Comments on: Sleep – Now By Prescription

By: Guerrilla Monkey – The Infinite Bookmarks Page

Guerrilla Monkey – The Infinite Bookmarks Page — Wed, 13 Nov 2013 09:29:08 +0000

[…] Sleep – Now By Prescription […]

By: sleepinguide

sleepinguide — Mon, 11 Nov 2013 14:27:11 +0000

I wanted to put in my two cents about how Melatonin has helped me. I am a natural “night owl” and Melatonin is the only thing that puts me’ in control of my bed time. On vacation, I stay up late and sleep late, but when I don’t have flexibility, I take 9 mg 1/2 hour before I want to fall asleep. I read or do crossword puzzles and then a feeling of sleepiness comes over me. I have not had one instance in the past few years that Melatonin did not work. If I ignore the sleepiness and keep reading or doing an activity, it wears off. It seems that the main effect is to produce a temporary sleepy feeling that is probably what “normal” people feel in the evening.

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By: Douglas Knight

Douglas Knight — Fri, 18 Oct 2013 19:47:19 +0000

In general, for any drug, you should try reducing the dose and finding the smallest that works. For melatonin, 1mg is probably 10x too big. Try the smallest you can find, eg 0.2mg, 0.3mg, or if you’re in the Netherlands, 0.1mg available in your local pharmacy. If I could get 0.01mg, I’d try it. It works in the lab.

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By: Lee Wang

Lee Wang — Fri, 18 Oct 2013 15:45:05 +0000

“build dangerous levels of tolerance to one of your own endogenous hormones”.

After reading this article I’m taking one mg of melatonine each evening. I’m not an insomniac but I’m sleeping much better and longer. Now this comment makes me reevaluate my practices? Do you recommend taking melatonin to someone without a serious sleeping disorder?

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By: Douglas Knight

Douglas Knight — Wed, 02 Oct 2013 18:34:28 +0000

Every drug store I’ve checked has melatonin, which suggests some level of popularity. But that Scott’s hospital’s pharmacy doesn’t stock it suggests that doctors there don’t prescribe it. I’m not sure how to reconcile these two points.

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By: Douglas Knight

Douglas Knight — Wed, 02 Oct 2013 18:32:33 +0000

One thing that distinguishes ramelteon from melatonin is that the new drug has a longer half-life. That sounds like a disadvantage to me. When I’m trying to get to sleep, I want the smallest dose that will work. Maybe the lab dose of 0.01mg is so small that it produces too short a window of sleep and a longer half-life is better, but I use 15x that dose because that’s what I can get. If you’re trying to avoid waking up in the middle of the night, the main concern is how much drug is left in the morning, for which this won’t make a difference, but a longer half-life has the advantage of not exposing you to a large dose at bedtime. But extended-release melatonin is probably better than either.

Probably ramelteon is available in doses that are effectively smaller than melatonin, at least the stuff easily available in the drug store (which is 30x my dose). That’s an advantage, but mainly a result of melatonin being available over the counter.

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By: Jai

Jai — Wed, 02 Oct 2013 17:51:09 +0000

Melatonin was one of the first things my doctor recommended when I went to him with sleep problems; Is that very unusual?

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By: Eric Rall

Eric Rall — Tue, 01 Oct 2013 23:36:46 +0000

No worries. Context and tone are difficult to infer from short pieces of text.

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By: Douglas Knight

Douglas Knight — Tue, 01 Oct 2013 21:27:07 +0000

Thanks! Sorry if I sound snippy.

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By: Eric Rall

Eric Rall — Tue, 01 Oct 2013 20:53:51 +0000

When I chimed in on the thread, I’d thought the patient in question had used 23andme. I found out I was mistaken when I double-checked the details for you.

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