41–50 of 156 posts
> I am not a sleep specialist. Then you shouldn't be writing an article about sleep as if you were an expert. Why on Earth should I trust anything this man says if the first line of the article is about how he's not qualified to give the advice he's giving?
I used to work 7pm - 7am night shift. 3 days on, 4 days off one week and 4 days on, 3 days off the next. With lots of melatonin, exercise and careful adherence to my bizarre schedule I was able to train my body into a diurnal inversion cyclical sleep schedule. As soon as my 3/4 day work week was over I would -- over the course of one day -- inverter myself back to being awake during the day. When my weekend was over…
Hmmph... I'm taking 20mg most nights. One 10mg at bedtime, then another 5 hours later if I wake up again. Even that isn't enough to really put me to sleep if I'm stressed out. For me, "more is more" seems to be true...
> the correct dose A single correct dose is a myth. The author even sort of notes that with the differences between teenagers, 25 year olds and the elderly. There's also a wide variety of sleep disorders which are touched on in the article. I've suffered with 2.5mg before for long enough to understand that it doesn't work for me, no matter how many studies you have with 95% CL that the dose is much lower. The 5mg tab…
YMMV
Amazed at the dosages of melatonin that people will take without thinking about it. It seems that the side effect profile is a lot greater than most people let on. https://impossible.co/blogs/health/melatonin-side-effects I've found a magnesium + l-theanine combo works wonders without any hormone interference or dependency issues to worry about.
I spent years trying to crack my sleep issues. Blackout curtains, magnesium malate / citrate, no electronic devices for an hour before bed, CBD oil, even stronger CBD oil, different doses of Melatonin, 5-HTP, valerian extract, sleep apnea tests.
It never really significantly occured to me that it would be coffee as I believed I had ruled this out. I was already stopping coffee at 12pm and tried to limit to two cups. I also enjoyed coffee a lot, I spent good money on artisan roasted beans, a grinder and an aeropress (including one for travelling). Coffee is good for you right, antioxidants etc! Everyone drinks coffee and I can get it anywhere 24/7.
I decided it must be worth trying to drop it as an elimination test to see if it might help. I came across a reddit comment from a google search, where someone had quit caffeine and had a lot of success.
First few attempts failed, but eventually managed to get a day one out of the way (the stuff is addictive).
First 3-4 days were tough to put it mildly, constant pumping headaches and extreme fatigue. However around day 5 something wonderful happened. I had one of the most deep satisfying sleeps I had in years, it was like the sort of sleep a child has. Deep R.E.M level sleep with a vivid dream. I work up with a feeling of being deeply nourished. I actually cried as I was so happy I had found an answer.
I am now caffeine free for 10 months and I can still feel myself healing and the layers of the onion being peeled away. I very rarely get anxious now and my productivity at work is back at where it was when drinking coffee, but the difference is my focus is much better. On coffee I was like a scatter gun, whereas now it's more of a less manic focus.
I continue to sleep great, all night, no more 3 am wake ups. On the rare occasion that I do wake, I don't find myself in this delirium / anxious state where I proceed to toss and turn, instead I feel really at ease and drop off again.
Caffeine really gets played down as harmless (and perhaps for some it may be), but there are so many folks around that are suffering with sleep issues that could solve this by quitting. Caffeine binds to your adenosine-receptors. When adenosine binds to its receptors, neural activity slows down, and you feel sleepy. Adenosine facilitates sleep and dilates the blood vessels, probably to ensure good oxygenation during sleep. Caffeine blocks these receptors thereby removing the feeling of being sleepy. Studies are limited, but I wonder if the long term impact of playing with your biochemistry day after day for years has a bigger impact than we know of. It also increases cortisol the stress hormone, so this is where the anxiety comes from, cortisol is akin to 'fight or flight'.
Amazed at the dosages of melatonin that people will take without thinking about it. It seems that the side effect profile is a lot greater than most people let on. https://impossible.co/blogs/health/melatonin-side-effects I've found a magnesium + l-theanine combo works wonders without any hormone interference or dependency issues to worry about.
Can you get l-theanine out of tea or is that infeasible?
To address this, I've tried a couple of different things to help sleep: melatonin; and valerian root extract.
The valerian root worked great, until one night it gave me the worst sleep paralysis night terror of all time. Sleep paralysis is nothing new to me. Getting it once every other month or so, it's a bit unpleasant, but far from terrifying. Sometimes I can even leverage it to induce a lucid dream. But this was on a whole other level, with a full blown out-of-body hallucination and a demonic face across room that locked me in a state of raw horror and doom. Also, it made me feel mildly hung-over in the morning.
Never taking that stuff again!
Melatonin on the other hand, perfectly fine. I take a 3mg supplement with L-Theanine 1 hr before I want to sleep. Makes me nice and drowsy, and I sleep like a baby through the night. Can't speak to how it affects dreams because I have dreams every night anyway even without it. But overall really good experience.
For my body, it was a prime example of less-is-more: a soft, minuscule dosage would soothe me to sleep when sunlight diminished; more would give me terrifying dreams. The flip side is the moment the sun rises, — boom — involuntarily awake!
I think it affected my light sensitivity permanently, even years after stopping. I am extremely thankful to be living in a part of the world these days (D-A-CH), where good blackout shutters are commonly built into residential windows.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
On the anxiolytic side - a warning for those susceptible to such things, when I was taking melatonin it caused me horrible anxiety, something I’d never experienced before. It stopped not long after I discontinued it.
That happened to me too. Not pleasant. Melatonin should never be taken by those with existing or predisposition to mental health conditions.