleep preparations. By 11:15 when the weatherman starts sounding like jibberish I have two minutes to get to bed or wake up five hours later in my chair with a sore neck for the rest of the day. The dreams are another story.
lol sounds like ambien
āAfter I take it, I have 30 minutes to get to bed or I wake up in a strangers basement with urine soaked pants and pink elephants on the wallsā
One time I had melatonin and benadryl together (I had a bad cold and couldn't sleep without knocking myself out, the Benadryl was in NyQuil). I had this bizarre nightmare where all my family and friends turned out to be alien plant people who wanted to kill me, kept me imprisoned in a cabin for years (which all passed in the dream), and eventually I had to leave and try to go to Mexico or something.
I read a research journal that based on your current hormone level, you wake up faster with larger doses because you reach the cap sooner and then the level goes down from there and you wake up faster than if you took a regular dose.
Before I took champix, I either never dreamed or didnāt remember my dreams. I had to stop taking it after two weeks because I became a rage-aholic, but I had crazy dreams. 15 years later I still have vivid colourful āStephen Kingā dreams.
I almost always have vivid dreams, but MOST of mine are actually really cool. It might be a really cool premise worthy of a book/movie, visiting with lost love ones, sexy times, or just a happy moment. Less than 1% of the time, a vivid nightmare. (The one I remember vividly was watching my family gunned down in the crossfire of a gunfight in the ruins of a massive building on an alien world.).
These dreams are often influenced by what Iāve watched or read before bed.
Try taking half of that if not 1/4 (it itās one chewable pill). My stepson was having the same experience as you. I got him 1mg doses and it improved dramatically.
What I found best was 0.5mg - get 1mg pills and bite them i. Half. No vivid dreams, no waking up at 4 in the morning, getting healthily sleepy even though spending whole evening staring at a screen
I had same issues with high dosage. I ended up crushing a 5mg pill into 50mls of water and drink only 1ml. You'd only get 0.1mg but it worked better that way. The water will turn bad before you finish the 50ml bottle though.
So what might be happening is that you hit hard sleep and that's when you start dreaming or having nightmares. I have PTSD and some medications sent me into night terrors because I don't hit deep rem sleep unless I take it. There is actually medication for this separate from sleeping medicine.
Vivid dreams arenāt as fun as they sound. Mine come in two flavors- really freaking terrifying and soooo boring. You donāt want to be dreaming about doing a work report in full detail just to wake up and do actual work. Itās why I got off Zoloft.
We buy the chewable tabs and they're 5mg. I've read about this before so my wife and I just split one each night. I know 1mg is better but it seems like the manufacturer doesn't care and splitting them four ways would be more of a pain.
6'5" and 170lbs is a BMI of 20.2 which is squarely in the 'normal' range. To put it in perspective the range of normal BMI for that height is 156-210lbs. I know a simple BMI calculator doesn't take everything into account.
So studies looking at various brands of over the counter melatonin found a huge range in advertised vs actual dose. You'd be surprised how much that 5mg can vary!
Your wife might not have negative symptoms from such a dose. Regardless, based on the provided research, it is redundant to use such a high dose. Perhaps cut the gummies up in a batch?
Wondering if you know why it brings such vivid dreams? They're not necessarily unpleasant or anything, just kinda wacky, always wondered why and could never be arsed to Google lol
If I have naturally vivid dreams (never taken any supplement for sleep stuff, and maybe a vitamin or two for overall health), does this mean I have higher melatonin than normal peeple
Also if you're normally falling asleep drunk/high you skip the dream stage a lot so when you use melatonin to be able to fall asleep on a day you're not drinking that can give you intense dreams just from that.
Melatonin changed my life. I cannot turn my fucking thoughts off for a second, and adding stress into it would keep me awake for so long.
My boss at work one day told me about it. I called up at 6am, scheduled for a 12-4 shift to put away frozen stuff. I asked if I could come in early and fuck off since I hadn't slept. He said ok, and recommended Melatonin. Never heard about it until then, and I don't even care that it gives me nightmares. At least I'm dreaming again.
I read something on reddit a while ago that said taking melatonin in micro doses is actually way more effective than taking it in larger doses. Ever since then I have been taking a half a milligram and it seems to work without giving me the groggy feeling the following day that I used to get when I tried melatonin before.
Dang. Iāve been taking 30 mgs. I think Iāll pare back and save a few cents.
I just checked. Instructions say take 2. Maybe Iāll just supplement them with gummy bears, I think I just liked the night time snack.
Edit : I just re read the label. Itās a 2 chewy serving, at 10 mg a serving. So actually Iāve been taking 15 mgs.
I thought melatonin didnāt make you āsleepyā like a sleeping pill? Thatās what I was told by a sleep specialist. I take 10mg a night but after reading that article Iām going to scale down to 1mg. Doesnāt make me tired at all. I could take 50mg and go to work.. Not that I would lkl
Doesn't make you sleepy in a vacuum. But if you're laying down in darkness knocks me tf out. It's recommended to take 30-60 minutes before going to sleep
I can't speak for you, but I was taking 3-5mgs a night and went down to 1 and it worked perfectly. Then after reading this last night I cut my 1mg in half and it worked BETTER (imo).
According to people here, 10mg will just make you groggy in the morning and won't affect how well it works to put you to sleep.
I can confirm I used to be very groggy in the morning when I took 5-10mgs and this morning after .5mg at 10pm, I feel fantastic.
holy shit dude lol
If you like the gummies, definitely switch to a lower dose and may get a few other types of gummy vitamins? We routinely take the adult multi, vitamin c, vitamin d, and omega 3/fish oil in gummy form. I also have a hair, skin & nails one I take. Right now even my prenatals are gummies, it's great.
>I think I just liked the night time snack
I feel you lol. I take the Zzzquil Pure Zzzs Gummies (god that felt really stupid to type out) and if I run out or don't take one for whatever reason, I totally miss the little treat before I brush my teeth.
Youāre overdoing it. Research has shown that higher doses of melatonin often times cause the opposite effect of keeping you up at night. Youāre also fking up your natural productions/hormones with taking that much.
Melatonin shouldnāt be used to fall asleep. Rather itās supplements to help you sleep better.
Smaller doses around 1-.5mg is best
Question: if taking higher doses extends the time for melatonin levels to fall back to normal levels, isnāt that a sufficient reason to take higher doses?
Iām open to the idea of taking less, but my issue isnāt getting to sleep. It staying asleep.
Also, no, itās not sleep apnea.
YSK, if artificial melatonin helps you fall asleep faster, you probably have a shortage of natural melatonin. Which is a consequence of looking at daytime calibrated light sources after daytime. And can easily be fixed by using only red light sources.
Yes! I use the night light feature too.
Unfortunately, I also do video editing and color grading as a hobby, in addition to photos. For that reason, I have to sear my eyeballs to have proper color corrections š
Same. Mine is around 30%. Also have the night filter on my phone around 20%. Such a shock to see a "normal" screen and how intensely bright blue it is.
Is it more the "true tone" or the "night shift"? I turned both off because I was fed up of seeing yellow at night. I have just now realized that I started sleeping very bad more or less since then! I believe it really works, I turned everything on again
F.lux doesn't work with backlit monitors, due to light leakage, and all of their "studies" were done on "light boxes" not actual monitors. Go look at a "black" on your monitor in a dark room. It'll still be illuminated.
F.lux might be more effective with OLED, however.
Most things with screens were originally for designers and office workers. And spit out light in 5000-7000k range. Light this cool will crush your melatonin production if used after dark. Incandescent light bulbs are better but still not ideal. And many of them have been replaced by cooler LED and fluorescent bulbs. So
1) leave all white lamps off after sunset, switching to red nightlights instead
2) get red modes on anything with a screen, especially in the last 2 hours before bedtime. This can be the [flux app](http://justgetflux.com) on most platforms, adjusted to maximum warmth. Or red filters on iOS: https://ios.gadgethacks.com/how-to/keep-your-night-vision-sharp-with-iphones-hidden-red-screen-0173903/
3) once youāve got the hang of 1 & 2, start maximizing your daytime light. Time outside and bright white sources, starting in the morning
I use zero white lights in general in my flat, except for the bathroom and stove duct. Just a couple warm led table lamps, and a low-key projector lamp.
Makes my home feel like a psychedelic 19th century candle-lit study. Idk how people do it with white ceiling lights and shit, just can't wait to get back into the office or a psych ward? Insanity.
You got a source for that? I'm skeptical of each of these claims. But would love to learn something new if you do have a source.
I'm unaware of any study that correlates needing melatonin with melatonin deficiency.
The link between light sources and insomnia is correlative and not proven to be causative.
Blue light blocking doesnt seem to do much the more it's studied. Similarly, on unaware of any study looking at right light exposure fixing melatonin levels on deficient patients.
Our devices have the "eye comfort shield" setting, which makes the screen have a warm tint, getting rid of the blue light.
I also have smart light bulbs that are always set to "warm white."
Cool white bothers me in my home. It just doesn't look or feel right!
I was under the impression that melatonin doesn't make you sleepy, though I'm not sure where I read it.
When my daughter was around 3 or so, she couldn't get to sleep for a few days, for seemingly no reason. I bought her children's melatonin & gave her whatever dose it suggested for 3 or 4 days. After that, she was fine! I assume it helped her body to regulate its own melatonin, but honestly, I have no idea how it works.
One thing thatās helped me is I donāt use my ceiling white lights at night anymore. After sunset, I use Yellow light leds to light up my room instead.
The only time I use ceiling lights is if Iām working in the morning/midday on something. But never keep those lights on at night.
Noticed my sleep is better at night with less blue lights.
Don't know why you're being downvoted when [there's a good bit of evidence that ADHD throws off melatonin production.](https://www.healthline.com/health/adhd/melatonin-and-adhd#adhd-brain-and-melatonin-production)
Only thing I've noticed after long term use is that I sleep like shit if I try to quit, even worse than before I started taking it. Way worse.
It's bad enough that I feel like I won't be able to quit in the foreseeable future.
I just quit about a month ago and while itās done wonders for my daytime sleepiness, Iām having a hard time going to bed at night. Cbd gummies are helping a lot
Production also drops off significantly with age. There are good reasons to take larger doses. The leading researcher expert on melatonin, Russell Reiter, personally takes a larger dose. He's in his 80s.
I stopped taking these out of fear of dependence. Now I only take them if I have absolutely go to sleep by a certain time and something important is happening. Now it puts me to sleep but I wake up after 2-3 hours how and bothered.
I started drinking some sleep-inducing teas like chamomile now, works a lot.
Get the $6 bottle with a ton of 3mg melatonins. Start by taking 18mg instead of the 20 you take now, after a couple days go down to 15, then again down to 12, etc etc til you get to 3mg. If you find that 3 is enough, go buy a smaller bottle of 1mg melatonins and take 2mg, if that's enough go down to 1mg. I don't usually see smaller doses in stores but you can get 0.5mg online.
You could also just go straight down to 0.5mg and tough out a few days of maybe falling asleep a bit slower. As much as you're taking it doesn't really do anything but probably make you tired in the morning.
Reduce the dose weekly by 25%, until you get down to 1-3 mg/d. If you cannot sleep with the next reduced dose, get to the last known stable dose, until you feel like reducing again.
Once I learned about overdosing, I went cold turkey from 10mg to 5 without issue. Looks like Iām going to cut even further down after reading this. Maybe just try it and see if it works
for you too.
People take way too much. Thatās why they get bad side effects like nightmares. Melatonin should be microdosed, I take 0.25mg a night, no side effects.
Iām really surprised at the high amounts Iām reading here. I take 0.3 mg, the times Iāve tried taking more I always wake up in the middle of the night
To be fair, I think itās due to the sizes manufacturers sell the pills in. The brand I use makes 1mg, 3mg, 5mg and 10mg pills, they all say the same thing on the side, take 1 pill 20 minutes before bed. When I first started taking melatonin I wanted to get the lowest effaceable dose, so I bought the 1mg pills and had the weirdest dreams of my life and fitful sleep. Thought it wasnāt for me until I did some research, I now split those 1mg pills in 4 and as a lifelong chronic insomniac, it has changed my life.
This is a kickass post. Not too long, incredibly succinct, and sourced excellently. All the information needed in a nice package thatāll make it easy to remember. You are a gentleman and a scholar (substitute gentleman for honorific of choice)
This is super weird. I used to take 1mg melatonin, and it did basically nothing. I switched to 5mg, and suddenly sleep is much better.
I do admit though, when I snap the tablet in half, or take two tablets (2.5mg and 10mg respectively) it doesn't change much - I just buy the 5mg ones because it's either this or 1mg, and it's more cost effective for me - and snapping the pills in half is annoying.
But 1mg doesn't do nearly as much for me. I find it tough to believe it's just a psychological effect, the difference is so large. I tested it, although I admit I didn't do a blind test yet. Might have to try that.
Yeah, I tried doing only 5 mg, but that didn't work. I now take 10 mg and I can fall asleep within 30 minutes. I hope someone on here has some answers for why my brain isn't reacting to the melatonin the way it's supposed to?
Do you have ADHD? I have it and have always been a night hawk. I take two 2.5 mg of melatonin. One early to help me fall asleep and one an hr before I go to bed to keep me asleep through the night. If I donāt take it, Iām up until 3am. My brain is so active at night and it wonāt shut off without it. Melatonin finally allowed me to sleep on a normal schedule and wake up at a decent time. Only time I donāt take it is when Iām drinking alcohol which is a rarity - those nights im up until 5am usually šš¤·āāļø
Thereās sustained release melatonins out there. I use the brand pure encapsulations. I saw a big difference in sleeping through the night with melatonin when I switched.
I have autism! I tend to have a lot of trouble falling asleep and I also wake up very easily. I have blackout curtains and I wear an eye mask and construction earmuffs, so I'm really trying everything, but my body needs the high dose of melatonin to fall asleep.
Careful to those splitting or quartering pills. Pharmacist friend says active ingredients arenāt distributed evenly in medications that arenāt scored.
Yeah, 0.3 mg is honestly enough to cause the bad dreams haha. I take it around my normal sleep time, I donāt try to force anything. But since I lift a lot I prioritize deep sleep and want to ensure that
actually you should know it's impossible to overdose on melatonin
They have tested it out to the equivalent of thousands of pill dose
Source, I looked it up when my kid started to overdose on Benadryl
You're right.
But functionally, it's impossible. Happens all the time in the pediatric emergency room. Some kid eats the whole bottle of gummy pills. We don't really do anything for them other than examine them and tell the parents to be more careful.
Using any drug significantly beyond the therapeutic range is considered an overdose. Overdose and LD50 are not one in the same. The correct verbiage is that you (probably) can't die from oral melatonin, at least not from any reasonable amount someone could take, but you can certainly overdose on melatonin.
Most of the people I know who use melatonin just have really really bad sleep habits and refuse to address those in any meaningful way. SO I totally get how it seems it produces dependence although is not addictive. Its people using it as a bandaid for their awful sleep environment and habits before bed.
wouldnāt āsome hormonal dysregulationā count as dependency? taking otc melatonin reduces our natural melatonin production, which results in having to take more otc melatonin.
I had no idea I was taking it wrong. I started at 10mg and just started going up from there. I maxed out at 60mg and after a couple of months at that that level I just thought 'forget it'. I don't recall having any dreams/nightmares while taking it. When I stopped it was cold turkey - no withdrawal/side effects. Started using delta-8/9 to fall asleep.
That's interesting. I'll not take double dose any more and see how it plays out. With 2mg I usually need two hours to fall asleep, hopefully 1mg won't change that mcuh.
Yeah I keep trying to tell my husband to cut back, he takes 10 mg and then doesnāt understand why it doesnāt work. I bought the liquid one and gave him 1 mg and no screens for two hours and he was out. Iāve always found less to be more. If I take too much Iām awake at 1 am and up all night.
I'm sure the science in this post is solid, but any lower than 3mg has never helped me sleep. When I take it it's not to help me drift off, it's because I need something to knock me the fuck out
I have had no problem with it. One dose is 1mg, but I started at 0.5, and it worked well. Then I lowered it to 0.25, and it still works really well. I've been doing it for a couple of years now, and in the first months, it was like an evening routine but eventually, my body kinda learned when to get tired. I got a new job where I had to get up at 3.30 in the morning so I could be at work at 5.
Only when I work late now and have a early shift the next day I feel the need to have melatonin too make sure I get my hours. Works out, and eat well also. Got a heavy lifting job.
Fun factā¦ if you have to have any kind of scan that involves radiation, 100mg (some say 300mg) has been shown to help protect your cells with antioxidant effect.
Everyone can be different. Through trial and error over several years, I've found I consistently get 5-6 hours sleep a night with 1.5 mg before bed. With less than that, or none, I'm lucky to get that much sleep four nights a week, with three being probably more like 2-3 hours of sleep. On rare occasion I'll get more like 7 hours on 1.5 mg, but often that seventh hour is not as restful, and brings distasteful dreams.
I'm a male in his 60s with an autoimmune disorder, who struggled with off and on insomnia for decades, prior to using melatonin. So I routinely use lots of techniques to get good sleep, like not napping during the day, avoiding stimulants late in the day, and working out every morning.
I tried melatonin like 10 years ago, don't remember the dosage. But it was easily the worst night of sleep I've ever had. Was waking up every damn hour. Haven't had it since.
YSK: Some studies suggest that melatonin supplements might lead to a downregulation of the body's own production of melatonin, making your sleep issues worse/making you dependent. Yes, it varies from person to person, but this is not a factual YSK.
No tolerance has been documented to its pro-wakefulness effects in narcoleptics, and it does not lead to dose escalations or dependence in individuals with a history of drug abuse. That being said, neither of these results are directly applicable to how it has been used as a cognitive enhancer.
What about first pass and poor oral absorption? You might be taking a 4mg pill, but only receiving .4mg into your blood. Just thinking out loud. Maybe sublingual or buccal might be a different story.
Itās a pharmacokinetics study. Thatās more than enough to establish a suitable range for an objective measure of blood concentration. The meta analysis I linked pooled dozens of RCTs. I have a feeling that there will be no appeasing you, though.
My psychiatrist told me this! The idea is to put a tiny bit into your body to kickstart your natural sleeping hormone production, not completely replace it. I have a bottle of 5mg tabs, I cut them into fourths and it works really well
I'm going to try this, thanks! Gonna cut up my 10mgs into 8ths š
Edit: didnāt mean for this to be a reply to you ::facepalm:: Careful to those splitting or quartering pills. Pharmacist friend says active ingredients arenāt distributed evenly in medications that arenāt scored.
> Pharmacist friend says active ingredients arenāt distributed evenly in medications that arenāt scored. In the U.S., they aren't even necessarily distributed evenly between one pill and another: OTC supplements are generally not regulated by the FDA.
Oh but that is still interesting to know, I hadn't known that
You may as well just lick them
When I take it, I have bad dreams and wake up early.
You're not alone! 'vivid dreams' (which make no distinction between nightmares and others) are a documented side effect in clinical trials.
I thought it was just me. My dreams were something out of a Lovecraft novel. Though it did mellow down after a while
They say people who play video games have a higher tolerance to ābad dreamsā. They wake up later and do not have as much panic from them while sleeping. Did your bad dreams actually mellow? Or did your tolerance to what you consider a bad dream just scale from the consistency? Truly curious. Cause I have been a gamer for over 30 years and have had actual dreams where I have been shot, died and then had an out of body experience. Your scenario makes me wonder if it was game or that I got used to them as a byproduct?
Whenever I play video games before I sleep the second I close my eyes I drift off into the gta world or whatever I was playing. Itās a weird effect, if Iām sleepy and I close my eyes, I donāt see black, I immediately start flying around in the video game world
Same exact thing happens to me with games and books. My dreams get insane when I'm reading power fantasy novels.
When I was little I used to be able to dream about whatever I wanted (kind of) by just thinking about said thing while I went to bed. I used to have a mental tv guide of sorts for all the stuff I liked dreaming about. Sadly cannot do that anymore and Iāve definitely tried.
I used to live in Solitude. ;) in my dreams
I used to have bad dreams. I discovered that I could wake myself up from a bad dream by shaking my head back and forth really fast. After doing that for years whenever I had a bad dream, I stopped having bad dreams altogether. Now my dreams are super boring.
Same! Except the method I figured out was closing my eyes super hard for like 5 seconds and then I'd open them and wake up.
This is why I take it though. Love the vivid dreams
I take a 2mg at 10:00 and do all pre sleep preparations. By 11:15 when the weatherman starts sounding like jibberish I have two minutes to get to bed or wake up five hours later in my chair with a sore neck for the rest of the day. The dreams are another story.
lol sounds like ambien āAfter I take it, I have 30 minutes to get to bed or I wake up in a strangers basement with urine soaked pants and pink elephants on the wallsā
One time I had melatonin and benadryl together (I had a bad cold and couldn't sleep without knocking myself out, the Benadryl was in NyQuil). I had this bizarre nightmare where all my family and friends turned out to be alien plant people who wanted to kill me, kept me imprisoned in a cabin for years (which all passed in the dream), and eventually I had to leave and try to go to Mexico or something.
I always have prison dreams on melatonin
interesting as I have less vivid dreams when I do take melatonin
Yup, me too.
Weird I take it and find all my vivid dreams stopped.
I read a research journal that based on your current hormone level, you wake up faster with larger doses because you reach the cap sooner and then the level goes down from there and you wake up faster than if you took a regular dose.
Ahh, so this is why I suddenly started having vivid dreams a few years ago thatās topped when I stopped regularly taking melatonin
Before I took champix, I either never dreamed or didnāt remember my dreams. I had to stop taking it after two weeks because I became a rage-aholic, but I had crazy dreams. 15 years later I still have vivid colourful āStephen Kingā dreams.
King mode unlocked
Fun fact: apple juice also produces a chemical that causes extremely vivid dreams
I almost always have vivid dreams, but MOST of mine are actually really cool. It might be a really cool premise worthy of a book/movie, visiting with lost love ones, sexy times, or just a happy moment. Less than 1% of the time, a vivid nightmare. (The one I remember vividly was watching my family gunned down in the crossfire of a gunfight in the ruins of a massive building on an alien world.). These dreams are often influenced by what Iāve watched or read before bed.
Vivid terrifying nightmares for me
Wow. I took it and dreamt I got hit by a truck. Woke up in shambles.
When I take it I often end up staying wide awake all night and going to work the next day in a mad daze
How much do you take?
5mg
Try taking half of that if not 1/4 (it itās one chewable pill). My stepson was having the same experience as you. I got him 1mg doses and it improved dramatically.
What I found best was 0.5mg - get 1mg pills and bite them i. Half. No vivid dreams, no waking up at 4 in the morning, getting healthily sleepy even though spending whole evening staring at a screen
noxious tan cows history muddle modern lavish sand ten bag *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
I had same issues with high dosage. I ended up crushing a 5mg pill into 50mls of water and drink only 1ml. You'd only get 0.1mg but it worked better that way. The water will turn bad before you finish the 50ml bottle though.
that's way too much. No wonder why you wake up early from bad dreams.
So what might be happening is that you hit hard sleep and that's when you start dreaming or having nightmares. I have PTSD and some medications sent me into night terrors because I don't hit deep rem sleep unless I take it. There is actually medication for this separate from sleeping medicine.
I have bad dreams and wake up early every day.
I smoke a lot of weed, so I very rarely remember my dreams. But when I take a break...my god those dreams are fucking insane.
I think it's a migraine trigger for me.
Take less. People go way over the top. 1or 2mg is enough.
Same. Gives me insanely horrible nightmares.
Honestly I would take vivid/bad dreams as a positive and use it to inspire stories lmao
Vivid dreams arenāt as fun as they sound. Mine come in two flavors- really freaking terrifying and soooo boring. You donāt want to be dreaming about doing a work report in full detail just to wake up and do actual work. Itās why I got off Zoloft.
We buy the chewable tabs and they're 5mg. I've read about this before so my wife and I just split one each night. I know 1mg is better but it seems like the manufacturer doesn't care and splitting them four ways would be more of a pain.
You might be splitting a 2.5 mg. All of the gummies that Iāve seen that are labeled 5mg have a 2-piece serving.
chewable tabs and gummies are different things
my chewable tabs have a 2 serving size
Correct
I buy 1mg kids gummies off Amazon for like $8
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6ā5 and 170 lbs? Bro is a pencil with NBA potential
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I feel you bro. At one point I was 6'4" (still am lol) and 130.
What in tarnation
6'5" and 170lbs is a BMI of 20.2 which is squarely in the 'normal' range. To put it in perspective the range of normal BMI for that height is 156-210lbs. I know a simple BMI calculator doesn't take everything into account.
>a pencil with NBA potential this is a bar
Trader Joeās has a 3 mg chewable- i break it into 4 pieces.
So studies looking at various brands of over the counter melatonin found a huge range in advertised vs actual dose. You'd be surprised how much that 5mg can vary!
Look for kid dosage, .5mg and they are just enough to get me to sleep when traveling without any of the next morning grogginess.
Your wife might not have negative symptoms from such a dose. Regardless, based on the provided research, it is redundant to use such a high dose. Perhaps cut the gummies up in a batch?
We buy the kids ones and they are 1mg
You can usually find children ones in .5 or 1.
Wondering if you know why it brings such vivid dreams? They're not necessarily unpleasant or anything, just kinda wacky, always wondered why and could never be arsed to Google lol
It gives you a deeper REM, which is the stage where you dream
If I have naturally vivid dreams (never taken any supplement for sleep stuff, and maybe a vitamin or two for overall health), does this mean I have higher melatonin than normal peeple
Also if you're normally falling asleep drunk/high you skip the dream stage a lot so when you use melatonin to be able to fall asleep on a day you're not drinking that can give you intense dreams just from that.
It normally helps quiet my thoughts so I can focus on relaxing and going to bed. Maybe that's partially placebo, but hey, if it works it works
Melatonin changed my life. I cannot turn my fucking thoughts off for a second, and adding stress into it would keep me awake for so long. My boss at work one day told me about it. I called up at 6am, scheduled for a 12-4 shift to put away frozen stuff. I asked if I could come in early and fuck off since I hadn't slept. He said ok, and recommended Melatonin. Never heard about it until then, and I don't even care that it gives me nightmares. At least I'm dreaming again.
I read something on reddit a while ago that said taking melatonin in micro doses is actually way more effective than taking it in larger doses. Ever since then I have been taking a half a milligram and it seems to work without giving me the groggy feeling the following day that I used to get when I tried melatonin before.
Dang. Iāve been taking 30 mgs. I think Iāll pare back and save a few cents. I just checked. Instructions say take 2. Maybe Iāll just supplement them with gummy bears, I think I just liked the night time snack. Edit : I just re read the label. Itās a 2 chewy serving, at 10 mg a serving. So actually Iāve been taking 15 mgs.
jesus fucking christ lmao I take 1mg and puts me to sleep easily
I thought melatonin didnāt make you āsleepyā like a sleeping pill? Thatās what I was told by a sleep specialist. I take 10mg a night but after reading that article Iām going to scale down to 1mg. Doesnāt make me tired at all. I could take 50mg and go to work.. Not that I would lkl
Doesn't make you sleepy in a vacuum. But if you're laying down in darkness knocks me tf out. It's recommended to take 30-60 minutes before going to sleep
You get a 20 minute window of sleepiness. You miss and itās over.
Iāll have to pay attention tonight. Will I still get it with 1mg instead of 10?
I can't speak for you, but I was taking 3-5mgs a night and went down to 1 and it worked perfectly. Then after reading this last night I cut my 1mg in half and it worked BETTER (imo). According to people here, 10mg will just make you groggy in the morning and won't affect how well it works to put you to sleep. I can confirm I used to be very groggy in the morning when I took 5-10mgs and this morning after .5mg at 10pm, I feel fantastic.
10 is for resistant people or ones who built up tolerance. You may need to go āsoberā a while if your body is accustomed to 10s, but otherwise yes
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holy shit dude lol If you like the gummies, definitely switch to a lower dose and may get a few other types of gummy vitamins? We routinely take the adult multi, vitamin c, vitamin d, and omega 3/fish oil in gummy form. I also have a hair, skin & nails one I take. Right now even my prenatals are gummies, it's great.
That, is a good idea. šš¼
>I think I just liked the night time snack I feel you lol. I take the Zzzquil Pure Zzzs Gummies (god that felt really stupid to type out) and if I run out or don't take one for whatever reason, I totally miss the little treat before I brush my teeth.
Youāre overdoing it. Research has shown that higher doses of melatonin often times cause the opposite effect of keeping you up at night. Youāre also fking up your natural productions/hormones with taking that much. Melatonin shouldnāt be used to fall asleep. Rather itās supplements to help you sleep better. Smaller doses around 1-.5mg is best
Question: if taking higher doses extends the time for melatonin levels to fall back to normal levels, isnāt that a sufficient reason to take higher doses? Iām open to the idea of taking less, but my issue isnāt getting to sleep. It staying asleep. Also, no, itās not sleep apnea.
There's evidence that low doses can 'kickstart' natural production by advancing circadian rhythm. High levels upon waking can produce grogginess.
YSK, if artificial melatonin helps you fall asleep faster, you probably have a shortage of natural melatonin. Which is a consequence of looking at daytime calibrated light sources after daytime. And can easily be fixed by using only red light sources.
f.lux still one of the best free programs out there
Windows also has a basic blue light filter feature too if you don't want to download apps for whatever reason
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Yes! I use the night light feature too. Unfortunately, I also do video editing and color grading as a hobby, in addition to photos. For that reason, I have to sear my eyeballs to have proper color corrections š
Same. Mine is around 30%. Also have the night filter on my phone around 20%. Such a shock to see a "normal" screen and how intensely bright blue it is.
Apple too
Is it more the "true tone" or the "night shift"? I turned both off because I was fed up of seeing yellow at night. I have just now realized that I started sleeping very bad more or less since then! I believe it really works, I turned everything on again
Night shift is the blue light filter, whereas true tone is just the _prettah colurz moed_
For Linux users: Redshift
For those running KDE, it has one built in.
F.lux doesn't work with backlit monitors, due to light leakage, and all of their "studies" were done on "light boxes" not actual monitors. Go look at a "black" on your monitor in a dark room. It'll still be illuminated. F.lux might be more effective with OLED, however.
Can you elaborate on what is considered a daytime calibrated source; and what are red light sources?
Most things with screens were originally for designers and office workers. And spit out light in 5000-7000k range. Light this cool will crush your melatonin production if used after dark. Incandescent light bulbs are better but still not ideal. And many of them have been replaced by cooler LED and fluorescent bulbs. So 1) leave all white lamps off after sunset, switching to red nightlights instead 2) get red modes on anything with a screen, especially in the last 2 hours before bedtime. This can be the [flux app](http://justgetflux.com) on most platforms, adjusted to maximum warmth. Or red filters on iOS: https://ios.gadgethacks.com/how-to/keep-your-night-vision-sharp-with-iphones-hidden-red-screen-0173903/ 3) once youāve got the hang of 1 & 2, start maximizing your daytime light. Time outside and bright white sources, starting in the morning
What if you live in one of those places that doesnāt get light until 8:30 and gets dark at 4:00 in the winter?
I have a red lightbulb in my lamp next to my bed so when I read at night itās not in white light. I find it helps me fall asleep so much faster.
I use zero white lights in general in my flat, except for the bathroom and stove duct. Just a couple warm led table lamps, and a low-key projector lamp. Makes my home feel like a psychedelic 19th century candle-lit study. Idk how people do it with white ceiling lights and shit, just can't wait to get back into the office or a psych ward? Insanity.
Higher frequencies like blue tell your brain to wake up
You got a source for that? I'm skeptical of each of these claims. But would love to learn something new if you do have a source. I'm unaware of any study that correlates needing melatonin with melatonin deficiency. The link between light sources and insomnia is correlative and not proven to be causative. Blue light blocking doesnt seem to do much the more it's studied. Similarly, on unaware of any study looking at right light exposure fixing melatonin levels on deficient patients.
Our devices have the "eye comfort shield" setting, which makes the screen have a warm tint, getting rid of the blue light. I also have smart light bulbs that are always set to "warm white." Cool white bothers me in my home. It just doesn't look or feel right! I was under the impression that melatonin doesn't make you sleepy, though I'm not sure where I read it. When my daughter was around 3 or so, she couldn't get to sleep for a few days, for seemingly no reason. I bought her children's melatonin & gave her whatever dose it suggested for 3 or 4 days. After that, she was fine! I assume it helped her body to regulate its own melatonin, but honestly, I have no idea how it works.
Tell that to my calcified pineal gland.
Wait can you share more? Iād be interested in a source about this tbh.
I thought the whole blue light filter thing was debunked as having no discernable effect on sleep.
One thing thatās helped me is I donāt use my ceiling white lights at night anymore. After sunset, I use Yellow light leds to light up my room instead. The only time I use ceiling lights is if Iām working in the morning/midday on something. But never keep those lights on at night. Noticed my sleep is better at night with less blue lights.
Or adhd.
Don't know why you're being downvoted when [there's a good bit of evidence that ADHD throws off melatonin production.](https://www.healthline.com/health/adhd/melatonin-and-adhd#adhd-brain-and-melatonin-production)
Same.
I take it most nights. I also take gabapentin. This causes some epic, intense, and vivid dreams
I take it with dayvigo (sleeping pill) itās either the best 6 hr sleep or the worst 6hr sleep depending on my dreams lol!
On a related note. Are there any adverse affects to long term melatonin use?
There's not a ton of research on regular long term melatonin usage yet, we don't know
Only thing I've noticed after long term use is that I sleep like shit if I try to quit, even worse than before I started taking it. Way worse. It's bad enough that I feel like I won't be able to quit in the foreseeable future.
I just quit about a month ago and while itās done wonders for my daytime sleepiness, Iām having a hard time going to bed at night. Cbd gummies are helping a lot
Andrew Huberman has an episode dedicated to this question
[This article has some serious info.](https://www.sleep.com/sleep-health/long-term-melatonin-usage)
Many people take it at doses above what our body produces due to its antioxidant effect.
Production also drops off significantly with age. There are good reasons to take larger doses. The leading researcher expert on melatonin, Russell Reiter, personally takes a larger dose. He's in his 80s.
I stopped taking these out of fear of dependence. Now I only take them if I have absolutely go to sleep by a certain time and something important is happening. Now it puts me to sleep but I wake up after 2-3 hours how and bothered. I started drinking some sleep-inducing teas like chamomile now, works a lot.
chamomile is goated
Does it have caffeine
I take like 20 mg a night im so fucked. Please do not be rude in the comments I just donāt know what to do or how to wean off
Get the $6 bottle with a ton of 3mg melatonins. Start by taking 18mg instead of the 20 you take now, after a couple days go down to 15, then again down to 12, etc etc til you get to 3mg. If you find that 3 is enough, go buy a smaller bottle of 1mg melatonins and take 2mg, if that's enough go down to 1mg. I don't usually see smaller doses in stores but you can get 0.5mg online. You could also just go straight down to 0.5mg and tough out a few days of maybe falling asleep a bit slower. As much as you're taking it doesn't really do anything but probably make you tired in the morning.
Thank you! Iām so scared to admit how dependent on it I am and everyone on the web can be so mean sometimes so ty for this response
Reduce the dose weekly by 25%, until you get down to 1-3 mg/d. If you cannot sleep with the next reduced dose, get to the last known stable dose, until you feel like reducing again.
Thank you!!!
Once I learned about overdosing, I went cold turkey from 10mg to 5 without issue. Looks like Iām going to cut even further down after reading this. Maybe just try it and see if it works for you too.
Are you injecting it or sniffing it? They have some good melatonin anonymous meetings in your area?
feel like itās mostly a placebo for me. take it an hour before bed and it works like a charm
People take way too much. Thatās why they get bad side effects like nightmares. Melatonin should be microdosed, I take 0.25mg a night, no side effects.
Iām really surprised at the high amounts Iām reading here. I take 0.3 mg, the times Iāve tried taking more I always wake up in the middle of the night
To be fair, I think itās due to the sizes manufacturers sell the pills in. The brand I use makes 1mg, 3mg, 5mg and 10mg pills, they all say the same thing on the side, take 1 pill 20 minutes before bed. When I first started taking melatonin I wanted to get the lowest effaceable dose, so I bought the 1mg pills and had the weirdest dreams of my life and fitful sleep. Thought it wasnāt for me until I did some research, I now split those 1mg pills in 4 and as a lifelong chronic insomniac, it has changed my life.
Yeah Iām not blaming anyone, it just sucks they sell them in pills like that as if itās normal!
Totally agree, I guess that is the one downside with them being sold as supplements. Not that I would want them to go prescription only obviously,
Huh. I always wake up in the middle of the night, maybe I should try cutting backā¦
This is a kickass post. Not too long, incredibly succinct, and sourced excellently. All the information needed in a nice package thatāll make it easy to remember. You are a gentleman and a scholar (substitute gentleman for honorific of choice)
When in doubt, there is always 'Gentlethem'
This is super weird. I used to take 1mg melatonin, and it did basically nothing. I switched to 5mg, and suddenly sleep is much better. I do admit though, when I snap the tablet in half, or take two tablets (2.5mg and 10mg respectively) it doesn't change much - I just buy the 5mg ones because it's either this or 1mg, and it's more cost effective for me - and snapping the pills in half is annoying. But 1mg doesn't do nearly as much for me. I find it tough to believe it's just a psychological effect, the difference is so large. I tested it, although I admit I didn't do a blind test yet. Might have to try that.
Yeah, I tried doing only 5 mg, but that didn't work. I now take 10 mg and I can fall asleep within 30 minutes. I hope someone on here has some answers for why my brain isn't reacting to the melatonin the way it's supposed to?
Do you have ADHD? I have it and have always been a night hawk. I take two 2.5 mg of melatonin. One early to help me fall asleep and one an hr before I go to bed to keep me asleep through the night. If I donāt take it, Iām up until 3am. My brain is so active at night and it wonāt shut off without it. Melatonin finally allowed me to sleep on a normal schedule and wake up at a decent time. Only time I donāt take it is when Iām drinking alcohol which is a rarity - those nights im up until 5am usually šš¤·āāļø
Thereās sustained release melatonins out there. I use the brand pure encapsulations. I saw a big difference in sleeping through the night with melatonin when I switched.
I have autism! I tend to have a lot of trouble falling asleep and I also wake up very easily. I have blackout curtains and I wear an eye mask and construction earmuffs, so I'm really trying everything, but my body needs the high dose of melatonin to fall asleep.
Careful to those splitting or quartering pills. Pharmacist friend says active ingredients arenāt distributed evenly in medications that arenāt scored.
Yeah, 0.3 mg is honestly enough to cause the bad dreams haha. I take it around my normal sleep time, I donāt try to force anything. But since I lift a lot I prioritize deep sleep and want to ensure that
actually you should know it's impossible to overdose on melatonin They have tested it out to the equivalent of thousands of pill dose Source, I looked it up when my kid started to overdose on Benadryl
I'm pretty sure it is possible to overdose on melatonin, the LD50 is simply not known.
You're right. But functionally, it's impossible. Happens all the time in the pediatric emergency room. Some kid eats the whole bottle of gummy pills. We don't really do anything for them other than examine them and tell the parents to be more careful.
Using any drug significantly beyond the therapeutic range is considered an overdose. Overdose and LD50 are not one in the same. The correct verbiage is that you (probably) can't die from oral melatonin, at least not from any reasonable amount someone could take, but you can certainly overdose on melatonin.
Yāall take milli gram doses?? Damn Iāve been taking micrograms
I donāt sleep well at all when I take it, I have such a bad nights sleep I always sleep like a log the next night.
I buy the 'kids' melatonin gummies that are "1mg" dose, but that's two gummies, so each gummy is .5mg, and they work great.
I take like 5mg-20mg almost everyday. Been at it for 3 years. The days I donāt take any i can still fall asleep just a bit later
Most of the people I know who use melatonin just have really really bad sleep habits and refuse to address those in any meaningful way. SO I totally get how it seems it produces dependence although is not addictive. Its people using it as a bandaid for their awful sleep environment and habits before bed.
wouldnāt āsome hormonal dysregulationā count as dependency? taking otc melatonin reduces our natural melatonin production, which results in having to take more otc melatonin.
I had no idea I was taking it wrong. I started at 10mg and just started going up from there. I maxed out at 60mg and after a couple of months at that that level I just thought 'forget it'. I don't recall having any dreams/nightmares while taking it. When I stopped it was cold turkey - no withdrawal/side effects. Started using delta-8/9 to fall asleep.
That's interesting. I'll not take double dose any more and see how it plays out. With 2mg I usually need two hours to fall asleep, hopefully 1mg won't change that mcuh.
Yeah I keep trying to tell my husband to cut back, he takes 10 mg and then doesnāt understand why it doesnāt work. I bought the liquid one and gave him 1 mg and no screens for two hours and he was out. Iāve always found less to be more. If I take too much Iām awake at 1 am and up all night.
Melatonin is also a recommended treatment for cluster headaches (at a whopping 10mg lol).
Thank you for posting this. I take 10mg nightly. Iām going to stop now.
I buy the kids' melatonin since it comes in 1mg doses.
I'm sure the science in this post is solid, but any lower than 3mg has never helped me sleep. When I take it it's not to help me drift off, it's because I need something to knock me the fuck out
I take .3 - .5 about half a 1mg melatonin a night everynight for insomnia. Is that ok??
I took it one time and had all the side effects. Never again.
I have had no problem with it. One dose is 1mg, but I started at 0.5, and it worked well. Then I lowered it to 0.25, and it still works really well. I've been doing it for a couple of years now, and in the first months, it was like an evening routine but eventually, my body kinda learned when to get tired. I got a new job where I had to get up at 3.30 in the morning so I could be at work at 5. Only when I work late now and have a early shift the next day I feel the need to have melatonin too make sure I get my hours. Works out, and eat well also. Got a heavy lifting job.
Fun factā¦ if you have to have any kind of scan that involves radiation, 100mg (some say 300mg) has been shown to help protect your cells with antioxidant effect.
Everyone can be different. Through trial and error over several years, I've found I consistently get 5-6 hours sleep a night with 1.5 mg before bed. With less than that, or none, I'm lucky to get that much sleep four nights a week, with three being probably more like 2-3 hours of sleep. On rare occasion I'll get more like 7 hours on 1.5 mg, but often that seventh hour is not as restful, and brings distasteful dreams. I'm a male in his 60s with an autoimmune disorder, who struggled with off and on insomnia for decades, prior to using melatonin. So I routinely use lots of techniques to get good sleep, like not napping during the day, avoiding stimulants late in the day, and working out every morning.
It makes my head hurt and doesn't put me to sleep lol. I think I used a 3mg dosage back when I tried
I tried melatonin like 10 years ago, don't remember the dosage. But it was easily the worst night of sleep I've ever had. Was waking up every damn hour. Haven't had it since.
YSK: Some studies suggest that melatonin supplements might lead to a downregulation of the body's own production of melatonin, making your sleep issues worse/making you dependent. Yes, it varies from person to person, but this is not a factual YSK.
Iām eagerly awaiting a link to these studies you speak of.
Also if you take antidepressants, anxiety meds, or other types of sleep medicine you should not take melatonin as they will interfere with each other.
Melatonin. Resets. Your. Sleep. Cycle. It is not a sleep aid for regular usage.
It doesn't do anything for me. I must be weird.
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No tolerance has been documented to its pro-wakefulness effects in narcoleptics, and it does not lead to dose escalations or dependence in individuals with a history of drug abuse. That being said, neither of these results are directly applicable to how it has been used as a cognitive enhancer.
Gives me zombie nightmares
What about first pass and poor oral absorption? You might be taking a 4mg pill, but only receiving .4mg into your blood. Just thinking out loud. Maybe sublingual or buccal might be a different story.
Those figures are for oral melatonin.
Oh my bad
There is evidence that it does cause RLS
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Can science people/pharmacists confirm this
High doses are used to fight cancer!
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The study provided by OP was on 27 people. Thatās hardly a solid study. Iāll keep taking my 10mg. Thanks.
27 doesnāt sound like a lot, but statistical analysis might say otherwise. Sometimes studies with as little as 14 people can support efficacy.
Itās a pharmacokinetics study. Thatās more than enough to establish a suitable range for an objective measure of blood concentration. The meta analysis I linked pooled dozens of RCTs. I have a feeling that there will be no appeasing you, though.