are otc melatonin pills safe and/or effective?

[EdipisReks]

i have trouble getting to sleep, and a friend suggested i try melatonin pills from a health food store. are these safe/effective? i should probably go see a doctor, but i don't know when i'll be able to get around to it. my self diagnosed insomnia is pretty bad. i generally can't sleep even when tired, and when i manage to get to sleep i have a tendancy to sleep for 20 hours+. thanks.

[Loon]

My own experience is inconclusive beyond that they seem to help with jet lag.

My brother says they work very well. A friend also recommends them. The friend is credophilia with a goatee. My brother is credibility with a goatee.

So it's one yes from believes anything and one yes from a rational and intelligent person.

I've heard of no harm from using them.

[EdipisReks]

i am skeptic with a goatee. hmm. time for an experiment, perhaps? :)

[Quasi]

A friend in college had very lucid dreams when experimenting with this stuff. He was a credophile with a goatee (really.) He also was into the Kabalah cult, and believed many conspiracy theories. He did not seem to be harmed in any way though.

[El Greco]

The studies so far produce equivocal results. You can see studies where the conclusion is that melatonin helps with insomnia and others where no effect is observed.

[MRC_Hans]

Being very much stress and anxiety related, insomnia is very sensitive to placebo effect.

Take a pill which you believe will help you, and you'll relax and .....:s2:


Hans

[EdipisReks]

Originally posted by MRC_Hans
Being very much stress and anxiety related, insomnia is very sensitive to placebo effect.

Take a pill which you believe will help you, and you'll relax and .....:s2:


Hans

i think i have more of a physical cause. i was utterly convinced that the "Tylenol with sleep aid" would help me get to sleep. it didn't. maybe i should start going to support groups, al la Fight Club. :)

[Hydrogen Cyanide]

Originally posted by EdipisReks

..."Tylenol with sleep aid" would help me get to sleep. ...:)

Skip the pain killer part and just go for the active ingredient, which I am taking a guess is diphenhydramine, basically the generic form of Benadryl:
http://www.drugs.com/benadryl.html

I buy the generic form cheap at Costco and use when I have trouble sleeping, sometimes just because the body is tired but the brain is still going. On bad nights when I wake up at 2 or 3am, I will take another dose, but end up with a bit of antihistamine hangover.

[EdipisReks]

Originally posted by Hydrogen Cyanide


Skip the pain killer part and just go for the active ingredient, which I am taking a guess is diphenhydramine, basically the generic form of Benadryl:
http://www.drugs.com/benadryl.html

I buy the generic form cheap at Costco and use when I have trouble sleeping, sometimes just because the body is tired but the brain is still going. On bad nights when I wake up at 2 or 3am, I will take another dose, but end up with a bit of antihistamine hangover.

well, i had a headache and couldn't sleep, so the Tylenol with sleep aid seemed like a good idea at the time. benadryl doesn't make me drowsy, just lethargic. thanks anyway, though.

[Brian]

Originally posted by EdipisReks
i have trouble getting to sleep, and a friend suggested i try melatonin pills from a health food store. are these safe/effective? i should probably go see a doctor, but i don't know when i'll be able to get around to it. my self diagnosed insomnia is pretty bad. i generally can't sleep even when tired, and when i manage to get to sleep i have a tendancy to sleep for 20 hours+. thanks.
I ate 6 and stayed up drinking all night to prove a point. In this one case, absolutely no effect one way or the other. No side effects, no drug interaction, not tired, not wired.

Do you have time enough in your day to exercise yourself to healthy exhaustion? That'd be a win/win situation.

[Suggestologist]

Originally posted by EdipisReks
i have trouble getting to sleep, and a friend suggested i try melatonin pills from a health food store. are these safe/effective? i should probably go see a doctor, but i don't know when i'll be able to get around to it. my self diagnosed insomnia is pretty bad. i generally can't sleep even when tired, and when i manage to get to sleep i have a tendancy to sleep for 20 hours+. thanks.

I've used melatonin under-the-tongue spray; works well. Makes you sleepy, not a placebo. I never had adverse effects.

[EdipisReks]

Originally posted by Brian

I ate 6 and stayed up drinking all night to prove a point. In this one case, absolutely no effect one way or the other. No side effects, no drug interaction, not tired, not wired.

Do you have time enough in your day to exercise yourself to healthy exhaustion? That'd be a win/win situation.

i'm too fat and lazy to work myself to healthy exhaustion. :(

[EdipisReks]

Originally posted by Suggestologist


I've used melatonin under-the-tongue spray; works well. Makes you sleepy, not a placebo. I never had adverse effects.

hmmm. thanks.

[japatlgt]

I tried melatonin a few years ago when it first became popular. Sort of a miracle drug or so claimed. Gave me terrifying nightmares. I never have nightmares period and these were lulus. I would wake up disoriented and absolutely terrified (twice was enough for me). I've heard/read of several other accounts of just that.

Seems to effect different people differently. I don't actually recall it making me drowsy just that it had a rather profound effect on my sleep itself.

[Suggestologist]

Originally posted by japatlgt
I tried melatonin a few years ago when it first became popular. Sort of a miracle drug or so claimed. Gave me terrifying nightmares. I never have nightmares period and these were lulus. I would wake up disoriented and absolutely terrified (twice was enough for me). I've heard/read of several other accounts of just that.

Seems to effect different people differently. I don't actually recall it making me drowsy just that it had a rather profound effect on my sleep itself.

Sounds like a "shamanistic dream", like narcoleptics have. I'll refrain from describing what that means, don't want to give people nightmares.....

[Suggestologist]

Originally posted by EdipisReks


hmmm. thanks.

As an alternative, might I suggest learning to quiet your mind; either through a generic meditation, or self-hypnosis procedure, or even just PMR (progressive muscle relaxation).

PMR is sometimes used as a part of hypnosis inductions. You simply tense up a muscle; like your hand or foot, as tense as you can make it and hold it for a couple seconds, then relax it completely and allow the relaxation to spread through your body. Then you systematically relax every major muscle group in your body, by first tensing and then releasing. You know, hand, arm, shoulder, neck, eyebrows and other face muscles, legs, feet, etc. It helps to do it in a logical order.

[epepke]

They never did anything for me.

Have you considered antihistamines? They make many people sleepy.

[El Greco]

Originally posted by japatlgt
I tried melatonin a few years ago when it first became popular. Sort of a miracle drug or so claimed. Gave me terrifying nightmares. I never have nightmares period and these were lulus. I would wake up disoriented and absolutely terrified (twice was enough for me). I've heard/read of several other accounts of just that.

Seems to effect different people differently. I don't actually recall it making me drowsy just that it had a rather profound effect on my sleep itself.

Such sumptoms have been observed with higher doses. The consensus seems to be that while low doses can induce sleep, higher doses may disrupt sleep patterns.

[TillEulenspiegel]

It's one of those grey areas of science. It is defiantly NOT a placebo as brain serotonin concentrations are increased by melatonin administration. This can be a good thing when Your unable to sleep. Side effects include lucid dreaming and administration to some people may cause psychotic episodes . Many neuroactive drugs that treat depression and schizophrenia are seritonin uptake inhibitors. Melitonin is not something you want to give a person under treatment for those conditions. I have also read about a possible connection to fibrosis (Pyronies disease )in some male subjects. I have taken this compound and when I used it aside from the dreaming had no side effects and it worked, anecdotal evidence no doubt.

[EdipisReks]

well, that is at least 2 posters stating that it had some benefit. i might have to go grab some. thanks.

[Wyvern]

Hi ER,
Best thing to do is ask your physician for a recommendation, since he/she knows your medical and drug history. I was using things like Tylenol PM and Nyquil (whatever I had on hand) for the occasional sleepness night. My doc told me to stop using those things and simply get an OTC sleep aid such as Sominex. I've used it once already and it worked, with no side effects or lingering grogginess in the morning. Good luck to ya.