Anyone use melatonin?

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WVDragonlady

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I'm having sleep issues. Guess it comes with age now that I'm retired.
I can sleep anywhere from 2-6 hours before I have to get up and use the bathroom.
After that I can not get back to sleep. I lay there for hours but my brain will not shut down so I can sleep.

I was wondering about taking some melatonin.
How fast it works, how much to use, if maybe I should take it with supper so it starts to work later in the night when I have the trouble going back to sleep.

Anyone use it? Did it work for you? How much did you use? What time did you take it? How long before it started working?
 
I've tried it, and the product didn't work for me. What I found works best is the generic brand of Nyquil a half hour before bedtime. I seldom have to get up during the night though so can't speak on that issue.
EDIT.. Also I had to stop drinking anything with caffeine in it past 3 PM, and also limit any liquid late in the day. Age is not kind to our bodies sometimes.
 
I have had sleep issues ever since Vietnam, over 50 years now.
I used to drink myself to sleep, but chose complete abstinence years ago.
I refuse to take any prescription sleep aids.
I use melatonin, but you shouldn’t use it for more than a week without taking a break for a few nights.
I use generic Rexall brand I get at Dollar General, the 3mg dose.
Take one about an hour before bed time. Sometimes, I have to take another after about an hour, but not always.
It works for me, and my sleep patterns were changed permanently by PTSD.
 
I use it on occasion, but not all the time. I like the 3mg berry flavored dissolvable tabs. They work great for me. I take it about 30 minutes before I want to go to bed. I've heard that if you take too much melatonin it doesn't work. I have noticed that it is true for me, even though it seems counterintuitive. I took a 10 mg tab and it didn't do anything for me. My mom was complaining to me a while back that she took 15 mg and it diidn't do any good. I told her to try a lower dosage, but I doubt she listened. So, try lower does first and work your way up to what your perfect dosage would be. I have 1, 3, 5, and 10mg tabs.

Also, when you start feeling drowsy, go to bed. I have stayed up to finish something I was doing and stayed up past that 'drowsy' feeling and then it didn't do anything. So, now I make sure I'm going to be ready to turn in after a half hour.
 
I don't have any problems going to sleep. Its just that after I get up at night I can't get BACK to sleep.
We don't have tv and reading doesn't make me sleepy if anything it makes my brain work even more making the pictures in my head from the words on the page
White noise isn't working

I don't think hubby's snoring is the problem. I've been hearing it for over 40 years now lol
 
I used melatonin for several years when I traveled a lot. A strange hotel, strange bed etc. made sleeping difficult.

I found it worked best if I only used it occasionally, not every night. Also smaller doses worked for me.

I currently use several things one being an otc product named "Calms Forte" I get at a drug store. It's a mix of 6 or 7 herbs and works pretty well. Also, sometimes I take passion flower tincture, both work well.
 
I take 10mg of melatonin every night about 30 minutes before bed. It seems to help, but not all the time.
I also have the problem of waking up and not being able to go back to sleep.
When that happens I just get up for an hour or 2 then try again. Works most of the time.
One thing that seems to help the most is going to bed later. I always went to bed promptly at 9 PM. Now I try to stay up to at least 10. When I do I seem to be able to go back to sleep when I wake up in the middle of the night.
As I go older sleep became more of a problem. Waking up at 3 or 4 and not getting back to sleep is hard on a person.
If I shower at night I tend to sleep better but I still have to shower in the morning so I take 2 showers a day.
Sleep problems are just another in a long list of things that happens as we get older.
 
I take 2 5Mg (10Mg) time release tablets every night the I feel sleepy. I had been off melatonin for quite awhile when my doctor told me to take 5Mg daily to prevent cytokine reaction should I get covid and 10Mg for sleep. The time release works best for me. I use Nature's Bounty, dual spectrum 5Mg.
 
I was having trouble sleeping so I went to the drug store. The drugget handed me a box of Sominex sleeping pills and a box of Benadryl and said compare the ingredients. They were exactly the same. Sominex was $8 for 6 pills and Benadryl was $4 for a box of 12.
Diphenhydramine is also the active ingredient in many over-the-counter sleep aids, including Unisom gel caps, Nytol, and the US version of Sominex.
A lot of stuff has that ingredient. Just about anything the has PM in the name.
 
I have family members who swear by this and it has melatonin.


I did take it for two nights a few years ago when I had to wait 2 days before the endodontist could do a root canal, and it helped me sleep.
 
I take melatonin. 5mg when I need to sleep or after a night of bad sleep. I recommended it to my dad who is a night owl as well and has narcoleptic tendencies when he doesn't get good sleep.

I give 1mg to the girls when we need them to get good sleep before a big day (like when we went to Disneyland 2 years ago).
 
I don't know if others have this effect with melatonin......but, it makes me dream LOTS. Weird dreams too, but not scary or anything like that. Hubs said when he takes melatonin (which is very rare for him) he dreams too and he usually doesn't dream......at least that he remembers.
 
I take 10mg melatonin every night. It does help me go to sleep, but doesn't help after after a couple hours if I wake up. Takes about an hour to "hit" then I sleep till the DW flops about, I hear something, the cat walks on me, etc etc etc. It's what they gave me in the hospital, best sleep I had in months.

Benedryl/Zquil works too, but makes my head feel like it's filled with cotton balls when I wake up.

https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/how-long-does-melatonin-last#what-is-melatonin
 
im not an easy sleeper and have tried a few things over the years. forget OTC sleeping pills, they got me addicted bad and it was hard to get off them

then i tried L-tryptophan, that was helpful and relaxing, tried hops tincture or hops tea--got a big vine growing off the deck. smells like a cros beteween beer and bread, lol---but it was also relaxing and helped some.

the best for me is melatonin. ive tried a couple differetn strengths 3 and 5 mg didnt help much at all. 10mg - 12 mg helps me fall asleep in aobut 30 min or so. but i usually have to visit the bathroom oncve a night and would often have trouble fallingback asleep. so i learned to just take another melatonin and id be asleep after a few minutes.

i hacve a couple friuends tht need 20mg or more to fall asleep and that works best for them. ive never tried that high, so i guess people are just different.
 
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