Advice on Melatonin and Stopping usage

Therapeutic Efforts Supplements & Lifestyle
#1

Hello all,

I have significant sleep issues like many here that have gotten. Better since onset. I’m 6-ish months off fin and I now can pretty much count on 6 hours with only 1-2 wakeups. I usually get 3.5 - 5 hours in one session and then 1-2 addition sessions of 1 hour, sometimes up to 2 hours long. It is getting noticeably better but slowly. 5 hours straight regularly even one month ago would’ve been monumental.

I do not have issues going to sleep, or Very rarely do now. My issue is sleep quality and staying asleep. I take 0.5mg remFresh time release melatonin each night as I’m laying down to try and keep me asleep or make it easier to fall back asleep. I have been taking this for about 4-5 weeks now and it seems to help.

I have been doing much better during this time period with regards to mood and am trying not to mix things up because of this. However, I do not want to become dependent on melatonin long term. I have tried twice recently to not take it and results have been the same both times. My sleep time is fine, pretty much the same but my second session might be a little worse or shorter…… maybe, for the most part it feels the same. However, both times I’ve tried it I wake up with much lower mood and I feel very tired throughout the day. I am wondering if my sleep quality may be worse even though sleep time is the same.

My questions are:

  • does anyone have similar results with melatonin? Does it improve sleep quality for some?
  • Anyone that takes it regularly, so you have similar results if not taking it?
  • Is my concern about getting reliant on melatonin substantial? Has anyone taken melatonin mid/long-term to get through the insomnia hump and successfully weened off later? If so, how long and how did you ween off?

Any other recommendations that anyone has on this topic?

#2

Hi there,
Regular sleep and sleep quality is extremele important for the health in general. I have a long history of fighting insomnia (basically since my university years). My main concern was having issues going to sleep, sometimes I wasn’t able to sleep at all which always seemed me a kind of torture. Later I developed smth close to typical depression symptom when you wake up early in the morning completely unable to return to sleep. I tried many drugs to treat it, all over-the-counter and some prescribed ones. But I wasn’t satisfied with the effect. Of course, I tried melatonin. It didn’t help me with going to sleep issues but provided with a deeper state of sleeping and more vivid, eventful dreams.
Obviously, during developing PAS my condition got worse.
Now my situation is much better, and I have way less sleeping issues. I follow the simple protocol by Dr Huberman and recommend everyone to do the same. It’s not a magic cure but it definitely helps to improve the circadian clock in the body. You may have a look at this episode https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nm1TxQj9IsQ
I stopped using melatonin and after I heard Dr Huberman’s advice against I don’t want to return to taking it. I don’t think now that long-term taking of pretty high doses of melatonin is completely harmless. But while I was using it, I didn’t notice any significant dependence on it.

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#3

Melatonin sucks for me too. Wish I could sell all my bottles of that shit. I second Ultra’s video. It’s pretty good but remember you got PFS as this Huberman guy who’s getting real popular mentions a lot of supplements.