• 🇬🇧󠁿 🇸🇪 🇿🇦 🇮🇪 🇬🇭 🇩🇪 🇪🇺
    European & African
    Drug Discussion

    Welcome Guest!
    Posting Rules Bluelight Rules
  • EADD Moderators: Pissed_and_messed | Shinji Ikari

Insomnia caused by Melatonin supps

SilentRoller

SilentRoller

Bluelighter
Joined
Feb 9, 2012
Messages
948
A little cautionary tale for you on the use of melatonin supplements as a sleep aid if some of you ever feel like using it.

2 months ago I bought some 10mg melatonin tablets to help with some poor sleep caused by work stress. Sleep is not usually an issue but I needed something to help. It worked well. I continued taking it daily for about 2 months until I ran out. I just got into the routine. I later learned that 10mg was a huge dose.

People always say ‘Melatonin has no side effects/I’ve taken it daily for years’. Bollocks. So I stopped taking it. Basically since stopping, I can’t properly fall into REM sleep/ deep sleep. And if I do, it’s only for like 4/5 hours a night. Taking more melatonin does nothing. In fact, I got so tired from lack of sleep, the pharmacist actually gave me zopiclone for 2 weeks which I’m reluctant to take daily. Only thing that gives me a full sleep.

I thought this was all just peculiar to me. Then a dug around on Reddit etc and apparently it’s fairly common. Takes 2 weeks of no melatonin roughly to reset the body. I’m on day 4.....

Oh yeah - antihistamines like DPH etc do sod all to help. They just make you feel super heavy and sedated, but you don’t sleep. It becomes like some sadistic torture. Kinda annoying when the only thing that knocks out is Z drugs/benzos. Don’t really want to be going down that road.

so yeah, fuck melatonin.
 
I got some of these off eBay, they seem to work really well for my partner.


20139037-9-E28-4-CCD-A03-B-E7-B967-EE8659.jpg


Valerian root tablets. Worth a shot at less than a fiver.
 
10mg! What a crazy amount! Honestly, 2mg slow release caps are my go to. 2 hours before bed and night night. I use them for a week or so to get back into a good cycle.

I’m sorry you had such a bad experience but you had the wrong info and used the supplement incorrectly.
 
Thankfully things seem to be getting back to normal now.
Lesson learnt, don’t use melatonin regularly. On the upside, I now have lots of Zopiclone which is now basically useless. I heard it interacts badly after MDMA, is this true?
 
You're meant to cycle natural supplements. ae a week or two on and a week or two off for best effects.
 
I've suffered from chronic insomnia for years. My sleep body clcok is completely screwed up for various reasons

have used 10mg Meletonin pills which don't' seem to help. OTC diphenhydramide and Promethazine don't seen to help either

The only thing that sometimes works is Quetiapine which can make my head feel heavy and I can sleep, but taking too much of it makes me feel really strange, and not in a nice way

I don't think I've had a proper night's sleep for 20 years - I've always lived in noisy flats with loud neighbours and it's driven me to the brink of madness 😖

I should stop looking at computer screens before bed because they say that can stop you from sleeping

Niight evertbody
 
I have always had terrible insomnia. The only thing that has really worked is quietipine/seroquel but the side effects are a big problem (especially the hangover effects that make me retarded for most of the next day.

I never found melatonin helpful and viewed it as another scammy supplement. Then my psych prescribed me an Rx drug called agomelatine/Valdoxan that works via the melatonin system.

It is marketed as a non-SSRI anti-depressant and gave me the best sleep of my adult life. It does have to be monitored for hepatoxicity but has perhaps the least other side effects of all sleep meds and is non-addictive and does not have to be tapered if you quit.
 
Atelier3 said:
I have always had terrible insomnia. The only thing that has really worked is quietipine/seroquel but the side effects are a big problem (especially the hangover effects that make me retarded for most of the next day.

I never found melatonin helpful and viewed it as another scammy supplement. Then my psych prescribed me an Rx drug called agomelatine/Valdoxan that works via the melatonin system.
Click to expand...


What dose of Quetiapine do you take to go to sleep and what side effects do you get?
 
From 25-100 mg. Usually about 50. Next day I have extreme hunger for carbs, extreme lethargy, mental fogginess, sometimes dizziness. Certainly can’t do any kind of mental or intellectual work. Difficult to even get up out of bed.
Forever Changes said:
What dose of Quetiapine do you take to go to sleep and what side effects do you get?
Click to expand...
 
^ yeah that's about the dose I take. I'm shocked to hear that some people are prescribed hundreds of milligrams! That would be horrific for me 😮
 
There are a number of antidepressants that cause drowsiness as a side effect, but I'm loathe to prescribe them for sleep. Have you asked your GP for a sleep study (usually done at a local hospital)?
 
I've been referred to a sleep clinic but God knows when or if that will happen now during the pandemic

I'm moving to a new flat soon which hopefully will be quieter
 
Hi

I’ve had chronic insomnia for years

Nothing is helping me sleep, I haven’t slept in 3 days and feel like I’m going mad, my insomnia specialist psychiatrist spoke to me on Wed and wanted to follow up again but he cancelled our apt

I currently have:
Lorazepam for anxiety 2.5mg
Dopquel but this causes heavy weight gain so I stopped this medication
I’ve got sleeping pills Dormonoct and Stilnox Mr 12.5mg
Various strengths of painkillers
Various sedating antihistamines
Trazodone100mg
Melatonin 2mg

But nothing is working at all, I obviously do not take all of the above together but I’m at the end of my teather

DOES ANYONE HAVE ANY ADVICE FOR ME?

Im speaking to the physiatrist insomnia dr again tomorrow if he doesn’t cancel again

I just can’t bear the thought of not sleeping again tonight

Any advice will be greatly appreciated- sorry for the long post!!
 
^---- Go for a long run or workout in the gym, exhaust yourself.
Exercising is the best natural sleeping aid for me.
 
@Sammylouise

I sympathise as I have the same problem - I've been an insomniac for 20 years. Have you tried sleeping somewhere else? Like get a mattress and put in on the floor of another room. Sometimes a change like that can help you sleep as you associate your bed with poor sleeping.

Another thing is if you're lying in bed and can't sleep and getting frustrated, the best thing to do is get up and do something. Go and watch TV or read a book. Do some chores like cleaning. Then go back to bed and you might sleep.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top