[mgran]

Has anyone else ever used melatonin? I very occasionally use a low dose (one miligram) to get to sleep. That doesn't knock me out, but it does help me relax, which means I can sleep. Yesterday, because I was panicking very badly (for a whole bunch of boring reasons) I decided to use it to calm down. It did seem to help, and at bed time I took two instead of one, and got to sleep in the end. Woke up at a reasonable time too, well rested and alert for once. Actually did some language study from about five till six am.

Then, later in the day I began to panic again, and I took three.

And as you can imagine, fell asleep, and had the craziest dreams ever.

Now, obviously I'm not going to take anymore, I'll probably just have to put up with the panic, but has anyone else ever... I'm not even sure how to describe it... got "high" on melatonin? Because that seemed to be the quality of the dreams. they were very realistic, and when I woke after an hour I honestly thought I'd been asleep all day.

I took it because I felt that as a natural supplement it was safer than going to my doctor for anti anxiety drugs or sleeping aids, and used once or twice a month it's been fine. But this was latest thing was very intense, and I was wondering, is it a dangerous substance for people with bipolar/schizoaffective type disorders?

[roads]

As I understand it, melatonin resets your time clock so your body thinks it's time to end the "day" rhythms & enter "night" rhythms. Every time you take it, whatever the dose, this reset happens. Fool the body too often & I'm not sure what to expect--much less adding in the other factors of disorders/medications.

[onlymedid]

I use melatonin every night in conjunction with my prescribed sleeping meds and it knocks me out, but I feel great the next morning. Just my experience.

[mgran]

Well, I think I've been taking it incorrectly... it's not an anti anxiety supplement, but a sleep supplement. You're both right, I should be more careful with it, and only take it when I have to, as a sleep aid.

[AniManiac]

Yeah, definitely not an anti-anxiety supplement! Melatonin is the body's natural sleep hormone. When you take it before bed, you get a window of sleepiness that makes it easy to fall asleep (but if you're like me, you can work right through that...)

I take melatonin when traveling mostly, to get to sleep on a normal-ish schedule after changing time zones. I've also used it just as a sleep aid at home, but not regularly. I take a 3mg tab when I use it, and just like onlymedid, it knocks me out and I feel great in the morning.

I'd suggest asking your doctors about something for anxiety, since this really isn't going to do the trick. There are a couple of natural supplements that are supposed to help with sleep, anxiety or relaxing, but you still need to be careful that they don't interact with any other meds you might be taking. Valerian and St. John's Wort come to mind. Apparently Kava kava is not recommended anymore, due to reports of liver damage.

Chamomile tea is always safe, though!

[mgran]

I've gone manic in the past on St John's Wort, and had a really bad episode (probably mixed state) on valerian.

I'm seeing my doctor in a couple of weeks, I'll talk about meds then. In the meantime I'll just soldier on.