Did anyone ever try melatonin?

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Does it work? Can you use it for years? Do you fall asleep faster? Is your sleep better?

We aspies suffer from insomnia a lot. And recently I wake up every hour or so and get something like five or three hours of sleep a night. I can hardly function.

I have tried taking it on a few occasions. I have a bottle in my drawer. I have not noticed any difference to my sleep. I try to take a magnesium supplement before bed with a little boron. I sleep right thru the night then. I tried melatonin first when I was flying somewhere and the guy next to me said try one of these - they really work for jet lag. It didn't for me.
(I prefer dogs.)

I take it on the weekends. It usually helps but the hours of sleep varies. It makes me tired the next afternoon so I don't take melatonin nights before a work day.

I took a quarter tablet some years ago, and I was manic and couldn't sleet for almost 2 weeks.

Ive taken it often

Does it work? Yes. Quite well. Though too large a dose can have an opposite than desired effect. Try 2.5mg to start and work your way up. Make sure you can sleep for 8 hours though. Trying to cut it short will leave you with a groggy next day, or morning at least

Can you use it for years? To my knowledge yes. Its a naturally occurring substance in the body. Ive never heard or read anything that would indicate you cannot. Id do my own research if I were worried though. I cannot answer definitively

Do you fall asleep faster? Faster, not necessarily. Just about the same. Unless you are the type person who takes hours to normally fall asleep. id say about an hour after you take it. It doesnt feel chemical like a Tylenol PM, or Sominex would. ust kinda drift off.

Is your sleep better? I too have the waking up every hour or so issue. I also have a health issue that makes me go to the bathroom that often alot. But if not woken to use the bathroom, you'll sleep straight through, which I never do. Its known for giving very vivid dreams, I kinda had that but dont dream alot, or at leats dont remember them.

Its definitely worth a try of you cant sleep. Not too expensive either as far as supplements go.

Melatonin is a hormone and taking it in a pill form will have negative effects on natural melatonin production in the body, just like in the case of any other synthetic hormone supplementation. Another issue with it is that while body can naturally control the timely release of melatonin through the night, the pill will unlikely release it slowly. So many people fall asleep quicker on it, but wake up earlier as sudden drop in melatonin levels wakes them up. The point is to find the right dose (rather low than high) and the right things to eat with it before bed to slow down its release.

Didn't work for me, but we are all different.
I have tried lots of things. Zopiclone, amitryptiline, many types of antidepressants, all the herbal things, painkillers.
I am about to try a drug called Mirtazipine, this is meant to be good for people with sleep problems, it falls in the antidepressant group, but has beneficial effects on some peoples sleep.
Amitriptyline 10mg was the most helpful thing to date for my sleep, taken before i go to bed.

Oh its also important to get good quality chelated Melantonin

I was on it for a while, I never noticed any difference. The only treatment for sleep that has ever worked for me is what I'm on at the moment, Lyrica, which relaxes the muscles and is normally used for epilepsy, my sleep specialist prescribed it for me with the thought that it might help my restless legs, and to my pleasant surprise it worked.

Oh wow that sounds good, do you know if it is easy to get put on it? I have tried all kinds of things, some prescription some not!?

Yes, a few times. After I went off it, I felt sleepy for a few weeks.

I"ve tried an incredibly long list of sleep aids over the years which include but are not limited to:

Zopiclone
Starnoc
Ambien
Amitriptyline
Notriptyline
Remerom
Trazodone
Seroquel
Zyprexa
Geodon
Risperdal
Saphris
Valerian
Melatonin
Temazepam
Xanax
Klonopin
Valium
Ativan
Midazolam ( strongest sleep aid on Earth IMO)
Hydroxyzine
Benadryl
Gravol
Gabapentin
Lyrica
And many more I can't think of atm. Eventually I get tolerant to any sedating med I've ever been on and have to swap it out for something else.

Lets just say I have a lot of problem with sleep.

GPs can prescribe it, but it is usually used for epilepsy and similar conditions, so they wouldn't necessarily think to use for this purpose. Mine was prescribed by a sleep specialist who I have been seeing for the last 2 years. He first put me on Sifrol but that was a disaster and made me extremely nauseous to the point that I was house-ridden and was vomiting everything I consumed, including water, which obviously eventually got pretty serious, so obviously I didn't stay on Sifrol for long. Then after several sleep studies, the specialist realised I had restless legs and decided to treat that as opposed to trying to directly knock me out. So Lyrica will not actually put you to sleep, but if you have restless legs or similar conditions, then it will help with that and therefore make it a bit easier to fall asleep.

Sorry it took so long to reply, I've been particularly busy lately.