Melatonin experience

[Ograx]

Ok I'm giving melatonin another shot now that I have my CPAP treatment where I want it with very few events. Reasoning is that I suffer from sleep maintenance insomnia which Pugsy has pointed out and I've finally came to terms with.

My first week consisted of taking 300 mcg 6 hour timed release dose and my sleep time was raised greatly. It went from 6-6.5 hours to 8-8.5 hours with less wakeups and was more able to quickly fall back asleep.

The only negative I had was that I was somewhat groggy throughout some of the days and had a bit of dizziness which I'm not even sure if it was from the melatonin.

The grogginess is an issue so the question I have for the people here on melatonin is if the groggy part of the melatonin side effects subsided for you guys after consistently taking melatonin for awhile or if you guys and gals had any issue with it at all?

My dose is tiny and is after some thorough research the dose that I found to be the one that was scientifically backed.

Feel free to add experiences or thoughts or anything to this.

[LSAT]

300mcg = .3mg I have just increased my dose from 3mg to 5mg which is 15 times higher than what you are taking without any of your symptoms. My increase was recommended by my Pulmonologist.

[Pugsy]

Dizziness is a known side effect to melatonin. I had vertigo so bad when I tried it that I simply couldn't handle it.
Within 30 minutes I was bouncing off the all drunk dizzy....horrible. And that was with a very small dose.
YMMV of course but just be aware of it.

While melatonin is considered on the benign side by a lot of people google it and look at the side effects. It (like everything else) does come with some baggage.
Next day drowsiness hangover is part of the baggage as well.

[Ograx]

300mcg = .3mg I have just increased my dose from 3mg to 5mg which is 15 times higher than what you are taking without any of your symptoms. My increase was recommended by my Pulmonologist.

Yeah from what I can gather taking that high of a dosage is equal to 10X what you actually need and what the body produces naturally. To each their own but I am fairly sensitive to it and want to see if I can avoid or negate the side effects. When I was younger I took a higher dose like you when I was a competitive athlete to counteract the caffeine/ephedrine and help me sleep and am now wondering if I blew out my pineal gland from years of high dosage melatonin and that is why maybe I have the sleep maintenance insomnia.

It'd be nice if there was some kind of answer that didn't conflict with every other answer liek everything else out there but I figure this is going to be another month or two of trial and error to see where it goes.

Pugsy: Yeah I am pretty sure it was dizziness from the melatonin and not something else so I think a week of continued use will tell me if it is for sure.

[Mogy]

I take 6mg of Melatonin for GERD.
The studies have recently shown it reduces acid reflux almost as well as PPI. It helps to tighten the LES.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2821302/

The 6 mg is kind of high but everytime I try reducing it my GERD comes back. It does affect how I feel in the morning(a bit slow to wake up, groggy). I have found that over time that side effect has reduced. Also, taking it earlier in the evening helps reduce the effect. Currently, I take it 2 hours before I go to bed.

[Islandwoman]

If you use any prescription meds make sure Melatonin is compatible. One of mine was not.

[reversemigration]

My current n=1 experience of using it to adapt to night shifts is that it appears to have helped retime my sleep cycles, helps slightly in falling asleep faster, and hasn't had any noticeable side effects. I plan to taper down and stop taking it in another week or two. I have been taking 3 mg as a lower dose appeared to have no effect.

I haven't seen any evidence one way or the other that taking higher doses for a long period of time can suppress natural production of melatonin (in the way that taking steroids and stopping them abruptly can lead to a temporarily decreased level of natural corticosteroid production), but I suspect that's because it hasn't been studied.

[Diotima]

I've been using melatonin for around 10 years nightly... the groggyness is probably due to you taking to much. I can do 5mg and feel fine the next day. My favorite brand is Natrol Melatonin time released 5 mg unflavored.

[Mogy]

A couple of other interesting connections with Melatonin levels in people with Sleep Apnea.
People with OSA have lower concentrations of Melatonin and the secretion rythym is off in 1/4 of them.
CPAP doesn't seem to help increase the concentrations of Melatonin but it does help to get the secretion rythym back on track.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28724876/