[GlutenFreeAl]

Any thoughts on melatonin?

[ianm]

I take it from time to time and it really works. It doesn't give me that drugged out sleep you get with other sleep aids. Never had any side effects or other problems with it.

[lorka150]

Hello!
I take this. Did you want me to hook you up before you buy?

[GlutenFreeAl]

Thanks Laurie, I actually already bought some. It was like $7 at Feel-Rite.

Do you guys take this every night? Only when you can't fall asleep? What dosage?

I took some last night, it was a 3 mg dose. I fell asleep quickly and actually felt rested when I woke up this morning, BUT when I woke up in the middle of the night to pee (as per usual) I thought I was going to die! I was so dizzy and weak and disoriented. Is that abnormal?

Thanks for your help!

[Nancym]

Melatonin is being linked to cancer, in a good way. People who are exposed to lights at night don't produce it and get higher rates of cancer. There's even some cancer therapies being run now using melatonin.

I take it every night. I've heard of some people having a pretty dramatic effect from it, but it never affected me that strongly.

[lorka150]

I find that if I take it once, it uber helps the first night... Then after that I sleep very short hours the next few nights... So it helps the first day, then sort of screws me. If I take more, I get brutal insomnia.

[ianm]

I only take it when I can't sleep or really need to be rested up for the next day. If I take it every night I seem to build up a tolerance to it. I haven't noticed anything unusual if I wake up during the night.

[chestnut]

I've been taking Melatonin for a while now. (A few months.) Drugs don't usually work well on me (I have a high-tolerance to everything) so when I take them I take three 3mg tablets. That usually works really, really well for me.

I agree with the above poster who says it doesn't make you feel wrecked the next day. When I take otc sleep drugs they mess me up. If I take store bought sleep aids to fall asleep on Monday night, I have to write off Tuesday as an up-all-nighter ahead of time. But with Melatonin I don't have that problem.

The only thing I have noticed for sure is that my dreams have increased at an amazing rate. I've always been a non-dreamer. Never had any memory of them at all. But when taking Melatonin I dream a lot.

The weird thing is I've heard people on these boards say that going gluten-free causes them to suddenly have dreams in a similar manner.

My research on Melatonin (before taking it the first time) showed similar statements from non-celiacs who'd never taken Melatonin before. But since I started taking Melatonin the same time I went gluten-free I'm not sure which one it might be.

Odds are it's the Melatonin if people from two different camps are displaying the same side-effect.

For me, personally, it's kind of cool. After having spent the greater portion of my life not recalling my dreams, it's great to suddenly have them.

They haven't been weird, trippy nightmares specifically...Just random dreams across the board. A minute portion scary but mostly just really vivid and common place now.

I dig dreaming. It's great entertainment (for someone who's had less than a handful remembered their whole life.)

Apparently, from my research, it's something the body produces to help regulate sleep cycles. It hits its peak of production at around 3:00am. Apparently the older you get the less your body produces in the "normal" cycle so that's why older folks fall asleep earlier and get up earlier.

(I'm giving you the lay version of what I remember reading. I'm no physician so don't flame me on any inaccuracies in the above paragraph!)

It's fun stuff and it's cheap. Give it a shot. (Apparently it's also greatly recommended as a Jet Lag cure.)

[Isonic]

Hi all, I'm new to these boards.

I started taking melatonin for insomnia two weeks ago and while my sleep is only a little better, it's coincided with an outbreak of my dermatitis herpetiformis. I usually keep this under control simply with diet (no gluten, of course, but also no iodine - seafood, salt). I'm very strict with diet and usually I have an outbreak only if the freshwater fish I buy has been mislabeled, or if a restaurant inavertently uses flour in a dish even though I've requested gluten-free. You probably all know that story.

Anyway I've read on the Net that melatonin can aggravate autoimmune disorders, so I was wondering if this was what was happening and if anyone else with DH has experienced an outbreak that coincided with taking melatonin.

My DH outbreaks usually last six weeks.

[Isonic]

Thanks Bernice. Interesting article. My melatonin comes in capsules from a compounding chemist, so I'll need to divided them with micro-scales of some sort.

Or, what'd happen if I used them two days on, two days off, I wonder?

[swittenauer]

My husband started taking melatonin last night for his sleep issues. I just read, however, that it is not for people with autoimmune disorders. I know someone else mentioned that. I am concerned & can't really find the info I need on melatonin & if it is ok for celiacs. Anyone have some insight? Thanks!

[Rice Cakes]

GlutenFreeAl, on Jan 28 2006, 09:06 AM, said:

Do you guys take this every night? Only when you can't fall asleep? What dosage?

I have stopped taking it, but originally it went like this: start on 3mg, become tolerant and use 6mg, become tolerant and use 9mg, become disturbed that I'm tolerant to even that much, decide to skip a night or two and try to fatigue myself into sleep with low-weight/high-repetition excercise (with limited success, I always felt a little worse without melatonin), then cycle back through the same thing again and again. I have to emphasize that I have *not* found melatonin to be addictive, instead I was already very ill and it was very helpful and I slipped back into feeling just as bad every time I skipped until recently. I'm not sure what the difference has been for the last few months, but I no longer need it.

GlutenFreeAl, on Jan 28 2006, 09:06 AM, said:

I took some last night, it was a 3 mg dose. I fell asleep quickly and actually felt rested when I woke up this morning, BUT when I woke up in the middle of the night to pee (as per usual) I thought I was going to die! I was so dizzy and weak and disoriented. Is that abnormal?

That's normal. You're very, very sleepy. Forcibly sleepy. Drunk-like.

Isonic, on Jul 30 2006, 09:04 AM, said:

Anyway I've read on the Net that melatonin can aggravate autoimmune disorders

Aggravate or prevent, from what PubMed tells me.

Two last thoughts:
Do not take melatonin late, it will interfere with waking up and being able to stand up and move around normally if it's still in you in the morning when you're supposed to be getting up.

And do not stay up after taking it, lie down immediately. When I've stayed up after taking it I've felt worse, and I've become unable to sleep when I finally do try to lie down.

[Sierra]

I take melatonin occasionally. I generally prefer the melatonin I got mail order from Life Extension from the stuff I got at the pharmacy here. The Life Extension is is a 6 hour time release version and it is only 700mcg. The pharmacy stuff is 3 mg like everyone is mentioning. The 3mg pill puts me out but makes me "overly" sleepy, nearly drugged feeling. The 700mcg time release just makes me sleep really well and I wake up really refreshed.

[Isonic]

After a chat with my compounding chemist about the article above which suggests .3mg is more effective than 3mg, he sent my next prescription as sublingual drops and encouraged me to experiment with the dosage to find what worked for me.

Five to six drops = 3 - 4mg, so he suggested I start with one drop, held in the buccal cavity or a minute or two for absorption, then swallowed. He suggests taking it one hour before bedtime - but I feel tired enough to sleep almost immediately so have been doing what Ricecakes has found as well and not staying up after the dose.

After my last 3mg time-release capsule I started with one drop and didn't sleep well. Two or three drops work well so far. I wake after six hours, though not very refreshed. After a few hours I feel tired enough to sleep again for an hour (work permitting). It seems several catnaps during the day allow me to catch up on enough sleep to feel ok by mid-morning and again by late afternoon. A persistent low-grade headache seems normal now.

The DH has reduced markedly on the lower dose, so I feel there is an 'aggravation' factor for auto-immune disorders. I also have an unusually bad cold which has persisted for the length of time I've been taking melatonin (five weeks) and now feels chronic and bronchial, with coughing, sneezing and chills not responding to my usual mega-doses of Vit C, astragalus, ecchinacea, Noni Juice, Aloe Vera Juice, Infra-red sauna etc etc.