I am having some trouble getting enough sleep...trying Melatonin. Has anyone else tried using it?

Pappy said:
That’s my problem Nathan. Sleep good for 3-4 hours and can’t get back to sleep. I take Trazodone once in awhile and seems to help a little. Melatonin never worked for me a all. This morning, up at 3 am. :mad:
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I don't take Melatonin these days, I did resurrect my old Trazodone prescription and have been using it nightly. Physical activity helps a lot, in addition to going to the gym I use my elliptical or treadmill for at least 45 minutes a day, 7 days a week. No caffeine after 2pm, moderate alcohol at 6pm, 4 oz of a distilled liquor(80 proof) mixed with club soda. If I get carried away and have more drink than that, it will make a noticeable negative effect on my sleep. Eating a light dinner is also a plus.
 

A glass of warm milk.
Or about 5 big spoonfuls of yogurt. That usually helps me if I wake up at 3. 4. or 5 am.

CALM, as others have mentioned. A magnesium drink, comes in powder form.
 
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Nathan said:
I don't take Melatonin these days, I did resurrect my old Trazodone prescription and have been using it nightly. Physical activity helps a lot, in addition to going to the gym I use my elliptical or treadmill for at least 45 minutes a day, 7 days a week. No caffeine after 2pm, moderate alcohol at 6pm, 4 oz of a distilled liquor(80 proof) mixed with club soda. If I get carried away and have more drink than that, it will make a noticeable negative effect on my sleep. Eating a light dinner is also a plus.
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Good advice. May I ask dose of Trazodone. My doctor told me 25mg. Sometimes it helps, other times not so much.
 

Pappy said:
Good advice. May I ask dose of Trazodone. My doctor told me 25mg. Sometimes it helps, other times not so much.
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My prescription is 50mg/tablet. I have a pill cutter, sometimes I cut them in half, but lately have just been using the whole tablet.

Talking about sleep quality: The deep sleep cycle allows the cerebral-spinal fluid to cleanse the plaque in the brain's synapse connections, thus reducing the likelihood of dementia. And, the REM sleep cycle is important too, as many know. I wear my Fitbit to bed in order to gauge the quality of sleep, which helps me to adjust my lifestyle to make improvements, to the fullest extent possible. Here's a screenshot of last night's sleep:Screenshot_20221017-141025.jpg
 
Pappy said:
That’s my problem Nathan. Sleep good for 3-4 hours and can’t get back to sleep. I take Trazodone once in awhile and seems to help a little. Melatonin never worked for me a all. This morning, up at 3 am. :mad:
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I can relate, Pappy. I seem to wake up, ever earlier. No point laying there trying to fall back asleep. It doesn't
happen :(
 
I have taken melatonin for many years and it always seems to help me to go right to sleep, assuming that I have not had coffee or something with caffeine later in the day , which then makes it harder for me to fall asleep.

I read a book many years ago, called “Melatonin Miracle”, and it explains all of the anti-aging functions that melatonin does, so it is not just something that helps you go to sleep better.
Our natural melatonin is activated by darkness, but as we get older, our body does not make as much natural melatonin; plus, we use electricity so it is essentially “daylight” right up until we turn the lights off at night.

What I do is take melatonin and magnesium about a half hour before I am ready to go to bed. I do not watch or read anything that is high drama (activates adrenaline), and try to read something sort of boring to help me get sleepy.
Another thing that helps me is to go swimming during the day, or at least get a moderate amount of exercise, which tires out my body.

I try to eat my evening meal in late afternoon, so that my stomach is neither really full or really empty by bedtime. Each person has a different level of melatonin that works, so start with maybe 3 mg, and see how that does. If you are groggy in the morning, you are taking too much.
I started out with 3 mg, and have gradually increased over the years, because as I age, the anti-aging part is more and more important to me.
 
My son has to have Melatonin as he is autistic and a lot of autistic kids don't naturally produce enough, He was given a dose of 6mg in the evening, but it didn't work a lot of the time, we came to the end of the course and we only had 4mg left so gave him that and he slept like a baby, We told the doc and he said keep him at 4mg and he is having a good night's sleep 99% of the time.
 
Nathan said:
My prescription is 50mg/tablet. I have a pill cutter, sometimes I cut them in half, but lately have just been using the whole tablet.

Talking about sleep quality: The deep sleep cycle allows the cerebral-spinal fluid to cleanse the plaque in the brain's synapse connections, thus reducing the likelihood of dementia. And, the REM sleep cycle is important too, as many know. I wear my Fitbit to bed in order to gauge the quality of sleep, which helps me to adjust my lifestyle to make improvements, to the fullest extent possible. Here's a screenshot of last night's sleep:View attachment 245269
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This was mine last night. They’re not always that bad but lots of room for improvement.

EFE7C76B-0343-404C-B1BA-5D21CE8EC74D.jpeg
 
J-Kat said:
I use CBD sleep gummies with 3 mg of melatonin and 10 mg of cbd. Works wonderfully for me. No morning hangover.
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Unfortunately CBD does not work for me, but I was using 5mg Indica gummies that worked very well for sleep. However, an unexpected side affect was a noticeable drop in my Deep Sleep duration, so I discontinued the Indica, and went back to Trazodone.
 
I take 1/2 of an alprazolam tablet, a Tylenol PM and 3mg. of Melatonin and I fall asleep but I'll get up in 4 or 5 hours to go to the bathroom. Even though it's in the middle of the night I'll have breakfast with coffee and go back to sleep for a few more hours. That's my usual routine but not always. There's no sense of just laying there and trying to sleep.
 
dobielvr said:
A lot of my friends use gummies.
Not weed users at all either.
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I use pot pills as well as melatonin, I switch off from time to time, as I have found the Benadryl with melatonin works well too. I sleep like the dead, I never remember any dreams. About once every 2 months I have a problem getting to sleep, but the rest of the time no problem. I slept through the siren of the fire truck, but the light flashing woke me up. I slept through a man knocking on our door, what I heard was my kid whispering "Mom theres a man outside" Turned out it was a cop wanting to tell the previous tenant that someone died.At that time, DH worked in a prison and the cop on our door step almost gave me a heart attack! The next day, I called the police and gave them a piece of my mind! There is no need to tell anyone about a death at 2:00 AM!
 
I had the same experience as many others mentioned here, I would fall asleep and then wake up totally away about three hours later and couldn't fall back asleep. For me, it was worse than not taking it. I've been using valerian root. Works much better for me. It also gives me really vivid dreams that I can actually remember. And no grogginess. Although it does smell like feet.
 
I hated taking the CBD gummies because I’d have to brush my teeth again and that is part of the early evening routine. No way could I sleep after eating that sweet. I don’t think they worked anyway.
 
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