Melatonin

I used to take gel caps nightime (liquid benadryl). But I find that 3mg of melatonin does pretty good. If there's a night where I want to make sure I get really good sleep, I still use the benadryl....but for the most part...melatonin does the job. There are all different type of mg out there. You'll have to find what works for you. I started with 2...but 3mg is my magic #.

I take it. It's natural and start with 1 mg and see how that works. It's also important to relax and turn down/off the lights - that is how melatonin starts producing naturally in the brain.

3 mgs might make you drowsy the next day.

Hi there,
I take melatonin in the evening to help me feel sleepy. Otherwise I have a great deal of difficulty falling asleep. The doctor has me taking it 5 hours before I go to bed. Others have told me that they begin to feel sleepy after 1/2 hour so you need to see how it affects you. I have no side affects from it.
Best,
Elisabeth

Melatonin works really well for me but I do find it to be a different feeling than other sleep aids. I find that those "PM" pills give me a groggy "boy i'm tired now" feeling that I don't get from melatonin. Since I don't get that sleepy feeling with melatonin, at first I thought, there's no way this is putting me to sleep. But then, I lie down on the bed and next thing I know, it's morning. I take 2-3 of the 1mg sublingual (dissolve under the tongue) pills about 20 minutes before I want to sleep. I usually sleep for 7 hours and then pop up wide awake. I use them a lot when traveling. Never had any side effects.

I'm not sure why my tolerance is so high compared to everyone else's, but I'll take 10mg about an hour/90 minutes before bed, and then I usually have no problems getting to sleep and staying asleep for a good 6 hours, at least. No significant adverse effects either, although I believe if you take it for too long without taking the recommended week break every couple of months, it does lose its effectiveness.

I swear by melatonin! Ever since I had my son I am a very light sleeper... hard to fall asleep. I take one of those and I am out in about 30 mins and don't wake up every hour. I do get some weird dreams but nothing that wakes me up. I wake up feeling quite refreshed in the morning too. LOVE IT!

melatonin is completely natural so I don't see the harm in it. I am going to sound like a bad momma, but I give my two girls melatonin to help them unwind for bed. It used to take my youngest who was three at the time hours, I mean over two hours, to go to bed. I tried every trick to get her to go to sleep and it just didn't work. Someone told me about melatonin and I checked with my pediatrician and she said it is perfectly safe, that is is just something that our bodies produce but sometimes our bodies don't make enough melatonin.

I've just recently started giving it to my 6yo and 12yo. My 12yo was one of those kids that would come down 15x a night to get a drink, go to the bathroom, and give hugs for the 4th time. As soon as I started the melatonin, that stopped. My 6yo would stay up until 11pm then need me to lay down next to him until he fell asleep. Once I started giving it to him, he's asleep by 930pm and stays in his own bed til 7am when he wakes up on his own.

On the weekends I am not giving them the melatonin unless they ask for it. That way they can have a break from it and have a chance to go to sleep without it.

ETA: I just recently learned that a company called Vitafusion makes a melatonin gummy. That is what I got for my kiddos and they really like them even though it is a white tea passionfruit flavor.

Melatonin is my favorite sleep aid! I like that it takes a while to kick in so I can chill for a while before drifting off to sleep.

I have taken melatonin. Just be careful that you stick to the dosage. Too much can cause nightmares - no fun. I would stay away from Advil PM; it is just ibuprofen with Benadryl. You really should not be taking ibuprofen unless you need it for something.

Melatonin is my favorite friend. I use 5 mg every night except the nights that I am on call. It works in about 30 minutes for me. Good luck. :happy:

I take Melatonin and it helps me go to sleep and stay asleep and I have noticed no side affects.

I have taken every prescription, over the counter, and herbal remedy for sleep and NONE of them work for me. Wait, that's a lie. Ambien *occasionally* seems to help a teensy bit. I'm at the point of considering getting a sleep study done to find out why I don't freaking sleep.

Sorry, guess that didn't really answer your question!

I know many many people who swear by Melatonin. A few even say it "knocks them out". It's pretty safe, so I say go for it.

I take melatonin and valarian root (separate, not together) on occasion and they work well. I find that when I am having anxiety that the valarian root works better as it seems to give me a calming effect.

Those of you who take nyquil to get to sleep and yes, there are lots of you out there, I used to be one of them. They now make a ZZZs formula to help with sleep with out the pain reliever in it. I highly suggest it because use of the nyquil with all the alcohol and acetaminophen will cause liver damage.

OP - why are you having a hard time falling asleep? A lot of the time I cannot go to sleep because my mind just wont turn off. I lay my head down and it goes into extra gear, cause it is no longer busy keeping me from tripping or saying something I shouldn't.

If your brain is too busy here is a suggestion. Listen to an audio book. But you can’t play it on the radio next to your bed. That does not seem to work. I need to have ear buds in and the volume down low. It works for me. I think what it does is give my brain something to focus on, seriously. A nice dark room, the book being read quietly in my ear and *boom* I am asleep. (Even when I am trying to listen to a chapter. Sometimes it is actually annoying. )

I get audio books for free downloaded to my iPhone. The app is Audiobooks and it links you into the Librivox. LibriVox provides free audiobooks from the public domain. (Copyrights are granted for a limited time, and eventually they expire, and the text enters the “public domain.” Meaning anyone can use that text however they wish.) Most of the books are over 100 years old.
You are not going to get fifty shades of gray for free but is a great way to catch up on Twain, Hardy, Austen, etc..

Anyhow, that may be an option for you that does not include ingesting anything. And it’s free!

I work night shift so in order for my body to fall asleep during the day I take a 3mg pill of melatonin supplement. It helps keep me asleep and works best when taken before 6-8 hours of estimated sleep time. Some people feel drowsy afterwards usually because they don't stay asleep for that long so the extra melatonin hasn't had time to leave their systems.

I also recommend trying out Neuro Sleep drink. I thought the whole, "it'll put you to sleep" promotion was just a cute way of selling a new beverage, but that thing knocked me out like no other. I drank the whole thing before I went to study hall one day and halfway through the session my face was on the desk. The teacher told me I obviously needed some sleep and to go home. I kept thinking, "Why the heck am I so tired tonight?" and then I got home and stared at the empty Neuro Sleep bottle on my desk and realized that the melatonin and other ingredients in that drink really work. http://drinkneuro.com/products/sleep

And definitely don't drive, operate heavy machinery, or do anything else that requires alertness because melatonin will make ya super-sleepy.