Used Melatonin? Comments Please

[Muse-Inc]

These nightly wakeups are really making me tired & I'm nodding off at work again . Looking for input from people who've used melatonin, pros and cons. I know Ambien is supposed to help but I had parasomias as a child and still talk in my sleep when very stressed or over tired and Ambien has been linked to increased parasomias so want to avoid, plus I wanna go natural if at all possible. So comments please.

PS AHI=1.3, AI=0.1, leaks under control (swapping out oral cushion & pillows as seals're getting looser), SpO2 >92%, pulse averages 50s-70s with the rare spike to 100+ (REM dreams maybe?). Therapy seems good, so looking for other things that might help me get restful sleep. Sleep in the dark, temp is cool, sleep on a wedge (congestion & edema issues), averaging about 7.5 hrs (really need more can't seem to arrange schedule to get more), stress is high. Sure hope this is NOT the best it can be for me now.

[Kiralynx]

I use melatonin. How much you use may depend on your weight. 3 mg works for me. It doesn't MAKE me sleep. It just makes me sleepy and takes the edge off so that I can drop off to sleep.

[detcord]

I use melatonin as well, 3 MG at night. Just makes me warm and fuzzy, and I drift off to sleep. My wife takes it as well, and I can definitely tell when she doesn't take her pill. Works for me.

[DreamStalker]

I tried it back in late 2006 about 6 months into start of CPAP therapy. It did seem to make make go into deep REM as I was having vivid dreams. After a week or so I stopped and the withdrawal was bad. For about 4 or 5 days I would just lay there tossing and turning and not being able to go to sleep.

Maybe it was just me (I'm kind'a weird sometimes) but I did not like it at all when I stopped taking it ... at least in the short term. After a week or so of going off I was back to normal so no real harm done.

[jlgwinn]

I use the sublingual melatonin as it gets in my system a little faster. Sometimes, not sure if it's the melatonin, but I will wake up with a headache at times. 7mg, I'm a pretty big fellow.


Jeff

[LSAT]

I also use Melatonin plus 3mg....available at Costco...Bottle of 300 for 5.99. I feel that it helps me fall asleep faster, but I don't think it helps me stay asleep. I generally wake up after 6-7 hours and then just doze for 2 hours.

[YawnGirl]

I just started using it this week. My doc suggested 3mg per night. I still wake during the night, but seem to get back to sleep easier, so far anyway. I did have a hard time waking up in the morning, so you may want to start with half a pill or take early, like 9pm or so.

[SleepingUgly]

I use 3/4 of a mg at 6pm to help set my circadian rhythms. Supposedly .5 to 1mg is all that is necessary for those purposes. If you're using it for its hypnotic effects, my concern would be that if you take it later in the evening, won't it them cause your melatonin to peak later than you want it to for your internal clock. One theory is that if you supply your body with the substance, it will make less of it, so you're not really ahead. Also, it is not FDA regulated and there can be impurities in it, as well as who knows what else. My GP said that he thinks it can cause all kinds of side effects, but I don't know if that's true. But there does seem to be variability from manufacturer to manufacturer, and possibly from pill to pill. For example, some 3mg pills made me less tired than a particular 1mg pill. My personal bias is that many "natural", that is, unregulated, substances are worse for us than the regulated ones.

Reportedly Ambien, Lunesta, and Sonata are all fine for sleep apnea patients. Sonata may be too short-acting for your purposes. Lunesta is mid-range between Sonata and Ambien, I believe. You have had sleep maintenance issues for awhile and the amount of sleep you get is a source of stress for you (I can relate!). So why not try one of these medications and make the decision of whether it causes you parasomnias based on experience now?

[Jaylee]

I use melatonin. How much you use may depend on your weight. 3 mg works for me. It doesn't MAKE me sleep. It just makes me sleepy and takes the edge off so that I can drop off to sleep.

Yes, pretty much exactly this for me as well.

[SleepingUgly]

I use melatonin. How much you use may depend on your weight.

I'm not sure that it does depend on your weight. I had a doctor tell me that some people get the hypnotic effect and some don't. But I don't think you'd want to take more than 3mg. With some of the various ones I've tried, and particularly initially, 50 minutes after I ingested it, I felt EXTREMELY tired. Unfortunately, as I said, I take it at 6pm, so being that tired at 7pm is not a benefit to me!

[kteague]

I used it for a while when I was trying to get on a better sleep schedule. It did nothing for me for sleep maintenence. I had to take a very low dose as the times I tried 3mg I had miserably agitated sleep with nightmares. If you choose to take it, maybe start at a very low dose and work up so you can see how you tolerate and respond to it. Forgive me for not being able to keep everybody's stories straight in my mind, but do you have RLS?

[elena88]

I tried three mg of melatonin sublingual fashion, went to bed.. awhile later I felt like someone stabbed me behind the right eye with an ice pick,
I jumped out of bed and almost pulled the machine off the table it was so bad.. so that was it for me.

However, my sleep doc will not give me ambien, we tried four things, since I was congested with allergies, I asked if there was a sleepy
allergy med, and she suggested benadryl.. Its been working great for helping me to sleep.. I wake up a tiny bit hungover, but the feeling
only lasts about ten minutes. I take it a half hour before bedtime, just one pill of the allergy sinus over the counter stuff.

[pdean44]

I take 2-3 tablets without any ill effects on occasion. I tried it again last night after reading this thread. It does seem to help me fall asleep. It doesnt do a lot if i wake up again in the middle of the night for me. I tend to start thinking of all the things i need to do the next day when i wake up in the middle of the night and often have trouble getting back to sleep then. Last night went well though. Over all i would say it helps. I dont feel overly tired the next day like when i was taking tylenol pm once in a blue moon. that helps me when i am having a bad arthritis day. But i feel shot the next day so i stay away from that as much as possible.

[kurth83]

I use it all the time.

I read somewhere that .25 mg/day is what your body made when you were younger,
and by age 60 it doesn't make much at all.

So I use .25mg doses. It takes two, one at bedtime, and one at the 1-3 am wakeup
that usually happens to me.

I haven't started my CPAP therapy yet, so I don't know if my insomnia is caused
by apnea or not yet.

[Uncle_Bob]

It just makes me sleepy and takes the edge off so that I can drop off to sleep.

I find a drop of scotch good for that