I was interested to read in this thread over in GQ about age, possible melatonin loss and its effect on sleep. I have trouble with waking up at 3 a.m. to pee and never getting back to sleep, so I decided to see if melatonin would help me return to sleep.
Here’s how it turned out: I woke up at 3 a.m. as usual, but I could go back to sleep. However, I had the most vivid and upsetting dreams which had the effect of startling me back awake again. Then straight back to sleep, straight back into the dream, and boom, awake and upset. This pattern repeated from 3 a.m. to 5 a.m., when I gave up and got up to stop the dreaming. I tried it two nights in a row to make sure it wasn’t a quirk, but had the same effect.
I think I’ll stick with insomnia or Tylenol PM at the most, thankyouverymuch.
Just curious, how much did you take? I’ve had good luck with 1 mg of melatonin, but I’ve seen recommendations for much much higher doses (which is far more than your body produces).
Yes, but it seems different to me. The dosage (Diphenhydramine HCl 25 mg) is the same but I don’t sleep nearly as well. Eh, maybe it’s just me. Lucky you!
I had to look for the 1mg bottle. 3 seems to be more common - with directions that say “take one or two” which gets you to 6 mg - which is a LOT of melatonin compared to what a normal body makes.
I’ve heard that melatonin affects some people like this. I’d go insane without mine. I can’t sleep normal without at least 3 to 6 mg’s in me a night.
After one particularly stressful night I accidentally popped 4 of the 3 mg tablets (I was mistaking it for some baby aspirin - icky when chewed!) and I had really vivid, but not bad, dreams.
Interesting, my wife bought me a bottle of 3mg melatonin to help me sleep more soundly, and I assumed it was homeopathic hogwash. I did try it just to humor her and I got the same effect, incredibly vivid dreams.
I started cutting the pills in half and it works much better, and goes along with what Dangerosa is saying.
I tracked down the person to whom I gave the bottle and checked: they’re 1 mg.
To be clear, they don’t give me nightmares, per se, but I dreamt that dead loved ones (human and canine) were alive again, and to wake up and re-realize that they are indeed dead six or eight times a night is way too upsetting for me. The dreams were vividly realistic and I completely believed they were alive again.
When I tried it many years ago, it had the same dramatic effect on my dreams. Some, to the point that I was so scared by them (not nightmares necessarily), I woke up with my heart pounding 60 miles a minutes.
Another effect on me was that some nights, I would sleep “normally,” some nights it seemed to have no effect at all, and some nights it worked all too well – I’d sleep through the night, but wake up groggy, and be sluggish for most of the morning.
The second time this last effect happened, I threw it away.