Most OTC sleeping pills leave me groggy the next day, which rather defeats the purpose of taking them. Even if they didn’t, I’d be wary of taking them more than once in a blue moon. I need something relatively cheap, non-prescription, and with absolutely no risk of addiction. I’ve heard melatonin fits that. I’ve also heard it can mess with peoples heads, offering dreams so freaky it’s not worth it. Most of the sites I can find discussing it are either selling pills and/or wacky new-age stuff.
Anyone use it? Experiences, advice, warnings, etc.?
I have always had good experiences with it. Dreams can be a little weird, but my dreams tend that direction anyway so I don’t even notice much difference.
Sometimes I wake up after 4-5 hours and have to take some more because I cannot fall back asleep, but FWIW, I tend towards insomnia anyway, so I don’t know if it is the drug or me.
Also, when I have real trouble sleeping I have tried drinking and it didn’t help much (unless I was pretty much drunk, but then I don’t wake up rested). I looked up online and talked to some pharmacists and Alcohol + Melatonin has no known contraindications, so I tried it, and one beer (or glass of wine) + Melatonin puts me right to sleep. No hangover, no extra weird dreams, just out. Takes about 25-30 minutes though.
I took in once to get over transatlantic jetlag, and it gave me horrible nightmares on the plane, and screaming heebie-jeebies for a whole day afterwards.
I react badly to stuff that messes with my serotonin/whatever levels.
I’ve also had good experiences with it. I like the sublingual 1mg pills you can get from GNC which you let dissolve under your tongue – I find it works better for me than a regular pill. (And just the taste itself probably has some added Pavlovian effect after a while.)
I don’t take it regularly, but just to get me over bouts of persistent insomnia where I simply can’t fall asleep until several hours after my desired bed time. I also don’t take it once I’ve been up for several hours, as I think it’s counterproductive – you’re telling your body that that’s the correct bedtime. I just suffer through that first night and then take melatonin for the next couple of days until I’m back on track.
As for the alcohol, I’ve never had a problem with a glass of wine or two, but recently in Paris I had some major vertigo for a couple of days which I believe was due to an interaction between the lots of wine I was drinking and the melatonin I was taking for jet lag. Cursory Internet research seemed to support this, so I stopped the melatonin and the dizziness went away. Something to keep in mind if you wake up feeling dizzy.
Yeah, one side effect of the melatonin and alcohol mix is drowsiness which can cause dizziness or vertigo. It does for me sometimes too. Never drank it with lots of alcohol though.
It’s the only way I can get to sleep unless I’m completely wore out. I only take half of a 3mg though. A whole one makes me a little sick the next morning. The dreams are AMAZING. Extremely vivid but not bad.
The doctor recommended melatonin for my son when he couldn’t shut his brain off long enough to sleep. He’s Autistic, and couldn’t stop thinking.
It works but it’s subtle. I take a combination of meleton and benadryl when I need to sleep. If I take one or the other I don’t notice much, but for some reason both of them work together to knock me out.
As far as I can tell there’s no problem with mixing these two substances, although you might want to ask a doctor it if you’re unsure.
I’m surprised no one else has mentioned that with melatonin you, (or at myself and a large number of other people) also experience next-day grogginess with melatonin. I mean, you feel rested but you still want (and can!) go to bed. But it’s still better than not sleeping at all, especially if you can devote 1+ more hours to sleep than you would without melatonin.
I don’t get nearly as groggy with 1/4 of a standard tablet (so around 250 micrograms?) but I still do a little bit, even if I can sleep more than 8 hours.
Doesn’t its effectiveness wear off after a couple of weeks? I’ve had friends who are long time advocates of melatonin who have told me not to take it for more than 2 weeks.
It works for me if I’m just tired and should sleep but if the major insomnia kicks in, it’s time for NyQuil PM capsules.
It works pretty well for me, when it works. Sometimes I wake up at 3 am and can’t get back to sleep, and it gets me back to sleep with no hangover the next morning. But sometimes it doesn’t work at all.
Seems to work for me. Don’t seem to build a tolerance. No alcohol interactions, no vivid dreams, no next morning grogginess and I can take it with Benedryl if I really can’t sleep. I take a 1 mg tablet. I’ll combine it with valerian (which is a calming herb) if I’m in anxiety mode - that seems to work very well (better than the benedryl) and putting me to sleep.
I take the liquid melatonin (4 squirts of the dropper per dose), and I’ve never had a problem with it. It usually takes about 30-40 minutes after taking it for me to relax and drift off, but I only have good results if I take it before my regular bedtime. If I take it at 2 or 3 a.m. (instead of 10:30 p.m.), it doesn’t help me sleep.
I usually feel groggy in the morning for about 10 minutes, but after a shower the grogginess is gone (unlike with other sleep aids) and I’m sharp as a tack.
Have taken it in combo with a glass or two of wine, and always have positive results. Never had dizzyness or weird dreams, or no weirder than usual.
I took it last year for about a month to help through a bad period of insomnia. My doc told me to avoid the extended release kind since it usually left people with a groggy head the next day.
I was taking 5mg a night and after about 20 minutes I was out and if I woke up in the middle of the night I’d take half of one.
After a while I was able to drop down to 2.5mg a night then I went off of them completely. I still keep them in my nightstand, just in case.
I’ll second or 20nd the weird dreams but I like weird dreams so I saw it as a bonus.
I was developing quite a tylenol PM habit that was beginning to distress me. I’ve switched over to melatonin, which I have used in the past.
The thing about it is, it is what your body produces when you are sleepy, so the feeling I get is that I’m sleepy, not that I’m being knocked out like with some other OTC meds. I find there is a definite window, approximately 30 minutes after taking, that I must go to bed then or the effects tend to wear off. The quality of my sleep is MUCH better with melatonin, I actually wake up feeling like I’ve slept, even if I have spend the night with wacky dreams.
If you watch the sales and coupons, you can get it for pretty cheap. I was able to get 4 bottles of it for free.
ETA: Interesting that a doc would prescribe it for an autistic kid. My main problem with sleeping is getting my brain to shut down, which is why I read before bed and take stuff to help. I would literally lay there and think all night otherwise. Folks who fall asleep when their head hits the pillow amaze me.
Its interesting that a doc would suggest it for a kid - because its a hormone that hasn’t been tested at all by the FDA (because it does occur naturally in plants or something like that). Kids do make melatonin though (unlike, say, giving them large doses of estrogen).
(hey, my friends don’t get groggy from it, but they don’t get groggy from Benedryl and I do so I know how you feel)