Melatonin: not so great?
Here’s an article saying that melatonin has not been shown to help with chronic insomnia:
In a culture that believes there’s a pill for every problem, melatonin seems just what the doctor ordered. It’s a natural hormone whose production the body increases in response to darkness and decreases whenever there’s light. It works to regulate the body’s 24-hour internal clock, also known as circadian rhythms. Decades ago, travelers embraced it as a proven way to recover from jet lag. It’s easy to see how such a pill transformed from a treatment for the ravages of long plane rides into a nightly sleep aid. A study reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that its use quintupled between 1999 and 2018.
“Melatonin is a sleep regulator, not a sleep originator,” Breus said.
If melatonin is not an effective sleep aid, why has its use exploded? Experts point to a variety of factors. Foremost is the strong placebo effect when it comes to insomnia treatment. Believing that melatonin will improve sleep can help people feel more relaxed when they get into bed, and they feel as if they can stop trying so hard to fall asleep. Couple that with the misery that insomniacs suffer in their frantic search for a solution, and they become vulnerable marks.
Insomnia is both a common and an awful experience, and many people will do almost anything to try to eliminate it. I had bad bouts of it as a result of chronic pain from a series of injuries many years ago, and among other things I tried melatonin. For me, it not only didn’t work; it seemed to have a paradoxical effort. In other words, it made me nervous in addition to everything else I was going through, and so I never took it again. But I know people who rely on it on a nightly basis.
I imagine a great many of you have opinions on the subject, so fire away.
I never found melatonin much help when I had trouble sleeping.
Sometimes it did give me vivid dreams, which is a known side-effect.
I think it’s a help with jet lag, but not good for regular use.
Jet lag adjustment –.that’s where its use excels. Pilots use it. Cabin attendants use it.
I have never heard if a side effect reported before, like our hosts.
Instead, circa 1980, I recall a science club high school teacher who didn’t produce enough melatonin naturally.
Therefore, he had to dose himself every night in order to sleep. And this was before melatonin became a common supplement.
Vivid, very active dreams, hiking around a city all night. I woke up exhausted. Tried it once and stopped.
I use it, but I also use magnesium because I am in chronic deficit because of intense proton pump inhibitor (Omeprazole) use in the past.
I guess I don’t do “Placebo”.
Like Huxley, I tried it on the recommendation of several people who swore by it and I had exactly zero improvement of my sleep. No effect at all.
I don’t even recall any unusual dreams.
The vet recommended it for my Susie (long haired Chihuahua) after she was diagnosed with Cognitive Dysfunction Syndrome, aka doggie Alzheimer’s. Kept her ok for about 18 months until I have to make that trip to the vets.
I’m a chronic insomniac – ever since I was a kid. I have found the melatonin spray (under the tongue) works quite well.
Have a mild dose and have only tried it a few times so not often, seems to have helped. Going to night shift next week for a few weeks so will try it daily.
It’s the middle of the night I have issues not the beginning.
Works for me. I tried sleeping with and without , and different doses, and the tell-all is that I did do blind testing on 5mg vs 10 mg (identical pills with dosing from wife) and I got to sleep faster with 10mg. 5mg did little to nothing.
I suffered from insomnia as a child, which resolved, more or less, by adulthood, although it recurred when I was working for a dot.com in the early 200s and thereafter directing a preschool (I’ve followed a long and winding road) – essentially when my i felt significant stress.
What’s never resolved has been my broken nights. I’ve slept solidly through a night no more than half a dozen times in my 58 years. It actually made having babies around a lot easier – I was already used to being awake several times a night.
Lately, for other behavior mod reasons, I’ve been experimenting with what appears to be great success with self-hypnosis. Maybe once I’ve established a solid pattern with the current suggestions I give myself, I’ll try suggesting that I’ll sleep without waking until morning and see how it goes.
Half a Benadryl works well for me to prevent a tendency to wake up at 2 or so and not be able to get back to sleep. But I don’t have a major problem and don’t need to do it every night.
Half a Benadryl works well for me to prevent a tendency to wake up at 2 or so and not be able to get back to sleep.
Mac:
Benadryl is my go-to when I really must sleep. A few times I’ve gone through periods of using it for a few months.
However, when I can stop, I stop. I don’t know if there are long-term problems, but I’d rather not find out.
I’ve heard that long-time use of Benadryl may be related to dementia.
https://www.healthline.com/health/alzheimers/benadryl-and-alzheimers
Jamie,
Broken nights.
I imagine you know that was common prior to man’s invention of electric light and the pervasiveness of bright, artificial light. And it is still common in cultures that do not have electricity.
I rarely had any trouble sleeping through the night, or at any time, but in the past several years I began waking around 1 or 2 am and find myself reading for an hour or two before getting tired again and sleeping until daylight. Based on time stamps of comments here, I don’t think I’m the only neophile that happens to.
Limiting use of artificial light to the extent practicable, especially fluorescent/LED lights, as well as decent sun exposure, is essential. Indeed, many think that the disruption to our light environment and the modern fear of the sun is the root-root-root cause of the myriad chronic health issues we’re experiencing. Getting both morning and evening light on your unprotected skin and unprotected eyes is critical to building a healthy circadian rhythm. Using dim lighting, red light, fire/candlelight, and/or incandescent lights after sunset is also huge. I started doing this very recently and I’m picking up a lot more sleep on average simply because I can’t stay awake late at night anymore – the type of light I’m using puts me to sleep. Incandescent lights should become more widely available again soon thanks to Trump 2.0, though you can still buy them. You might not get them at your local hardware store, but there are sites that sell them, and they’re worth the trouble. Actually being able to look at your lamp without a sudden headache is nice. In addition to the sleep part, of course.
I occasionally use melatonin only if I’m prepared to sleep very long and deeply, because it makes it very difficult to wake up. Though as I’ve gotten redpilled on the critical importance of sunlight and your overall light environment to your health, I’ve been focusing on that as a way to improve my sleep.
Thanks for that warning, Kate. It isn’t clear from a quick skim of the paper what constitutes “use,” but it’s pretty infrequent for me, averaging out to maybe once every two weeks, and only half a tablet. In general I’m prejudiced against any and all medications–I need to be convinced that I actually need it, and that it won’t do any harm. Or at least not more harm than good.
It konks me out well enough. Sometimes, too well. I dropped Benadryl when I got high blood pressure. I guess it’s just as well that I did. Anyway, it’s the weekend, so I give the melatonin a rest and drink wine instead. Cheers!
Audiotapes knock me out reliably.
@ Wendy > “Audiotapes knock me out reliably.”
With all due respect to physicsguy and others here, a half chapter of any science textbook does it for me. I try to read a couple a year just to review the concepts and vocabulary though.
AesopFan,
I find some of the YouTube videos by Arvin Ash addressed to laymen to be useful in presenting scientific ideas with suitable graphics and explanations that don’t get overly technical.
But as you appreciate, some ideas (in any field) can be hard to grasp when we don’t have the requisite background nature and nurture.
Excessive internet surfing has probably destroyed my patience to read longer essays or items that aren’t well written or well structured, or just plain too long. The benefit of good comment threads is the summary level info they convey, and/or the links to more detailed sources when that is appropriate.
@ R2L – thanks, I will take a look at some of these, but NOT when I am trying to fall asleep!
https://arvinash.com/
I can sleep poorly under pretty much any condition. I think that’s why they make coffee.
Various suggestions and prescriptions have had no effect. Anyway, when I hit the sack I’m generally out in a couple of moments. It’s waking up four hours later with my mind going a hundred miles an hour. I could write and essay and even the punctuation wouldn’t need correcting.
So the go-to-sleep stuff doesn’t work or if it does, I don’t notice. Melatonin…zip. Was prescribed trazodone. One hit…nothing. Went to sleep as usual, woke up four hours later alert and ready for the day. Later tried two….weird fidgets, wakefulness, odd feelings on the inside of my upper arms. No mas.
I know a woman who takes five. Based on our relative body weight, I’d take ten. Don’t even want to think about it.
So…if you’re going to take something for bed time, it may as well be cheap port.
And you program your coffee pot and you’re good to go. Might catch a nap later.
Tried it for a week. It gave me vivid dreams and left me exhausted and scared. Scared I really did call my friends and have intimate conversations at 3 am. I even called them the next morning to ask. Never again!