Am thinking about giving this a try. At 38 yrs old and 140 lbs I am thinking about 10 mg 1 hour before bed. Does this sound right?

Just a thought for those for whom melatonin hasn't worked.  Sometimes, less is more.

Melatonin is interesting stuff.  As a sleep aid, it's well established that a very small dose works better than a larger amount.  1/2 mg will consistently work better than 5 or 10 mg.  I don't know if the same could be true for some people when using it to prevent CH.

I use 10 mg at bedtime (along with the other stuff I listed in my post above) for my own treatment, but a couple of others have said it seems to work as well with 5 mg or less.  So, if it's not working well for you at fairly high doses, it might be worth a try lowering the dose for a while and see if that helps.

Just a thought.

Regards,
Jim

Another girl for my stats! Thanks, glad you're getting some pain free time.

Joe

kika wrote on Sep 4^th, 2010 at 7:20pm:



Well 5 mg is the highest dose the drugstore carried and it seems to work, haven't woken with a hit in 2 days, but holy CRAP  am I dragging all day!
Think I'll see if 3 mg will work too.

Does anyone else feel tired all the next day?

I commented on August 30 that I was taking 10 Mg Melatonin (includes 20 Mg B6). Fortunately my cycle seems to have ended, and I stopped taking the Melatonin on a nightly basis.

I did take it a couple of times since, and noticed that those nights I had a really difficult time getting to sleep. It was almost as if the Melatonin was acting as a stimulant.

So, I sure hope that the stuff has a really long shelf life. 

chbob04 wrote on Sep 9^th, 2010 at 8:51pm:


2mg of B6 per tablet is 100% daily value, that's a thousand!


I work nights, sleep in daylight and feel the same effect a lot of times.  I usually have a boring book on hand, or ask the girl to tell me about her day.  She offers to swing a shovel.    

kika wrote on Sep 7^th, 2010 at 6:39pm:

That's why they invented coffee.

Agostino Leyre wrote on Sep 13^th, 2010 at 9:19am:


Wish I could, but the B6 and the Melatonin are in the same tablet. I am not sure how common this is, mixing Melatonin and B6 in the same dose. 

Quote:


The brand I use has B6 and calcium additives. On top of that, I've been taking a super B complex each morning. Maybe overkill but so far the cocktail works. I'll keep at it until it don't. Blessings. lance

chbob04 wrote on Sep 13^th, 2010 at 7:26pm:


For some reason Rite Aid's brand has this.  I've been looking for a new brand and bought some warily searching from the label for an authentic melatonin, shortly finding what may be the B6 disturbing the desired affect. 

Along with the dissatisfaction of my previous brand, four bottles of stuff that seem useless sit because of 2 for 1 sales.

Any brands mentioned doing some sleepy good appreciated.  Insomnia can wear thin when tired but wasting free time when working nights and sleeping days.  Don't like to gamble with what's circadianly tempting for CH either.

I was considering Jim's "treatment" as I am living tethered to my O2 tanks, but in researching St. John's Wort have read that it is not to be taken if one also uses any triptans--which I do, as it is the only way I can get any sleep these days. (Relpex gives me a solid 7 to 7.5 hours consistently.)  I would love it if I could get Melatonin alone to do the job, but it isn't these days.

I consider biting the bullet and going off Relpax, but the pain is intolerable--I needn't describe it, of course.  I would do it for sure if I had some sense that after clearing the triiptans out of my system for a few days I stood a good probability of have Jim's treatment work, but we all respond differently to these things.  Does it matter that I also take a good amount of Topamax (which used to work, but isn't now)?

thanks,

thee reptile

Hello,

I am completely new to this site and board but hit upon your melatonin topic right away.  I have been on a cluster since late July, my neurologist moved out of town so I am having to "train" a new doctor otherwise would have already done a predinisone burst and hopefully been done with this bout. 

Anyway, female, 41 years old, 172 lbs.  Started taking melatonin 3 nights ago, 3 mg about 30 min before bedtime and haven't been woken up with a night attack yet, of course it's only been three days...in addition, it's really helped my sleeping which has never been good anyway and I only feel slightly groggy the next morning.

The pred worked when I was young - started clusters as a teenager.  Then it quit working (but not until it apparently ruined my tendons!  I've ruptured both achilles and had numerous bouts of tendonitis in hands, wrists, elbow, shoulder and knees).  I was on numerous other therapies then got on verapamil which also worked great for a number of cycles, but now seems to be less effective.  Went back to pred two clusters ago and it worked great again.  I'll take the tendonitis over the cluster pain.

I've tried O2 in the past without success, but now I'm not sure I was doing it right.  Currently take Treximet with mixed success.

I'm really glad I found this site!