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Melatonin impairs morning cognition in healthy young adults (2023)

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Re: Melatonin impairs morning cognition in healthy young adults (2023)

#121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be fair, the 8sleep is pretty nice because it heats and cools you so you get better sleep, and you can still put your phone away if you have one.

Better sleep than what? Humans have been sleeping for at least 400 years

at least!

Re: Melatonin impairs morning cognition in healthy young adults (2023)

#122
post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People would rather get a wifi connected smart bed and track their sleep stats with a smart watch than put their phone away and read a book before bed

Which is total unrelated and therefore i dont know what you want to commit to the discussion.

It’s not unrelated. Avoiding light before bed, seeing sunlight in the morning, and keeping a regular waketime, has a great impact on sleep.

Re: Melatonin impairs morning cognition in healthy young adults (2023)

#123
post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I read a while back that our brains produce roughly 0.3 mg of melatonin when signaling us to go to sleep. When I occasionally do use melatonin I split a 1mg pill into half or thirds. I find that it works well enough to help me fall asleep. Wondering how the study would look if hwy used 1/2 mg doses.

Go to the Netherlands, to the Kruidvat (or Etos or something similar) and just buy a lifetime worth of supply of Melatonin. It's 0.1 mg. I'm Dutch and live here. But my wife is American. If I ever happen to live in the US (chances are there in my lifetime). I'm going to employ this strategy. I don't trust the US with this and the Netherlands has proven itself to me in this sense. There are probably many more European…

I feel that the 1mg pill bottle that I have already is my lifetime supply, given the rate at which I use it.

Re: Melatonin impairs morning cognition in healthy young adults (2023)

#124
post #111
post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pharma and Healthcare was the implication I believe. The US approach to these things has a bad reputation internationally though I am informed that it’s an amazing system if you’re rich.

Let’s not conflate US pharma with their healthcare more generally. The US is dominant in pharmaceutical and biotech, and FDA is generally excellent as a regulator, despite (IMO) sometimes being too conservative and resistant to any ideas not gestated within the agency. There are weird quirks (like the wide and wacky dosages of melatonin available over the counter, in this example) but most countries have such quirks.

As I understand it, the FDA doesn't regulate melatonin as it's not sold as a medication, but as a supplement.

Re: Melatonin impairs morning cognition in healthy young adults (2023)

#125
post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Long ago when I paid attention to this, the wisdom was to watch out because most melatonin pills are targeted to geriatric patients. Old folks need a significant boost to their melatonin to deal with eroding sleep quality, not a little hit of it. So as a 30 year old or younger you want a fraction of what grandad is taking.

You'd expect the standard OTC dose to be a sensible starting point, not potentially several times more than a younger person needs

If they are targeted at older patients, I'd expect them to be a sensible starting point for older patients

Re: Melatonin impairs morning cognition in healthy young adults (2023)

#126
post #52

My experience with Melatonin was very hit-or-miss. Sometimes it landed like a hammer and I was very groggy the next day. Sometimes it seemed not to work at all. This was with all sorts of doses. I've found Tart Cherry - as an OTC supplement to work much better. More pleasant drift off to sleep, less waking up at night, and no morning grogginess.

The body gets used to melatonin. It is actually a crap sleep supplement. It works worse every time you take it. What you should be doing is give the body the ingredients it needs to make its own melatonin like it is suppose to work.

Hmm no there's no little evidence to support the body getting used to external melatonin and not making its own in response

Re: Melatonin impairs morning cognition in healthy young adults (2023)

#128

Tangentially: as a 'young adult' I was a typical 'night owl'. Cognitivly I peaked between 10pm and 3am, typically slept from 4am to 11am. When I got kids and a more 'regular' job, I was forced to change to a more normal schedule. The transition from 'owl' to 'lark' was not easy. It took about 7 years. These days, I peak 7am to 1pm.

But how's this related to melatonin? Did you use it on those 7 years to progressively switch?

Re: Melatonin impairs morning cognition in healthy young adults (2023)

#129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Go to the Netherlands, to the Kruidvat (or Etos or something similar) and just buy a lifetime worth of supply of Melatonin. It's 0.1 mg. I'm Dutch and live here. But my wife is American. If I ever happen to live in the US (chances are there in my lifetime). I'm going to employ this strategy. I don't trust the US with this and the Netherlands has proven itself to me in this sense. There are probably many more European…

[flagged]

So much for a good faith discussion here. I don't appreciate that you tell me to "get a grip". You're not steelmanning. Instead, your reaction comes off as a knee jerk reaction. There are enough communities where I have to come up with defenses to deal with that nonsense. Don't do it here please.

US melatonin measured dosage can be 4x as much as what is reported [1, 2].

Also 0.3 mg is the recommended dose [4]. A lot of doses in the US are way higher than 0.3 mg. In the Netherlands it's stupidly easy to find 0.1 mg doses (e.g. at the Kruidvat or at the Etos). It's in part why I never looked further.

And since you're new here (55 days ago, 13 karma as of writing). I strongly recommend you to read the HN guidelines [3]. All people who are on HN should follow them, not knowing them degrades the community experience that we're having here.

> Be kind. Don't be snarky. Converse curiously; don't cross-examine. Edit out swipes.

> Comments should get more thoughtful and substantive

There are a few others that apply as well.

[1] Cohen PA, Avula B, Wang YH, Katragunta K, Khan I. Quantity of Melatonin and CBD in Melatonin Gummies Sold in the US. JAMA. 2023;329(16):1401–1402. doi:10.1001/jama.2023.2296

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10130950/

[2] Erland LAE, Saxena PK. Melatonin Natural Health Products and Supplements: Presence of Serotonin and Significant Variability of Melatonin Content. J Clin Sleep Med. 2017;13(2):275–281. doi:10.5664/jcsm.6462

https://link.springer.com/article/10.5664/jcsm.6462

[3] https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

[4] https://gwern.net/melatonin

Re: Melatonin impairs morning cognition in healthy young adults (2023)

#130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You'd expect the standard OTC dose to be a sensible starting point, not potentially several times more than a younger person needs

If they are targeted at older patients, I'd expect them to be a sensible starting point for older patients

There is no such thing as "older people" dose.
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