First Experiment with Melatonin - The Good and the Bad [n=1]
I have no trouble with my sleep. I would say that on scale of 1 to 10, my sleep is at 8, at least 4 days a week. So, I'd say that's decent. Sleep is very high, maybe at the very top, on my priority list because I regard it as extremely important for mental health and for my strength training. Anyhow, I'm satisfied with my current sleep hygiene and I may write a future post about what I've been doing to improve it; it was deficient in the past.
I bought a small bottle of 10 melatonin pills a couple of days ago because my 'experimenter' nature made me curious. Melatonin is a hormone that's secreted in the evening to promote sleep. Many people use it as a cheap and convenient way to aid their sleep. It's often the first intervention that some people with deficient sleep use before getting to more powerful approaches, like drugs.
So, here's my experiment in a short and digestible format:
- night before: slept well for about 9 hours
- this was a rest day (no lifting)
- took the pill (3mg of melatonin) at about 10 P.M. and then went to bed
- read something on my tablet (with the brightness at minimum) until almost 11 P.M.
- called it a day, and fell asleep immediately.
There was no difference in the onset of my sleep. But here comes the interesting part. At about 12:36 A.M. went into sleep paralysis. So, I woke up and couldn't move. Basically, you become conscious faster than your body can 'recover' its senses. I wrote a more 'technical' post about sleep paralysis here on steemit about a year ago.
Were this experience remote to me, I would have panicked. But I remember I had episodes of sleep paralysis way back, years ago when I was sleep deficient. So, I noticed what was happening and I had 2 immediate choices: wake-up or get back to sleep.
In my sleep paralysis experiences, when I wake up and cannot move, it's like the brain knows that something's wrong and tries to correct it 'onsite'. So, I feel this strong urge to get back to sleep (unconscious) mode. I can fight back this urge and try to move; and when I do this, I usually 'win'. Or, I can just go with the flow and allow myself to go back to sleep.
So, I fought back and 'recovered' my senses after a few attempts. Went to pee and then back to sleep. I woke up two more times during the night and fell back asleep immediately.
When I woke up the second time, I decided to open the window to see if the noise from outside would perturb my sleep. I also removed my sleep mask to allow street lights to enter the room. It had no effect. I fell asleep like a rock; I closed the window and put the mask back on when I woke up the third time.
Overall, it was a solid night of sleep. And I woke up very rested (from REM), from a dream. I was ~10 hours in bed, and roughly 9 hours sleeping.
The next day went okay; didn't feel anything unusual with my overall perception. However, the workout at 10 A.M. was one of the best in months (the previous day of recovery could be a confounder).
Now, here's the catch. I later learned that 3mg is a very solid dose of melatonin. Average formulations have it at 0.3 to 1mg per pill. So, I could have yoked my MT1 and MT2 melatonin receptors with this overdose. And this might have possibly perturbed the normal sleep cycle and could have created a desync or a phase shift, hence the sleep paralysis. There could have been other confounders as well. Plus, it was the first time...
Anyhow, I ditched the bottle (too high concentration) and if I decide to undergo further experiments, I'll try testing with 0.3 or 0.5 mg, and go from there. Has any of you done similar experiments?
Image Credits: [derwerbepool via Pixabay]
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Cristi Vlad, Self-Experimenter and Author
I sometimes use melatonine in a pretty large dosis, 5mg, but time released. In my subjective experience it helps me sleep deeper, and have more vivid or even lucid dreams. I don't do it very often, only when I feel my mind has been on overdrive for too long a time (and then I sometimes I even take two time-released pills approx 2 hours apart from each other). I also sometimes take a lesser dossage (about 1mg) without going to sleep but just to relax the mind (sort of like a good haze (weed)). I am not gonna dig up reports but I believe there has been done quite a bit of research on the effects of melatonine (perhaps in combination with taurine, glycine and GABA) to ease the minds of those that 'suffer' from information processing anomalities (like add and the likes). On the other hand, melatonine is also produced by your body when you eat a good chunk of cheese.
peace,
-k
have you experimented with GABA supplements in isolation - that is - without other supplements to really know if its effective? from what I know, GABA supplementation may not lead to good bio-availability due to the interference of the brain blood barrier...
No I have not. I have never used a GABA supplement, not sure if it is even available over the counter over here
I also try to stay a bit on the cautious side of suplements and try to read up before I out stuff into my body. I had some 'bad' experiences with supplements and their side effects.
can you elaborate please?
(these are my subjective experiences) Examples: taken large doses of iron (with natural vitamin c from orange or lemon juice) makes me very jumpy to the point of becoming anxious, it also upsets my bowels alot (which is a known side effect). Most ginseng and guarana supplements I have tried give me a lot of enery but also make me very moody (perhaps because of too much energy). Also most multivitamin supplements make me nauseous. Also for some supplements (for example ginko biloba) you should take caution if you also take some sort of medication (even asperin) for they might produce nasty side effects when taken in combo.
I think that sleep paralysis is when people (mind) wakes up but body doesn't. The brain has a defense mechanism the paralyzes the body so it won't physically act what the mind experience in the dream and cause physical injury.
I wonder where they get melatonin from? Because if the body produces it... 😱
what do you mean by 'they'?
The people who extract or artificially produce melatonin.
since its chemical structure is has been solved, it's produced synthetically. I'm not sure if there are any natural forms on the market, but if there are, I would avoid them - they are extracted from the pineal gland of animals and may be contaminated.
Hi Christi! maybe you could try L-serine. One study showed 3 grams improved endogenous melatonin secretion http://bit.ly/2lQl4Kn
What about glycine?
glycine and serine can be interconverted with the help of folate, but I'm not sure how much. In the study they used 3 grams of serine.
I'm reading this but i'm chuckling to myself a little...because I'm over like "you just wont stay sleep...you get up, look at the window...get up again go to the bathroom.".lol i ubderatand that aome people may sleep light that. Me, i knock out...a good joint...i'm not moving or even twisting and turning too much...much less wake up. I'm good for a good 9 hours now that ive been gauging.
I have used melatonin and had good results from 0.5 mg. Also keep in mind that prolonged exposure can lead to lower natural melatonin production. The pills are best used to kick-start a natural sleep cycle (when disrupted from say jet lag) then for every night use. As an additional piece of information, excess melatonin can be broken down from sun exposure. So if you wake up feeling groggy, get out in the sun.
You can trust me. It's not like I'm the devil or something.
Thanks for the info. I heard it helps with jet lag before too
I have considered endogenous downregulation, and that's why I'm currently considering it for experimental purposes only. thanks for the input!
You are quite welcome @cristi. Keep up the great work round these parts. If you ever need anything, and have interests in trading your eternal soul, let me know. ;)
This article was very interesting. I have not done an experiment like this, but I would not mind if you experiment some more and tell us about the results. I was perturbed by the sleep paralysis that you experienced. I think that would scare me very much. Is melatonin available without prescription?
It probably depends on the country, but I suspect that you can get it over the counter in most countries.
Normally it is not sold over the counter.
Very good post! 👍🏻😄🇦🇷
Great read by the way. I really enjoyed it.
Or maybe it's better to drink milk or warm tea with honey for the night? Experiments with melatonin can be dangerous.
Very interesting! I personally would not recommend to take melatonin. It probably mixes up our whole hormone-system.
without a more elaborate argument, that's a weak statement.
OK, agreed! I took several years ago for about two weeks low-dosis melatonin, but I got headaches, which I never had before and felt very sleepy during the day, so I did not really feel comfortable to take them longer.