Earlier quoted context omitted.
Better sleep than what? Humans have been sleeping for at least 400 years
I know an obese individual who has one and I'm sure having a ventilated bed helps them sleep more comfortably.
Health concerns make sense
Melatonin impairs morning cognition in healthy young adults (2023)
171–180 of 224 posts
Re: Melatonin impairs morning cognition in healthy young adults (2023)
#172Earlier 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.
I used to do this too, but I learned that will give you inconsistent dosage as the pills aren't guaranteed to have the active ingredient spread uniformly.
If the pill has a score line, it's designed for halving (or quartering, if it has two.) Otherwise, no guarantees.
Re: Melatonin impairs morning cognition in healthy young adults (2023)
#173Earlier quoted context omitted.
Good point. For regular coffee drinkers, testing an hour after waking without their usual caffeine could be its own cognitive impairment experiment
It’s hard to do a blind test on yourself. But I accidentally ran this test on myself recently and didn’t realise until I got home and found my full cup on the bench. It was disturbing to know how much I need it.
As someone who (foolishly) only drank decaf until my early 40s, I can tell you that the mental difference when you start drinking caffeine is just amazing.
It is wonderful stuff. And not only can you finally think in the mornings, but provided you don't get heart issues from it, it appears to reduce your risk of Alzheimer's substantially.
Re: Melatonin impairs morning cognition in healthy young adults (2023)
#174Re: Melatonin impairs morning cognition in healthy young adults (2023)
#175Yeah I noticed it didn't make much to me besides make me have weird dreams.
I do recommend people to have a healthy lifestyle and avoid screens 45 mins before bed.
Re: Melatonin impairs morning cognition in healthy young adults (2023)
#176Earlier quoted context omitted.
I take 300mcg when I’m having a hard time getting to sleep or if I’ve had a lot of caffeine. Mostly because Scott Alexander told me to.
Would it not be easier to not drink so much caffeine late in the day? Unless you're jetlagged, there's not much evidence AFAIK that melatonin will induce sleep better than a placebo.
Not OP, but I’ve had horrible sleep over the past year. I had taken melatonin a while back before stopping, so on a whim, I decided to bite off a bit of one of my old 5mg pills before sleep. Didn’t give it any second thought — didn’t even think it would do anything. But I slept like a baby for the first time in months. And it’s completely reproducible.
Re: Melatonin impairs morning cognition in healthy young adults (2023)
#177Earlier quoted context omitted.
Share a link to 0.1 dose product please
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I can Google very well. The smallest dosages I found were 0.5 and 0.25 for kids (against AAP advice!)
The discussion was about 0.1 for finer grained control and implied ability to experiment with dosages rather than stick with third party selected dosage regardless of needs.
Re: Melatonin impairs morning cognition in healthy young adults (2023)
#178Earlier 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…
Drugs are regulated with the same care in the US, the problem is you are comparing a drug in Europe with a dietary supplement in the US. You can’t expect to grab a high quality of any dietary supplement from say Walmart. It’s the same in Europe. In the US there are labs making high quality dietary supplements, but you usually don’t find them at retail stores or even Amazon, so it needs a bit of research.
Walmart typically carries a large selection of supplements from the 'Nature Made' brand (yellow label), which tests/certifies most of their products through the independent 'U.S. Pharmacopeia (USP)'.
While that may not help with the arguments over the correct dosage, it at least means you can trust the ingredients and dosage on the label isn't a lie. A random mail order supplement or bulk powder seller on Amazon...not so much.
Re: Melatonin impairs morning cognition in healthy young adults (2023)
#179Earlier 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
I wonder what the actual sleep quality of people 400 years ago looked like
My guess would be "not great"
Re: Melatonin impairs morning cognition in healthy young adults (2023)
#180Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
FDA does regulate supplements, but using a different legal framework which is far, far more hands-off than for pharmaceuticals.