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Misc Does melatonin give anyone else nightmares?

Okami

Bluelighter
Joined
Jun 3, 2011
Messages
497
When I was 14-15 I was prescribed melatonin to treat a minor sleep disorder where I couldn't get to sleep. If I did get to sleep I was fine, but it was just really hard to fall asleep. I did my course and it did fix my problem, I still find it harder to fall asleep than most but not nearly as bad as it used to be. Now years down the line I still occasionally use it once a or twice a week if I feel like I'm not gonna be able to sleep or need and early night or did some the drugz etc. What I always find however is it gives me nightmares almost everytime I start using it after a break. By that I mean if I haven't taken it for a month or so and take it, I will almost definately have nightmares from taking it. If I continue to use it after about 4 or 5 days that side effect sort of goes away (tolerance build up?) and it's fine and then I can use it once a week without getting the nightmares. But if I after not taking it for a month or two only use it once a week it will continually give me nightmares every time until I use it for a continued period. It's a very odd side effect that I've observed over the years I've used it and to be honest not a particularly pleasant one.

The one other thing I will note, smaller doses do it less. With 1mg its far better than with 3mg (there have been studies showing that doses of 0.3mg are actually a lot more effective at getting people to sleep and have far fewer side effects). Also the melatonin I have now was bought in America/Australia and brought over to the UK by friends for me since you can't buy it here. Once I got a bunch of pills that had herbal extracts in them as well such as Valerian root and skull cap and it was FAR worse with those than just the pure melatonin. Thought I'd just share my experiences in case anyone else was having them but didn't make the connection between melatonin and their nightmares.
 
I've never taken melatonin, but have read many reports about nightmares being a common side effect.
Have no idea why it happens only after a longish break, but definitely know they are a side effect.
 
I haven't taken Melatonin that much, But i do notice that sometimes things like trazadone can give me nightmares if i use more than 50mgs. and doxepin can also give me nightmares. So i wouldn't be surprised if a higher dose of melatonin did the same thing for me as well.
 
I have definitely had nightmares from melatonin. They're always really disorienting, weird, and unnecessary. I'm not sure why this is, but I always suspected it had something to do with an excess of serotonin in the brain? And I've also noticed that with higher doses I experience worse and more vivid nightmares vs. taking lower doses. You're not alone.
 
I use to never have problems taking melatonin and falling asleep. I could take up to 9mg and be fine.

Nowadays, I take even 3mg, I sweat the entire night, have extremely vivid nightmares, and just feel extremely uncomfortable.

I fucking hate waking up in a pool of sweat.
 
I have vivid dreams and occasional nightmares as well from it, i think it increases REM sleep and causes more total dreaming, so if prone to nightmares, esp with lowered tolerance from taking a break, it can increase the frequency of all dreams, nightmares included. Try taking it every day and it should dissipate the worst of it.
 
with melatonin less is more, which is why 1mg is better than 3mg. I dont know why they sell 10mg pills, it's just marketing stupidity and people thinking higher dose = stronger. It's just not the case with melatonin, i can't remember the pharmacological reasons why but it's true.

either way, melatonin will cause you have to have more vivid dreams which could possibly turn into nightmares. Same goes for 5-htp. You are essentially supplementing the 'dream chemicals' in your brain with these substances so it's no surprise you'll have dreams. In fact lucid dreamers often use melatonin/5-htp for these reasons specifically.

do not take high doses of melatonin, go look it up on google, it doesn't make sense to and you'll just get side effects. 1mg should suffice.
 
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with melatonin less is more, which is why 1mg is better than 3mg. I dont know why they sell 10mg pills, it's just marketing stupidity and people thinking higher dose = stronger. It's just not the case with melatonin, i can't remember the pharmacological reasons why but it's true.

either way, melatonin will cause you have to have more vivid dreams which could possibly turn into nightmares. Same goes for 5-htp. You are essentially supplementing the 'dream chemicals' in your brain with these substances so it's no surprise you'll have dreams. In fact lucid dreamers often use melatonin/5-htp for these reasons specifically.

do not take high doses of melatonin, go look it up on google, it doesn't make sense to and you'll just get side effects. 1mg should suffice.

I do normally take 1mg, I was just bought some 3mg capsules that had a bunch of other stuff in them as well, so I would cute them open and bomb roughly half of the powder in there. I normally do have dreams, but not nightmares, but there pretty much about me doing normal every day activities that I'm doing at the time. When I get into revising juts before an exam they all turn into me doing past papers or sitting exams. Last two nights I've taken melatonin, first night I had a nightmare that I was having a stroke and couldn't get back to sleep afterwards, last night I had a dream I was fighting something.... maybe zombies? with the top gear presenters (NB Jeremy Clarkson's a dick :) ), then dreamt I had woken up and was then filming an episode of top gear with them and telling them about my dream. Second night significantly less scary and less vivid as is always the case, I am expecting them to go away by the day after tomorrow compeletely.

I've been considering cutting my 1mg pills in half and trying 0.5mg instead. Will also make my supply last twice as long.
 
ya 300 or 600 mics is the best dose IMO. I never got nightmares but melatonin and a dark room works better for sleep than 60mg of temazepam for me. post 420! lol only took me 8 years.
 
Very vivid dreams yes. I just woke up from one of them!

I usually take 3-6 grams of melatonin when I need a sleep aid, but I'm told you can take up to 20 grams safely....and its MUCH less addictive then some of the other stuff out there, plus it's all natural.
 
Very vivid dreams yes. I just woke up from one of them!

I usually take 3-6 grams of melatonin when I need a sleep aid, but I'm told you can take up to 20 grams safely....and its MUCH less addictive then some of the other stuff out there, plus it's all natural.

Milligrams. 3-6 grams of melatonin would be like 10-20 bottles of pills.
 
ya you mean mg. and trust us, less is more. try 1mg and see how you like it. next time I take it I'm going to take 150mics. but I dunno that just might be too low.
 
yeah really people should do a quick google search on melatonin to see why taking 20mg or more is counter-productive at best. The fact that it's all natural says nothing of its safety in high doses, or any dose. This appeal to nature stuff is getting old on here.
 
so what's the consensus here? is melatonin for real? i don't get to dream as much as i'd like (or, i suppose you could say, i just don't remember them); if i can pop 1 mg of melatonin before bed and materially increase the chances of having and/or remembering some interesting dreams, i'm all for it. what if combined with a benzo? will it materially potentiate the sedative/hypnotic effects? pleasantly, not just like taking some diphenhydramine or something? i'm by nature pretty skeptical of anything available OTC in the US.
 
combined with a benzo you won't remember your dreams as well but obviously you'll sleep better. It won't potentiate the effects in the typical sense, melatonin doesn't really have an effect itself.

melatonin is legit and does work at increasing rem sleep and dream recall and for improving sleep hierarchy. There's no question about that. It's the dose that the issue is with, <1mg is where you should be shooting for. Anything over that you are just taking too much.

melatonin does not get you high and will not add to any high you already have. If that happens then it's purely placebo. It however should improve sleep architecture (benzos ruin this) so i wonder if using it with a benzo would kind of counteract this bad effect of benzos; i'll have to look into this sometime.
 
Why does everyone say that <1 mg is best? I know the 10mg is overkill, but I definitely get around the same effects from the 1mg and 3mg pills I have tried. They kinda get you in the mood to go to bed, but if you are stimulated ( thru stress, or mostly drugs) then it doesn't do jack shit, just makes you a little cloudy-headed. Is it really more effective in sub mg doses? if so, why?
 
Why does everyone say that <1 mg is best? I know the 10mg is overkill, but I definitely get around the same effects from the 1mg and 3mg pills I have tried. They kinda get you in the mood to go to bed, but if you are stimulated ( thru stress, or mostly drugs) then it doesn't do jack shit, just makes you a little cloudy-headed. Is it really more effective in sub mg doses? if so, why?

I don't know why, but I was prescribed 1mg rather than 3mg, I've also read an article or two saying that recent research suggests doses of 0.3-1mg were significantly more effective at getting people to sleep. I personally feel far to groggy in the morning if I take 3mgs and I also get a sort of unpleasant head sensation. It's not quite a headache, but its unpleasant.
 
yes melatonin is garbage as person with severe adhd and very heavy script of concerta (anywhere from 58-73mg per day) it basically ruined me now i have insomnia i treated it with bud for awhile now i just use my synths anyway more to the point. i was given melatonin as a treatment for my lack of ability to get to sleep instead id stay up until the wee hours of the morning where id finally just pass out from extreme exhaustion and only stay asleep for maybe 5 hours if im lucky, now for some reason as far back as i could remember ive always had nightterrors nobody can figure out why who knows maybe im just very disturbed but the melatonin made the dreams even worse on occasion tho they would get lucid and interesting
 
my favorite: driving along driving all of sudden RANDOM OBSTACLE AGHHHHHH CRASSHHHHH wake up in a sweat
 
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