Sleep Enough

I’m taking melatonin now again, but even after 2 weeks, I’m still in the dark as to how much is enough. I’m on 6 mg per night (2 tablets at 3 mg each), but I’m a little concerned if that is too high in the long term. After all, I’ve also read of people taking extremely high amounts of melatonin and seemingly doing ok.

The main concern with high dose melatonin is whether it will turn off the body’s natural melatonin production after a while. It may also make the melatonin receptors less sensitive to melatonin, seeing that anything over 300 mcg is already considered “excessive.”

But hey, you don’t have much of a choice because between some sleeping drugs like benzodiazepine or hydroxyzine, or melatonin, I’d choose melatonin anyday. In fact, after stopping the drugs, and taking melatonin, I’ve noticed the twitching in my arms and legs prior to sleep largely diminished, so I must assume in my case it was exacerbated by those drugs.

Melatonin is not a drug – which is a good thing. The bad thing about melatonin is it is easy to render it not-so-effective by taking it in large amounts. Some people find they have to keep taking melatonin in ever larger doses just to experience any effect, over time. That’s why a lot of people say melatonin does not work; but I think one of the reasons is because they overdosed on it over an extended period.

Another problem is due to calcification of the pineal gland. I’m not the only one who is wondering why insomnia rates continue to rise in today’s modern times, while 100 years ago, it wasn’t so. All I can think of is that a lot of chemicals in the foods we eat, and the water we drink contributes towards calcification of our pineal glands. The pineal gland is a tiny gland that can easily get damaged due to a lot of chemicals that we are now exposed to. One good example is fluoride, a highly toxic chemical added to public drinking water (more about it at another time).

The point is how do you get the “right dose” for melatonin? The answer is still – Trial and Error. Other pieces of advice I can give concerning melatonin are:

• Take melatonin with some sleep herbs like valerian
• Don’t take melatonin every night. Skip at least one night in a week.
• Monitor your results closely and adjust accordingly. If you need to take such a high dose, you risk turning off your own bodily production of melatonin after a while.
• Try to sleep at the same time each night. And avoid late nights. While late nights can be fun, you risk sabotaging your circadian rhythm.
• Try to drink unfluoridated water if possible. Fluoride is a chemical that messes up your pineal gland. Your pineal gland is the one that is producing melatonin. I’ll go into more detail on this some other time.