Hi,

I've been taking 12 mg Melatonin since Feb 2009. No side affects that I am aware of.

I don't have middle of the nighters, but take it for insomnia that has been has been plaguing me since this cycle began in Dec 2009. It does help me to sleep. Thank God!

As far as the depression? I am mildly depressed but I would have to blame that on CH and all the other numerous health issues that came into my life along with it.

I'm 53 yrs old. I've had my share of tragedy and heartbreak in my lifetime and always been able to cope with life's little curve balls. Having CH  has had a huge affect on me. Guess I'm still trying to figure this all out, if that's even possible!?

Donna Mae   

Hey Lance.  You said you were a nighttime chronic??  Since you don't get nighttime hits anymore does this mean that you are now a daytime chronic?  Did you ever get day hits before?  Does the melatonin just switch the timing of the hits? or does it knock them out? or lessen them?? 

--Shaggy

Hi 

My night time attacks had always been kip10s ....1am wake up call 

I still had attacks during the day & has my cycle went on the day times attacks would increase till i was hitting K8/9 at the height of a cycle plus the 1am k10's to deal with 

Until Jan 09 i had been seasonal 2/3 cycles a year, beginning in March and end in Oct with PF time in between - from that day onwards i have been chronic with no more than 10PF days before it would all start again.

I started taking 3mg Melatonin myself everyday from Nov 09 and over a period of time increased it until i had no more high kips break through

I now take 12mg about 20mins before i go to bed (around midnight) still wake up 2 or 3 times but can get back to sleep quite easily.....occasionally i wake up with lower kips 2/3 but can get cope with that 

I get up 6.15am monday to fri for work (also wkends as i noticed trying to have a lay in, caused bad attacks)

I did try 2/3 different brands that didnt work so well, i now use the brand link below and for me they have worked great.

I did try stopping them when i "thought" a cycle was over but within 5days the K10's was back was force...wont be doing that again

Multimedia File Viewing and Clickable Links are available for Registered Members only!!  You need to or

Hi Jim.....yes sometimes I do get nightmares/bad dreams as well. When I first started taking the Melatonin and increased the dosage - each time I did, I got very vivid dreams/nightmares but that soon passed. I just went with it  until them sort of dreams stop. I still get the odd bad dream but on the whole not many at all.

I am lucky in the fact I am aware that it is a dream whilst in it - and often (not all the time) I can have some control whilst dreaming so for me it can be great fun also.

Even with taking 12mg of Melatonin each night i still wake up 2 or 3 times - thats just normal for me BUT at least now I have no K10's (fingers and toes crossed it will stay that way) My quality of sleep is better also - whereas before, as soon as i hit rem sleep i would be woken up with a K8 and within a 2/3 mins it would be K10....

I know melatonin doesnt work for everyone - i wish it did 
I cant be sure Melatonin will carry on working for me but have to hang onto hope (which i do)

Wishing you PF days & nights

Steph

Good point, Brew.  I'll put it back into tonight's mix.

I have to deplore the self-medication with melatonine because of really high risks of known, and yet unkonown! risks and side-effects

If it helps on occasional use for episodic patients - go on, take it once a while, DO NOT TAKE IT REGULARLY, your body will stop to produce it itself and you can not keep your necessary serum level with pills because of its short half-life

feneq, M.D.

unfortunatly i am not gathering informations on internet-pages, so i can't give you a link but if i find an english text in a book i'll write it down or quote references from medical publications but i'm actually not connected to the database, i can search some for you in my free time at work

best regards.
cave! - couple weeks of permanent use IS definately throttling down your own melatonine production so it can come to undesirable effects at discontinuation.

6-12 mg is like peeing in an ocean - maybe thats why 

i made a mistake- sorry, somehow i was thinking of a dosage of  0.6-1.2mg - that's why i was sceptic,

and you need to tell me how the melatonine should work on Quote:

somehow that doesn't make really sense to me

An interesting conversation to watch, indeed.   Here I am, still up at 3:30 am after my "normal" 2:00 hit.  I'm in a mixed mode of sleepiness (maybe something to do with the melatonin I took at bed-time) and ..... I don't know....awareness/alertness/fear/suspicion that another attack will occur tonight. 

(Brew, from what film did that Robert De Niron come?

Yep, Lettuce, up in the middle of the night after a hit.  Ugh.

Steph, you have/had chronic kip 10s every night at 1:00 and still got up enough to be functional at 6:15 am?  Was that BEFORE you started taking melatonin? 

Even if I get up and can wipe out a kip 8 or so every night in about 30-40 minutes with oxygen, I'm always still "keyed up" afterwards and cant get back to sleep for another hour which makes getting up for work pure agony (which is why I've been late or absent so much this cycle) -- I'm constantly exhausted. 

I sometimes chew up and swallow a half an ambien at moments like this to get back to sleep.  I just took the ambien -- it will take 20 minutes or so to kick in, and then when my alarm clock goes off, I'll be sleepy and groggy.   Unless I have another hit between now and then, I'll drag myself to work and be pretty unproductive most of the day.

So, melatonin didn't keep me "under" tonight, but I'll try again tomorrow....

Jim Lux

I would like to address the doctor in this thread. 

Ok, if the problem I'm having is the fact that my body isn't producing enough serotonin to begin with, then supplementing melatonin (a by-product of serotonin breaking down as darkness falls), how in the heck can taking it be a problem, since I'm not producing enough of it to begin with?

Also, I have been taking it for over 10 years and don't have any issues.  In fact, I'm pretty darned healthy.

Edit to add, I think there are probably about 20 or so docs in the world that might know more about CH than a lot of us around here.