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Wow. I can say from experience that the difference between 1/4 N and 3x N of melatonin is being slightly more sleepy before bed vs having a night of insane dreams, no deep sleep, and waking up with a headache that Tylenol can’t fix.
The lack of regulation and consistency in the vitamin and supplement business continues to blow my mind.
I don't think I'll ever take Melatonin again because of the inconsistency and the crazy dreams.
Same for me. At this point if I truly need to zonk out I'll just pop a benadryl.
What kind of dreams/nightmares?
Sat eyeballing some melatonin I got today.
Sample size of 1 but I have never had any weird dreams, headaches, sedation or any other I'll effects from melatonin. It does help me fall asleep faster but doesn't actually improve sleep quality or duration.
If I'll effects were so common, demand wouldn't be so high. I'd suggest trying it out for yourself.
Vivid disconcerting dreams can happen.
For me, it would cause sleep paralysis where my brain would wake up and I could not move my body. I would be wide awake and paralyzed. Then panic as I felt like I could not control my breathing and would imagine that if an emergency happened I would be entirely immobilized.
Personally I used these moments as teaching moments and worked through them but it’s hard to explain the sheer terror of waking up, fully alert and fully “locked in.”
Not to diminish your old hag but this dates back centuries, not necessarily linked to melatonin.
A little hard to explain but not fun dreams and has happened enough times to never do it again. Skip the melatonin and smoke some weed or ingest some mushrooms.
I'm vegan and have been suffering from chronic insomnia lately. I tried a (vegan) melatonin supplement and reliably got nightmares about the food industry. 0/10, would not recommend.
I spoke to my PCP about it yesterday and got a script for hydroxyzine pamoate. We shall see if it works.
Hi, I am not a vegan.
I struggled with bad insomnia for years. My research has identified the following. It may be of use to others in their own research.
Obviously before taking a supplement or drug you should try sleep hygiene and breathe work or relaxing music/audiobook. Sometimes, that isn’t enough. Consistent bad sleep can be indicative of a medical problem, so don’t just sleep on it if it persists or you have other symptoms.
I like to minimize what I use and never one thing for more than a few days, so I rotate and use only as needed.
L-Theanine,
valerian root,
Mg (I prefer gluconate. Some Mg forms are just bowl prep[they make you poop]). Amazon basics is decent.
Taurine.
There is also Phenibut. Big caution sign here, source is important there so tread carefully but it is an effective gabanergic and gives great sleep. Big warning sign, use responsibly as dependency very real on this one, not to be used regularly. When all else fails this works. Takes an hour or so however and food decreases its effect. There is a small abuse potential, so again caution and be informed.
Then you have your prescription drugs remeron, gabapentin, trazadone, hydroxyzine, etc.
Ambien is an evil medication. Hard recommendation to avoid at all costs. Addictive, abusable, and many reports of sleep sex/driving/buying/etc. Bad. Bad. Bad. There are other z drugs but luckily those aren’t commonly given out.
Just be cautious of what someone will prescribe you, dependency sucks. Rebound insomnia really sucks.
As such, I like Mg and taurine. Generally safe for healthy individuals, generally a wider range of safe dosing, cheap, high quality suppliers are out there and can have other positive side effects.
Certain diets can be deficient in particular amino acids and nutrients. The stricter the diet the bigger the risk. Plenty of resources to analyze diet out there.
Good resources for supplement information:
examine.com with some free info
Pay walled professional site http://naturalmedicines.therapeuticresearch.com/
Pubmed.
The insanity of America is barely regulating food and medications, but then deciding supplements can be sold like snake oil. They should be regulated by requiring testing to verify what is sold is what it contains. And, of course, what's missing in almost all areas of American safety regulation is the precautionary principle. Tens of thousands of chemicals were ignored under TSCA due to placing commercial concerns ahead of public safety.
I'm not sure they can actually make snake oil claims- at least not directly. Multiple supplement manufacturers have been repeatedly sued and driven out of business in the US for making bs claims or marketing unproven benefits (the internet usually takes care of the marketing anyways, nowadays). I'm pretty most of them now basically just sell the supplements without listing miracle benefits on the bottles.
As a slight tangent, I think that the whole supplement craze is a thing in most of the world, and supplements just seem to attract a crowd that will buy them no matter what. From my own experience, for example, homeopathic "products" are almost mainstream and widely available/sold in France even if they have been ridiculed and debunked for decades now. Imo as long as the substances aren't proven to be harmful, it's just better to keep them available and legal
But I completely agree that they should at least be forced to verify that what they sell actually contains the promised supplements! That's the bare minimum
Exactly. If it's called "milk", it should fit the nutritional definition and derivation of cow milk and not be melamine paint water.
If something were touted as containing CBD, it should specify the total amount and concentration. (And 1.0 femtogram doesn't count.)
Yes, the "health and wellness" community abuses advertising often with absurd, de jure false health claims and bullshit, pseudoscientific "explanations". They need a 5 MT scientific rigor bomb dropped on their deception.
I was paywalled and had to skim in reader mode but did they name names? I didn’t see it.
Always annoying these articles never seem to name names. If there are repeat offenders I think there is an imperative for public safety.