Re: melatonin

From: David Lubkin (lubkin@unreasonable.com)
Date: Wed Sep 13 2000 - 08:06:28 MDT


Jason Joel Thompson wrote:
Anyone have any direct experience and/or understanding of the effects (+/-) of supplemental use of melatonin?

My teenage daughter and I both use melatonin occasionally to normalize our
sleep cycles.

What I've read is that the appropriate dose varies by as much as 2000 to 1.
The recommendation I followed was to start with 3 mg, and see what it does
to you. Then either increase or decrease from there.

In our cases, with 3 mg, we each slept 12+ hours. My daughter found that
200 mcg was the right dose for her; I take 1 mg. Rather than taking it
every day, we wait until we find we're not getting enough sleep, and then
take it until our sleep cycle is back to normal.

NEVER take melatonin while the sun is out. You can screw up your system.
(The body's own production of melatonin is triggered by low-light levels.)
I find the best time to take it is about two hours before you want to go to
sleep. But I've also read that you shouldn't take it after midnight.

There are now press reports that melatonin use blocks stage-4 sleep. I'm
skeptical of this, and want to find the actual studies.

-- David Lubkin.

______________________________________________________________________________

lubkin@unreasonable.com || Unreasonable Software, Inc. || www.unreasonable.com
a trademark of USI:

> > > > > B e u n r e a s o n a b l e .
______________________________________________________________________________



This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Mon Oct 02 2000 - 17:37:52 MDT