Melatonin

[V8covin]

Took one last night.Didn't help one bit unfortunately

Edited by V8covin on Tuesday 31st March 21:36

Edited by V8covin on Tuesday 31st March 21:38

[sparkyhx]

both my kids use it. PITA to get it on prescription.

[Loopyleesa]

I received mine today! What mg did you get and how many did you take?

My father uses them (5mg) and takes 3/4 a night and they work well! I think I'm going to try 2 tonight!

[Flibble]

I have 3 mg tablets, normally 2 is sufficient for me. Still find it crazy that they are so hard to get hold of here.

[Ozzie Dave]

We can get it over the counter here, BUT beware it can have issues with people who are prone to epilepy, in our case we stopped it after we saw an increase in focal seizures by about 50%.

[Stu R]

One should be more than sufficient.

[foliedouce]

Guys

Be careful with these, they are restricted for a reason.

I buy them (5mg) from GNC in Hong Kong when I'm over there and use them for sleeping on planes and 3 days either side of a long haul trip to help getting back into sleep patterns.

1 tablet per night is enough.

The problem is they can be addictive. As it's a natural hormone the body produces to help you sleep, then if you take them too often, your body will reduce the amount it produces meaning you can't get to sleep, and hence rely on Melatonin pills. Addiction.

They are really good when used in small doses, but please be careful and you don't need to neck loads of them!

[Stu R]

Which is fine in the US, we move on to Ambien after the Melatonin stops working

IIRC you only need 150micrograms typically, so 5MG is a huge dose.

[V8covin]

Loopyleesa said:

I received mine today! What mg did you get and how many did you take?

My father uses them (5mg) and takes 3/4 a night and they work well! I think I'm going to try 2 tonight!

1 x 3mg slow release I took

[guindilias]

I find the Biovea 5mg tablets to be amazingly effective - 3 of them and I'm stumbling round like I was drunk (even when I'm not!), trying to keep my eyes open! No effect on my guts...

joscal said:

I bought some in China years ago and found it really helpful, bought some off the internet recently and binned it as it gave me horrendous diarrhoea! Tread carefully, was really unpleasant.
Avoid biovea at all costs.

[Halb]

Where to buy and what brand?

[Mabbs9]

Testaburger said:

I use it a lot due to my work (long haul pilot), and I find it works well, and without any residual tiredness once I wake up.

I also buy it in the USA.

You probably know it's now banned for pilots by EASA.

Atb (fellow LH pilot)

[Flibble]

Stu R said:

Which is fine in the US, we move on to Ambien after the Melatonin stops working

IIRC you only need 150micrograms typically, so 5MG is a huge dose.

150 micrograms in the blood or taken orally? Because melatonin has high first pass metabolism in the liver, so when taken orally you lose around 90% of it in the liver without it having any effect.

[Stu R]

Flibble said:

Stu R said:

Which is fine in the US, we move on to Ambien after the Melatonin stops working

IIRC you only need 150micrograms typically, so 5MG is a huge dose.

150 micrograms in the blood or taken orally? Because melatonin has high first pass metabolism in the liver, so when taken orally you lose around 90% of it in the liver without it having any effect.

Fair point, but 90% would still leave 0.5mg which is significantly higher than naturally occurring levels (which I can't seem to find a number for, I was under the impression it's in the mcg range, rather than mg, though)

From WebMD: http://blogs.webmd.com/sleep-disorders/2011/02/mel...

"The correct dosage of melatonin can be a problem. According to research conducted at MIT, the correct dosage of melatonin for it to be effective is 0.3-1.0 mg. Many commercially available forms of melatonin are in 3 to 10 times the amount your body would need. In fact, there is some evidence that higher doses may be less effective. In Europe, melatonin at very high doses has been used as a contraceptive."

The only ones I've tried are 5mg, they seem to work for me.

[guindilias]

Halb said:

Where to buy and what brand?

I buy "Eurovital" 5mg ones from Biovea. Made in the USA.

[Flibble]

Wow, the lack of competition in the UK market is showing, those are crazy expensive compared to in the US.

[DAN TEMPLE]

The evidence for Melatonin in sleep onset insomnia and delayed sleep phase syndrome is okay, though most of it is qualitative. Most users don't experience any change in the architecture of the sleep, witch critical phases like REM being the same, with or without the hormone. What it does is brings sleep on more quickly. There is much better evidence for resetting the body clock if travelling through many time zones.

Either way start off with 2mg 1-2hrs before bed, increasing to 5-6mg after 2-3 weeks if needed. Go to a maximum of 10mg od (this is for primary insomnia)

Take a 5 or 10mg dose (only take 10mg if you have taken it before with no side effects)

Whilst it doesn't have many common side effects it does have a list of less common - check these up.

Do not take it if you have liver problems and kidney.

I would check the cost of a private script if not getting it on the NHS as it may be cheaper than over the counter.

[guindilias]

I can't see anything on WebMD about it not ben good for your liver or kidneys?

[DAN TEMPLE]

guindilias said:

I can't see anything on WebMD about it not ben good for your liver or kidneys?

I was trying to keep things simple: - shouldn't be used in severe hepatic impairment and no data in renal impairment (severe) so caution.

[SBDJ]

Richjam said:

It does if you use it all the time you should have a 2week break every couple of months to reset the body clock

He takes around an 8-10mg dose daily - like I say though they have supplemented it with a 2am dose of Chloral Hydrate which sees him through to morning.

DAN TEMPLE said:

no data in renal impairment (severe) so caution.

Interesting as my son has chronic renal failure (or impairment depending on which consultant is writing the letter). Is there anything to look out for?