Melatonin has one caveat: Take it and turn off the lights! If you take it and stay in a lighted area, it doesn't re-set your brain's "clock" the same way. (Neuro tipped me to that factoid.) And some people can get ocnked out on 2 mg, some need 5.

I also use L-theanine (200 mg) to help knock me out at bedtime when the Hamsters of Anxiety are gnawing.

Good stuff to keep in mind!

I used to take 5-10 mg Melatonin nightly before I was put on Amitriptyline. It was the only thing I didn't build a tolerance to, although it wasn't as effective as I would have liked. It made me more tired but if my anxiety was too high I still wouldn't sleep. I still take it from time to time when the Amitriptyline isn't enough, like on days where I'm stressed or excessively painful.

I used to take Melatonin, but I kept having vivid nightmares. So I I stopped. Does this happen to anyone else?

Hugs

The first week I had weird dreams. I've always had vivid dreams and 3 mg of melatonin made them more vivid.

Leo is right. I have it on my night stand. I take it, get into bed and shut the lights off.

I also had terrible nightmares from melatonin. My neuro recommended it in a graduated dosage and even at the smallest dose, I would wake up practically screaming. It did help me get to sleep very quickly though. Just couldn't handle the side effect.

Gives me horrible restless legs so even if I got sleepy I wouldn't sleep.

I have taken melatonin before and it did help me to stay asleep; however, my issue is not with staying asleep, it's with getting refreshing sleep. So while I stayed asleep, I did not wake up feeling refreshed. Also, I would go to sleep with my head facing the headboard, but I'd wake up with head facing the bottom of the bed! My body would rotate 180 degrees and I would have no,recollection of it. That scared me, so I stopped using it after about 3 weeks.

It's definitely worth a try though.

Wow, that is neat Leo. My hubs was just talking about how it worked this morning.

My sons dr told me to use melatonin for his sleep problems. It was amazing what a difference it made for him. Some ppl just don't make enough on their own.

My daughter has ADHD and I give it to for sleep sometimes. Works well for her but she takes 10 mg!

It didn't make a difference for my husband.
He tried melatonin first. Now he takes amitryptaline at 10 pm and it still takes him till 2 am or later to go to sleep

I take Klonopin to sleep. But sometimes I'm to wound up to sleep even with Klonopin, so I take 1/2 mg of melatonin. If I wake up I'll take another half. Lately, I don't remember many dreams and I've always had vivid dreams. Melatonin seems to give me more memorable dreams, so for me that's a benefit!

I take 1mg of melatonin and 25mg amitriptyline. This combination works very well for me.