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Hi everyone.
I am having a rel problem sleeping at the moment and have for a whie now. I have tried all the herbal remedies on sale in the uk and nothing seems to work. I have a stressful job and need to get up early in the morning refreshed which I dont seem to be doing very often. Mproblem isnt getting to sleep but waking up after sleeping for about 4 hrs.. Then I am wide awake. I orered some melatonin 1 mg capsules. Took 3 last night and dropped off to sleep, had some weierd dreams and woke up at 4 very wide awake! Can anyone tell me if melatonin can have the reverse effect - ie stop you from sleeping right through. Also how much to take and when, for example - would I be better taking 1 before I go to sleep and another 1 or 2 when I wake up again? Basically any advice whatsoever would be very much appreciated as I dont really want to have to resort to prescription meds for this.
Thanks in anticipation for any replies and advice.

Lezlee.

I couldn't find my bottle of melatonin but went to web md. It looks like the recommended dose is .5 mg but can be taken up to 20 mg and it states vivid dreams are one of the side affects. No point in taking 3 at a time if one will do the trick aye? I don't know that it is meant to act like a sleeping pill, I think over time it helps to regulate your sleeping patterns. You were already waking after 4 hours of sleep so you could even just fall asleep normally and then take one if you happen to wake in the middle of the night. Give it sometime it isn't a big pharma drug meant to knock you out for eight hours straight.

okay I looked through my Doctors binder he gave me and this is what it states about Melatonin.

Natural Melatonin may be diminished by the following:
caffeine, alcohol, nicotine, vitamin b12 in quatities greater than 3 grams, anti inflammatory medication, beta blocker medication, glucocoricoid medication, antidepressant medication and chronic stress. -address these matters when possible prior to or concurrent with melatonin replacement.

Melatonin supplements derived from animals should be avoided. Melatonin is administered within 1 hour of bedtime, a minimal dose .3 mg will provide an adequate antioxidant effect. If the treatment goal includes better sleep, the dose may be increased weekly in 1-3 mg increments up to the limit recommended by your physician.

It states that some people will experience a diminished sleep effect over time and the problem can be resolved by discontinuing use for 1-2 weeks.

Side effect-higher dosage can cause grogginess in the morning, stomach discomfort, vivid dreams or nightmares, headaches and suppression of male sex drive (which you obvioulsy will not have an issue with lol)

Hope this helps.

A friend of mine began taking melatonin a few weeks ago and she said that first of all she took more, hoping it would help, but in fact it gave her a worse case of insomnia!....so then she started taking a lower dose and that seemed to do the trick!.....

I guess you have to experiment with works best for you.

Caz

Thanks for the replies everyone,
I might try taking a very small dose just before going to sleep and then if I wake up take another sml dose and see how that works. I will try anything at the moment. All I want is to stop waking up during the night!

Lezlee

I had a similar experience with melatonin in my effort to quit Rx sedatives. I got drops so I could take only a teensy amount. The first few nights, I slept like a zombie and then it boomeranged on me and kept me awake, like Caz' friend. I cannot recall the last time I slept through the night, but for the middle-of-the-night wide awake routine, I've found two homeopathic remedies that get me back to sleep. One is Hyland's nerve tonic. If you have repeated nights of being awake in the night, you start by taking as many as you need to get you back to sleep. The next night, do the same. After a few nights, your system may re-set itself and then you just take a couple if needed. Someone at the health food store told me this little trick. I started with about 12 little pills and it took about 5 nights, as I recall. The other stuff I take really helps if your mind is racing around. It's Coffea Cruda and somehow works for 'insomnia with active mind'. Fairly inexpensive and good for going back to sleep. Worth a try.
GK

If you are having weird, colorful dreams, you are overdosing on melatonin. I took it years ago and was having this problem. I stopped taking it. Years later I found that I was just taking too much. Try a much smaller dose.
Shebee

(by the way, I don't think anyone sleeps on these meno boards! LOL! )

I take between 1 and 3mg's. It works WONDERS for me!! I would have slipped into insanity from the lack of sleep I was experiencing without it!! No vivid or crazy dreams. There was a time that I took it 5-7 nights a week, now I only take it once or twice a week. I get it as Costco.

See my recent thread '7 nights without sleep'.....

I took less than half a 3mg pill the night before last (about 1.3mg) and I slept for 5 hours straight, then another 2 and another 2 so 9 in all......

thought I'd better not rely on it each night so did not take any last night and 'viola' no sleep!!

I guess I will experiment with some more tonight as I am just so desperate for some decent sleep....LEANNE, how long did you go without hardly any sleep? (by that I mean less than 3 hours or so?)

Caz

Oh Caz.... I don't even want to tell you! I don't want to discourage you, but it was months and months. I found this board in 2002 and I found a thread about lack of sleep. There were several posts about Melatonin so I bought some. It worked wonderfully for me. I took it almost everynight for a year or so. Every few nights I would NOT take it and I would be up all night. So I took it. After awhile I noticed I was sleeping a bit better so I didn't take it as often. Now I'm post meno and sleeping is still a problem, but not nearly like it was. Now I never take it unless it takes me awhile to fall asleep.

I like it so much better than say a PM tablet. At least with the Melatonin you don't get that sleepy hangover feeling the next morning.

I sympathize with you..... not sleeping is a nightmare in itself!!

Actually Leanne, you have 'encouraged' me....by knowing that I can survive without sleep for longer without going nutso!

I am going to consider small doses of melatonin until I find I can cope without, what dose did you take?

I too am post by 20 months...thought this nightmare was over!!!.....actually my main problem is sleep, even though it HAD improved considerably since I began a herbal supplement last May, I think a build up of stress and overthinking about the future (my hubby may go to Iraq for a year in Sept, and I don't have relatives anywhere near close - UK!) has made it become complete insomnia.

I actually thought that melatonin lost its effectiveness after a few nights, no?...I guess not in your case!

Caz

I started out taking 1mg. Most nights 1mgs is all it takes. I was running low so when hubby went to Costco he picked me up some 3mg by accident. I would cut them in half.

I would start out taking just the 1mg. Give it a half an hour to work. I think it might depend on how much you weigh, if you're on a full stomach, your stress levels, etc... If 1 mg doesn't work, take 1.5 or 2. Also... try not to nap in the day if you can help it.

Stress has a HUGE impact. I was doing great sleeping until recently. Daughter is getting married and my brain will just not shut down. Going through photos of her as a baby, seeing my family intact (I am divorced from her father), well.... needless to say I'M FREAKING OUT That your husband may leave for a year to Iraq, and you are without family close explains it all!!

The irony is we can't sleep if we're stressed, and we get more stressed without sleep!!! What's a girl to do????

(((((Caz)))))

Does anyone have a thyroid problem and take melatonin? I have tried taking it before but didn't try it for too long and it didn't help me sleep. Now I have thyroid antibodies(found out last year) and I read on the bottle label warning about consulting physician if you have an autoimmune disease which is thyroid antibodies for me. I am not on any thyroid meds. I go see my endo dr next week.
Just wondering if anyone has thyroid problems and take melatonin and do okay on it.
Thanks! Pam

I have not been tested for my thyroid (another test on my list!)...so hope I'm not putting myself in any harm by taking the melatonin if I do have an unknowing thyroid problem!

I wonder if I can learn self hypnosis???.....'You are sleepy', you are feeling really heavy, your eyelids are heavy, your mind is free, you are very sleepy, sleepy, sleepy, sleepy........zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

I use calcium and liquid magnesium. It really helps....especially if you have leg pain or period cramps.
Shebee

Hi Everyone,
Just really started having sleep problems in Jan 09. First it was the ability to fall asleep but then waking up arpund 3am. Now it's falling alseep and staying asleep. Being up all night is very lonely! I have tried RX sleeping pills and they would stop working after a few night. Have tried Ativan to help me relax. Have tried Melatonin with some success not great. Does anyone take Magnesium with their Melatonin? Has anyone tried any other herbal supplements? Thanks, Judy

It is so bizarre that so many women mention 3am in the morning. I still go through cycles where I don't sleep; usually this occurs around full moon time. I was waking up at 3:33 am for months, Sometimes, I would lay in my bed and refuse to look at the clock, but when I finally did, it was 3:33. LOL! It was kind-a creepy.

I think that my internal clock must be fined tuned. I never wear a watch, but always seem to know what time it is. I am never late to any appointments. LOL!

I would see no reason that you would not be able to mix melatonin with magnesium. I would add some calcium to the mix, also. Although the people in most health-food stores look sickly, (please forgive me...it could just be ours here), they are a powerhouse of information. My kids swear by sleepy-time tea.

Years ago they used to use calcium & magn. to relax muscles. Hospitals still use it sometimes.

Shebee

By the way, if you are not sleepy, get up and do something. Write...read...whatever....I have watched a lot of old movies in the last few years! ...and it is very lonely. Who can you call or where can you go at 3am? LOL!

I posted about my '7 nights without any sleep' a couple of weeks back.....whats bizarre is, since then, I have had about a handful of nights where I slept just a few hours and then nothing at all and then 'wham' I sleep for 8 hours straight!...of course this has only happened twice in the last 3 weeks, just wish it would continue.

I have kept my stress down to the minimum, but of course the less sleep you get the more you stress about it!!!!!!! AAARRRGGGHHH!

I have done the melatonin on 3 occasions out of the last 3 weeks, but am about to try it again tonight as last night was the pits.....I was 'HOT' and felt high anxiety all night long...what the ?

I just cannot figure out what is keeping me awake.....

Caz

Stress Mints. I get them at the natural food store. A box of 30 is about $4.50. They have chamomille and some other homeopathic ingredients. Mint flavored, so they taste pretty good. You let them dissolve in your mouth. I find they help me with anxiety and, when I have my 3 am wake up, I kind of glue one to the roof of my mouth (so I won't choke on it when I fall asleep) and let it melt. It may be the old placebo effect but it actually works for me.

I had no luck with Melatonin. The only prescription sleeper I've every tried is Ambien, and that kept me awake (the doc called it "paradoxical insomnia) as does Benadryl, 5 HTP and all the other things normal people use.

But the Stress Mints do seem to work.

[quote name='Shebee' date='Apr 19 2009, 06:00 PM' post='279752']
It is so bizarre that so many women mention 3am in the morning. I still go through cycles where I don't sleep; usually this occurs around full moon time. I was waking up at 3:33 am for months, Sometimes, I would lay in my bed and refuse to look at the clock, but when I finally did, it was 3:33. LOL! It was kind-a creepy.

Hi,

Waaw!
This could be me! I had a long period waking up at 3.33 am also. This is so weird! I would also refuse to look at the clock and I also found it very creepy.
It happened also during nights I spent in hotel rooms. I would wake up and look at the clock on the TV at 3.33 am! And I sent some posts a while ago about not sleeping around full moon... ! WEIRD, WEIRD, WEIRD!
What is this with that number 3??
Nic