Melatonin impairs morning cognition in healthy young adults (2023) • Hacker News Board

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

#221

Post by stephen_g » Wed, Aug 12, 2026, 2:01 AM UTC

alfiedotwtf wrote: post #85

DANmode wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

5 is almost universally too much. 4 is almost universally too much.. 3 is the most I’ve ever recommended. More than enough.

5 as in milligrams?! I’ve found 10mg is sometimes just enough, but 20-30mg is where I actually feel a noticeable difference

I assume this is with tablets? In which case I think maybe try liquid solution instead? Sounds like either the tablets aren’t being absorbed at all or they are wildly off in the concentration (which is common because it’s so unregulated)

Just 1mg in liquid form is plenty for me, and that’s as someone who has had severe sleep onset difficulty for as long as I remember before I started using melatonin. I was told to hold the liquid under my tongue to absorb for a while before swallowing. I get it in 10mg/mL and it comes with a little oral syringe that you draw up 0.1mL with.

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

#222

Post by stephen_g » Wed, Aug 12, 2026, 4:01 AM UTC

colordrops wrote: post #8

gwern wrote: post #3

Hard to discuss this with only a short abstract. They don't even give a dose or formulation of the melatonin, and details like "We found no significant differences between the melatonin and sleep groups on any of our sleep measures." raise more questions than they answer.

Anecdote - I've used it dozens of times and I'm always foggy in the AM, so I avoid it if I have to be sharp the next morning. Perhaps it's a coincidence and this study is flawed, but I can believe it pretty easily.

Make sure to never use a slow release formulation, those are terrible and basically a guarantee of morning grogginess.

I use liquid to get it absorbed as fast as possible, a low dose (1mg) and my sleep doctor also recommended to take it as early as will work for me (even up to 4 hours before sleep he said, but I usually take it about 1.5-2h before which works for me).

His theory is that you need it all to be metabolised before the midpoint of sleep, whereas slow release keeps going past that so you’ll always feel groggy. Also potentially just a larger dose will do that.

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

#223

Post by stephen_g » Wed, Aug 12, 2026, 4:10 AM UTC

rapsey wrote: post #200

potamic wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How much of each do you take and when do you take them?

B6 40/50mg depending on the pill. Magnesium 300mg or so. Glycine I started with 3/5g, now I take like 30g

Probably worth getting blood B6 levels checked every now and then, taking reasonably big does like that can cause it to build up and eventually give you nerve damage leading to peripheral neuropathy.