Experiences - With Melatonin: Please post them Here!

[Jatelka]

The flamingo is fascinated...

[jayjohnson81]

I'll use 3mg melatonin on occasion (once or twice a month) if I need to get to sleep and know I'm used to staying up later. It's not a knock-out pill, but it can help bring on the sleepiness sooner than normal. IF you aren't sitting in front of the computer, with the TV on.

Unlike OTC `sleep` aids, melatonin never left me dull or unable to fully wake the next day.

The only `recreational` use is I know isfor assisting dreaming (esp. lucid.) I first picked up some melatonin because of it being known to cause vivid dreams. It doesn't seem to have nearly as good as effect when used multiple nights in a row, for this.

Reputation Comments on this post:

thank you!

[Dark_Man_Of_Peace]

It's really good to get you to sleep and to enduce dreams.

[Benga]

swim uses commercial 3mg melatonin tablets when jet lagged.
He usually takes one before a long flight, then a single dose hypnotic like zolpidem ( stilnox /ambien) on the flight, to try to sleep for 6 or 7 hours or so.
after arrival, on the first night he usually takes full doses of the hypnotic at bed time for 2 days, then half doses for 3 or 4 days.

melatonin is taken before bed time for about 2 weeks after arrival in the new time zone. It does seem to help a little with sleep cycle adaptation, especially when moving back in time zones and needing to sleep much "earlier" than in one's usual rhythm.

occasional uses are after a long night out, and getting to sleep much later then usual. doesn't help that much though, swim often wakes up one or two hours later than his usual wake up call ( read "ouch"--3 hours of sleep)---but swim is rarely sober in such circumstances, so it's not very significative.

[psyche]

SWIM got interested in high dose melatonin experiences, possibly in combination with caffeine. The couple of extremely positive reports of this combination in erowid sparked his interest. Altough many people say there is no recreational value whatsoever, these reports tell about extremely dreamlike state, in which one is still awake. One report is with 9mg of melatonin in combination of 90mg of caffeine and another was a heroic dose of 21mg of melatonin with unknown amount of caffeine, and there was also third combination with yerba mate. What about dangers of this high doses? SWIM has ordered melatonin mainly for sleep, but heck, he would be more than glad to explore it's dreamy effects when awake also.

There was also a an experience report about a regular coffee drinker who experienced blood bleeding from his nose and eventually bloody stool. That seems a little worrysome. He blamed melatonine's slight blood thinning effect.

There is also a lot of fuss about it and cannabis. It seems that smoking cannabis releases enormous amounts of melatonin and supplementing it might help with side-effects such as sleeplesness, tiredness and lack of motivation. That would be most useful to SWIM.

[Zaprenz]

Originally Posted by psyche

SWIM got interested in high dose melatonin experiences, possibly in combination with caffeine. The couple of extremely positive reports of this combination in erowid sparked his interest. Altough many people say there is no recreational value whatsoever, these reports tell about extremely dreamlike state, in which one is still awake. One report is with 9mg of melatonin in combination of 90mg of caffeine and another was a heroic dose of 21mg of melatonin with unknown amount of caffeine, and there was also third combination with yerba mate. What about dangers of this high doses? SWIM has ordered melatonin mainly for sleep, but heck, he would be more than glad to explore it's dreamy effects when awake also.

SWIZ experience:

40mg - completely counter productive & problematic. Taken hour or so before sleep (I.e wasn't fighting urge) & surprisingly not that much more drowsy/sleepy. No dream recall (or any memorable dream recall). Worst part was the next day, there was no feeling of grogginess just felt extremely miserable and unhappy. (Rather stupidly have attempted this dose or slightly higher a few times with similar results in past - just feel really miserable next day). SWIM is not sure of the health implications but suspects among other reasons not to do this it probably seriously disrupts circadian rhythm. Anyway regardless concluded HIGH doses to be completely pointless & unfun.


3mg (Normal recommended dose on brand), can be very helpful sleep aid.

Reputation Comments on this post:

	Thanks for saring this nonproductive experience!
	discouraging
	woaoh! thanks.

[enquirewithin]

Originally Posted by Zaprenz

SWIZ experience:

40mg - completely counter productive & problematic. Taken hour or so before sleep (I.e wasn't fighting urge) & surprisingly not that much more drowsy/sleepy. No dream recall (or any memorable dream recall). Worst part was the next day, there was no feeling of grogginess just felt extremely miserable and unhappy. (Rather stupidly have attempted this dose or slightly higher a few times with similar results in past - just feel really miserable next day). SWIM is not sure of the health implications but suspects among other reasons not to do this it probably seriously disrupts circadian rhythm. Anyway regardless concluded HIGH doses to be completely pointless & unfun.


3mg (Normal recommended dose on brand), can be very helpful sleep aid.

Thanks for sharing that. It had never occurred to SWIM to take that much. (SWIM dreams very vividly all the time, regardless).

[psyche]

SWIM just received a bottle of melatonin tablets. The directions say to dissolve from one to three under your tongue. The thing is that they contain only 0,1mg of melatonine. So SWIM put 11 of them under his tongue. Now he wonders how major difference is there regarding bioavailability. That must be the reason they have such a tiny amount in one tablet. Well, SWIM will be back tomorrow to report if there was anything noticeable.

[Laudaphun]

SWIM has become intrigued with this substance after doing a bit of reading on it, and finally had the chance to stop by the store today and pick up a bottle. Previously SWIM was under the impression that it came only in 1, 2, and 3mg tablets, however there was a 5mg tablet available. There was a warning label on it stating, "If you use any tranquillizers or sedatives, seek advice..."

Anyways, SWIM just bought the 3mg tablets and the instructions say to take 1 tablet 20 minutes before bedtime. SWIM just took one a few minutes ago and is about to get into bed. The lucid dreaming SWIM has heard of has her especially interested. No other medications today other than a 2mg alprazolam tablet 4.5 hours ago, which SWIM takes every day so SWIM doesn't expect that to have much interaction.

Also, the half-life of melatonin is supposed to be under 1 hour. SWIM will report in the morning.

[Intoxicating Dreams]

Swim has chronic insomnia and has for most of her life. She tried some of the "natural" approaches like valarien root, extra calcium, both to no avail. She tried some over the counter meds and had really bad nightmares and actually got out of her bed to chase a fist sized spider, that did not exist, away. Swim tried melatonin before being perscribed an SSRI and was surprised to find that it worked pretty well for her. Afterward, of course she had to discontinue. Now it is back to lorazepam (works well, but only covers 20 of the 30 days in a month) and she supplements that with benedryl when she needs to.
She really thinks melatonin was pretty good for her and would recommend it if no SSRI or St. Johns Wort (which she never tried) are being used.

[psyche]

After SWIM took 1,3mg of melatonin - 13 of the tablets with still unbelievably low melatonine content to SWIM's consideration - he felt definate effects. His body felt in peace and very heavy when he layed down to watch tv. He was feeling very spaced out and daydreamy, he found everything to be very emotional and only run through his brain, waking up some imagery in his head, but not sticking in the rational sense that the world usually does to him. Even with his usually very (too) sharp concentration he found everything to be mellow and emotionally charged, and wasn't feeling the constant need of doing something. An hour later he was going to bed, but it was four hours before his usual sleeping time. He didn't fall asleep even with melatonin, but it was mostly because the dream-like state was interesting enough so that he would remain conscious at some level. He had a very calm and kind of euphoric feeling in his body. It was his first time taking melatonine so he kept a little observer inside him awake, yet the observer was more watching by than it usually does. He also had a thought of smoking a little bit of leaf of cannabis in the back of his head, which he finally did, at about t +1:40.


As was expected, only the tiniest amount of leaf put him in a strange state. It was more blank mentally than he'd expect, but it was more rewarding and spiritual feeling. His body felt very strange, it felt like it morphed a bit to the right, and at times he felt the bed was above him and he below it, like the room would be upside down. That's a feeling he used to get when he smoked as a younger kid. After about half an hour his cellphone rang and 'woke' him up. He was sure that he didn't fall asleep, that he had been in this strange state all the time, but when he tried to think about the last half an hour he would have no recollection at all. He was sure in a certain way that he had been just laying there half awake, but had a feeling that a lot had happened but he couldn't remember. He knows that many times stage 1 sleep goes unnoticed if one is woken up, but he was so sure. He remembers that at the point the cellphone rang, he wasn't surprised or awaken, but he knew exactly what was going on, but after thinking about what it was like a little while before waking up, there was nothing.

It was his friend who was drinking at another town, and SWIM was so tired he wouldn't bother answering. But he wasn't going to get sleep, as his another friend from childhood, whom he had heard nothing from for half a year, text messaged him if he would be interested in LSD. It was quite a shock for him that his friend had managed to spot something like that so he stayed awake and finally got up and ended up popping couple of more melatonine. Then, out of blue a female friend of his came by. They weren't together, but they were having casual sex and they were friends. Sex felt like it was improved, though I don't think this is very common effect of melatonine for other people than SWIM. He felt it was a lot more dreamish and had more feeling of creative freedom in it, not speaking about different positions but just the feeling of freedom and greatness.

So SWIM can't conclude much about the effect on dreams on the basis of the last night, because he finally fell asleep seven hours after first taking melatonine. He doesn't remember clearly a dream he had, but it was of his quite early childhood and had a pretty clear or lucid quality to it.

Reputation Comments on this post:

	Thanks for sharing
	Intriguing report, thanks.

[enquirewithin]

My dog uses Melatonin 3mg with Theanine 25 mg (currently). It works really well for jet lag (he give some to his mother to take after a long flight and she thanked him for the 'wonder pills'!). It also helps him to get to sleep, when needed, sometimes in combination with something like passion flower or valerian root.

[Shampoo]

Swim finds that with Ambien CR alone, he has sparse and unruly dreams that are hardly memorable aside from their terror, though he sleeps for a solid 8-10 hours (which is far more than he is usually able to sleep at a time). When he adds 3mg Melatonin (generic tablets) to the mix, approximately 5 minutes before the Ambien, he has approximately the same sleep experience length-wise, but has much more vivid and continuos dreams. He also finds that using Melatonin after a heavy marijuana smoke-session relieves the anti-dream induction commonly associated with going to bed high.

[Matt The Funk]

First time SWIM took 1mg melatonin after consuming 40mg oxycodone earlier in the day. He fell asleep around 1am....He then had multiple vivid nightmares/intese dreams that would keep waking him up, until 4am in which he didn't go back to sleep. Another time he took it all by itself and it made him sleep within an hour ( he was already tired) , he had some vivid dreams, and woke up earlier than usual.

Reputation Comments on this post:

thanks for sharing

[Laudaphun]

SWIM didn't notice any difference from a dosage of 3mg. She may have fallen asleep a little sooner than normal, but that was hard for her to gauge. As far as dreaming, no difference was noticed. Oddly enough, the biggest difference SWIM has noticed in dreaming is since classes have resumed after winter break is a high increase in the amount of remembered dreaming. Now that the weekend is here and SWIM is being lazy and not spending large portions of the day on schoolwork, dreaming seems to have subsided (at least the amount of rememebered dreaming.)

SWIM will continue to experiment with melatonin at bedtime, but doesn't think she will be exploring the realm of higher end dosages as some others have. Probably will stick with around 3-6mg... Not sure if that is enough to create vividity in dreaming or not but SWIM will find out.

BTW, is anyone able to compare the vivid dreaming brought on by melatonin to that of nicotine? SWIM has noticed nicotine to cause some very vivid and wild dreams, but it was always when she had a steady flow of nicotine going into her body while she was sleeping, such as a nicotine patch. Snuff (finely ground up tobacco that is absorbed through the veins in the lip) does this for SWIM's friend if he falls asleep after putting some in his mouth occasionally. It is funny but in the U.S. snuff is commonly sold at any store that sells nicotine products, however right next door in Canada it is very very uncommon... On a trip there, SWIM and SWIF had to drive all over until they finally found a can of snuff for SWIF, and it was WAY past the expiration date. Many places didn't even know what we were talking about when we asked. SWIM supposes that this means that there are probably many countries that aren't very familiar with it.

Reputation Comments on this post:

yes! i noticed the same on the patch! great input.

[JDreaming]

A friend of mine uses melatonin as a sleep aid about every other night. He finds it fairly potent, usually only requiring 0.5mg - 1mg orally for the desired effect. If my friend takes too much, the sleepiness that comes stops feeling 'natural'. Higher doses of melatonin effect my friend's heart rate, making it pound rapidly. Friend has had uncomfortable experiences with 2-3mg of melatonin, where he got to bed but had moments of fear and discomfort prior to falling asleep. At lower doses, melatonin provides my friend with a very natural-feeling, subtle and effective tiredness, as if he had been reading a dull book in dim light for hours. Melatonin usually takes about 20-30 minutes to kick in for my friend.

[Matt The Funk]

Originally Posted by Laudaphun

SWIM didn't notice any difference from a dosage of 3mg. She may have fallen asleep a little sooner than normal, but that was hard for her to gauge. As far as dreaming, no difference was noticed. Oddly enough, the biggest difference SWIM has noticed in dreaming is since classes have resumed after winter break is a high increase in the amount of remembered dreaming. Now that the weekend is here and SWIM is being lazy and not spending large portions of the day on schoolwork, dreaming seems to have subsided (at least the amount of rememebered dreaming.)

SWIM will continue to experiment with melatonin at bedtime, but doesn't think she will be exploring the realm of higher end dosages as some others have. Probably will stick with around 3-6mg... Not sure if that is enough to create vividity in dreaming or not but SWIM will find out.

BTW, is anyone able to compare the vivid dreaming brought on by melatonin to that of nicotine? SWIM has noticed nicotine to cause some very vivid and wild dreams, but it was always when she had a steady flow of nicotine going into her body while she was sleeping, such as a nicotine patch.

The vivid dreams compared to nicotine are pretty similar. But as far as SWIM knows the ones from nicotine are far more bizzare. That doesn't mean melatonin dreams aren't bizzare though. SWIM's melatonin dreams were very strange, strange enough to convince himself not to take them. Along with the bizzare dreams, the one or two other times SWIM took melatonin(playing around with dosages) he had a lucid dream or two(multiples in one night) along with being able to remember them much better in the morning.
An example of SWIM's relative's dreams from using the patch would be weird shit like hair growing on your legs in crazy amounts, and every time you shave it off it just grows back, and the shaven hair moves around. Or having strange beastiality dreams.

[delphinen]

SWIM had taken from 3 to 9 mg of Melatonin and found it just a good sleep aid, very nice to combo with benzos and opioids.
Also, Diphenhydramine+Melatonin = Ultimate dreaming while awake experience, no doubt.

[SuprSonik]

SWIM has been taking 3mg (he has tried up to 30mg of it without noticing much of a difference aside from longer lasting effects) of Melatonin nightly for about 2 years. He thinks it helps him get to sleep still, just like he did when he started taking it. SWIM doesn't notice any negative effects that result from not using it for a few days at a time, nor does he notice any negative effects from it in general. SWIM also finds that it goes well with other downers, increasing the sedation a bit.

Reputation Comments on this post:

thanks for experience

[Laudaphun]

Originally Posted by delphinen

SWIM had taken from 3 to 9 mg of Melatonin and found it just a good sleep aid, very nice to combo with benzos and opioids.
Also, Diphenhydramine+Melatonin = Ultimate dreaming while awake experience, no doubt.

SWIM is curious about the combination of diphenhydramine and melatonin. What is the dosage range was necessary to achieve such a state? Regular, moderate, or very high doses? This sounds like it could be interesting. Anyone noted anything like this? SWIM is eager to hear more of this.

[Nacho]

Originally Posted by Laudaphun

SWIM is curious about the combination of diphenhydramine and melatonin. What is the dosage range was necessary to achieve such a state? Regular, moderate, or very high doses? This sounds like it could be interesting. Anyone noted anything like this? SWIM is eager to hear more of this.

That sounds ugly. I remember I wanted to try Diphenhydramine for sleep and it didn't do much of anything til the next day (super groggy and horrible). It wasn't as bad as when my friend used it for rec purposes and took 375mg to see/feel nothing but a little tired (and the next day feeling absolutely terrible and next week with messed up sinuses).

I'm curious about melatonin because my doctor said I should look into it as a sleep aid (Which is a lot better than getting prescribed Clonazepam again, just for sleep).

[Euphoric]

A Collection of SWIM's experiences with melatonin:

1. (4 months ago, roughly) SWIM had heard it was a good sleeping aid and he had to get up early the next morning so he thought he'd try one (3mg) in hopes of falling asleep faster and more deeply. It didn't go over so well. SWIM was awake and tossing and turning for close to two hours after taking it. Perhaps it was due to anticipation of its effects.

2: (3 months ago roughly)Taken after an experience after ecstasy to help with sleep and as an anti-oxidant. SWIM slept fine with it this time, but no better than a normal night's sleep.

3: (2 months ago roughly) Taken after 20mg of 2ci to aid in sleep and as an anti-oxidant. SWIM thinks the 2ci was still too active and again it was over an hour after ingestion before sleep was attained.

4: (1 month ago-ish) After reading this thread sometime ago, SWIM thought he should give melatonin another shot for lucid dreams, something he's very interested in. That night he also had a banana before bed which he's heard can do some strange things to dreams. Well that night's dreams were amazing. Lucid and he felt like every second he was asleep, he was dreaming, like way more dream time than normal and more real seeming dreams. Though now he doesn't really recall them.

5. A week later he did the same thing but without the banana. Nothing special.

6. Another week later he tried it with melatonin and a banana again. Sadly again, nothing special.

Don't know why he had that one good experience, probably other factors at play. All experiences used 3mg tabs. He will continue to use it as an anti-oxidant after other drugs. He may try it for jet-lag or something in the future or if he hears about good combos to produce lucid dreams.

[Benga]

when taking 3mg melatonin tablets, the echidna does seem to have more frequent dream recollections, but quite some time after waking, which is interesting (an hour or so after) as it's usually rather rare for him.
b

[Bajeda]

I've been meaning to compile some info / guidelines on melatonin but haven't gotten the chance due to time constraints.

I don't want to be too specific without citing references (memory is fuzzy these days), but will say that lower doses of melatonin (.5mg) have been found to be more effective than higher ones in meta-analytical studies. Also, taking the melatonin 4-6 hours before the intended time of sleep tends to work better than taking it 30-60 minutes beforehand, especially if you have circadian rhythm disorders. Using melatonin for jet-lag seems to be the exception, as it is recommended that you take it shortly before going to sleep when you arrive. Otherwise, try keeping the dose lower (unless you want oneirogenic effects) and taking it earlier.

Will try to get more accurate info with sources sometime in the near future, and maybe post a summary of my panda's personal experiences with melatonin and circadian rhythm disorders.

[madmonkey]

SWIM has been having possbily, a very unique reaction to melatonin. 15 minutes after a 3mg tablet, he started to feel a weed like buzz. 45 mins in, he was too tired to fight the desire to sleep. After waking up, his mood was significantly improved for the whole day along with bouts of euphoria and tons of motivation. He was also very giggly. He has been using a 3mg tablet every night for 3 nights with similar results. I'm not sure how long the 'high' lasts as he has been taking a tablet every night before he comes down. I've been trying to read up on the effects of oral melatonin but have found very little information on it generating significantly uplifted mood or euphoria. SWIM is going to try it for a few more days and see how it goes.

Reputation Comments on this post:

Thanks for sharing.