melatonin dosage

[echo]

I'm just wondering if any of you know what the half-life of melatonin is, and what the side-effects of taking too much might be? I'm using the standard 3mg dose but am thinking of taking a double dose. My sleep schedule is really off-track at the moment and it's causing problems at work, and I cannot get to sleep before 2am (if I'm lucky). The 3mg doesn't seem to make me sleepy enough.

Normally I take Sonata to get the sleep schedule back on track and it doesn't make me a zombie the next day, but the last couple of nights i've taken it, I've been waking up really groggy (after sleeping 10+ hours). Without the Sonata, I manage to get up after 7-8 hours, but then the problem is that I fall asleep way too late, in the wee hours of the morning, and then I'm late for work unless I get up after 5 hours of sleep (which I can't). (and that's not good, in this climate of excessive layoffs!)

Thanks in advance!!

[Songbird]

Echo, this thread has a lot about using melatonin (and some other stuff):
viewtopic/t36873/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=36 ... in#p319323.
I found comments by Snoredog and Kiralynx to be particularly helpful. I take 6 mg. a night, and I wouldn't worry about upping yours to that. But I don't have any medical training, so please take that as a laywoman's opinion -- albeit based on expert advice and a bunch of reading. Also, if you run a search on "melatonin," you'll find a LOT written about it in the forum. I know you aren't feeling well and maybe don't feel like doing a bunch of reading. Without looking it up, I do remember Snoredog saying anything from 3 to 9 is fine. I hope you feel better sooooon AND get good sleep sooner.

Marsha

[OldLincoln]

Echo, I'm a big fan of Sonata but am currently on sabbatical from it and trying Melatonin. Your go to sleep schedule may need to change. I was in bed by 9:30PM (asleep by 10PM) with Sonata and woke up a little before 6AM without hangover. One thing I found consistently true is that if I sleep 10 hrs or more I also feel groggy during the day, with 8hs I don't.

[goose]

Hey echo,
Melatonin is a chemical that your body creates naturally, so you're only supplementing something that your body isn't making so much of anymore. When we're kids our body's make a lot more melatonin that as adults. When I take it, I always use a 6mg dose.....
One thing I have found and have read about is that the room needs to be very dark for melatonin to be effective. It's darkness that keys your body to start melatonin production as "it's time to sleep".....

I use benedryl to make me drowsy -- have for years -- and melatonin is a lot more benign than benedryl.....If you do a lot of benedryl for a long time you can develop a tolerance and will need more for the drowsy feeling, but I take a very minimal dose each night and have never developed the tolerance - and with my allergies it serves a dual purpose.....

I'm no doctor, so you have to take the above with a grain of salt and some google research...

take care
cheers
goose

[ca_hosehead]

Melatonin is widelt misunderstood. It is signaling hormone, it tells the rest of the body that it is dark and time to begin the sleep cycle. The "standard dose" of 3mg is about 10 times what a normal person produces.

It doesn't actually force the body into sleep like a drug would, it just signals other systems to do what they do when it is dark. You need just enough for the systems to get the message.

There are no studies on the long term side effects of melatonin. In one study large does shrank the testicles of animal subjects (not a happy thing.)

Most people take more than they need, and they take it when they go to bed like a sleeping pill, but it isn't the same thing.

Melatonin dosages can move the body clock. Taking a dose too late (like bed time) can move the body clock forward, not what you want.

Try taking less of it and taking it earlier in the evening, like 1-2 hours before bed. Also exposure to bright light (like you get outdoors) in the AM can move your clock in the right direction.

[Sleepy Boy]

I tried melatonin and it gave me the "fidgetts" you know, cant lay still feeling. Itried it for 2-3 nights, but for some reason it bothered me. Anyone else have that??

[jnk]

I'm no doc, either. (Just opinionated.) But I would discourage anyone relatively young, especially who is having trouble getting up in the morning, from taking melatonin at all, other than in certain exceptional circumstances. And I would think 0.3 would make more sense than 3.

Start low-dose and change when you take it to get the right effect. Popping a melatonin is sorta like dimming the lights, turning off the TV, moving slow, and beginning the "OK, now it's time for sleep" evening rituals that signal to our body to start drifting off. Perfecting the timing of those rituals can be as important as the timing of melatonin, if you are gonna take it. My understanding is that most who take it use it because age, or some medical treatment, has decreased their natural production of it.

http://insomnia.emedtv.com/melatonin/me ... osage.html
http://www.sleep-disorders-help.com/396 ... osage.html
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m ... i_95676501
http://www.vanderbilt.edu/AnS/psycholog ... atonin.htm

[roster]

Here is a good summary of studies on melatonin: http://www.ahrq.gov/clinic/epcsums/melatsum.htm

The dangers they mention have to do with auto or other accidents caused by sleepiness (just take it at bedtime of course!). Other than that, melatonin supplements are believed to be of little danger to your health. For goodness sakes, not sleeping is a big damage to our health so consider melatonin a blessing if it helps you sleep.

Half-life is reported at 0.5 to 2 hours. You would need to know how much is needed in your bloodstream to make you sleepy and what the half-life is in your particular bloodstream to calculate how much to take. So there is no way to calculate it; you must experiment.

Maybe the response is very individualized. I can say for sure 3 mg will help me sleep for 8 hours and my libido is higher (not that it needs to be ). Definitely increases REM. Not sure whether the libido effect is directly from the melatonin or a result of better sleep.

I may embark on a long term taking of melatonin and am interested to see if the effect changes over time.

[jnk]

Nice find, rooster!

I think this may be the full report that summary is from:

http://www.ahrq.gov/downloads/pub/evide ... atonin.pdf

[roster]

Nice find, rooster!

I think this may be the full report that summary if from:

http://www.ahrq.gov/downloads/pub/evide ... atonin.pdf

137 pages. If I were alert enough to read all of that, I would not be needing melatonin.

Thanks.

[jnk]

Nice find, rooster!

I think this may be the full report that summary if from:

http://www.ahrq.gov/downloads/pub/evide ... atonin.pdf

137 pages. If I were alert enough to read all of that, I would not be needing melatonin.

Thanks.

Yeah, reading that in the evening might work better than melatonin!

[carbonman]

Maybe the response is very individualized.

Interesting read.
I took melatonin for years, pre-OSA diag., desperate for some sleep.
It did help to go to sleep, but of course, I did not stay asleep.
I continued to use it w/cpap.
As I continue to improve w/therapy, I quit taking it 3+wks ago.
No problems going to sleep.
Same amount of wake up times.
Dreaming suddenly increased well beyond my....wait for it.....

wildest dreams.

I am taking all this as indicators that w/cpap therapy,
my body is learning how to do all those "normal" body
things again. ....and that can only be a good thing.

[roster]

.......
Dreaming suddenly increased well beyond my....wait for it.....

wildest dreams.

.......

There have been discussions here about "REM rebound". When you start cpap and are finally able to sleep, your brain tries to catch up on REM and you dream a lot. Some have said body maintenance is done in slow wave sleep and brain maintenance is done in REM.

[Kiralynx]

I tried melatonin and it gave me the "fidgetts" you know, cant lay still feeling. Itried it for 2-3 nights, but for some reason it bothered me. Anyone else have that??

Check and see if the melatonin you were using had B6, aka pyridoxine. Although B6 is necessary for you to produce your own melatonin, some people react adversely to B6 at bed time.

Edited because I can't spell worth beans today. And the "spill chucker" is worse.

[ozij]

Try the one that comes with google toolbar - it's much better and friendlier than the one that comes with the forum.
It works great - if you use it.
Which I sometimes don't have the patience to do....
O.