39 ms·
I hope to see more and more of these studies. I've always since I can remember struggled with sleep. During the periods where I've had it under control everyt
by temp246810 10y ago
I hope to see more and more of these studies.
I've always since I can remember struggled with sleep.
During the periods where I've had it under control everything is just better: your outlook is more positive, more energy, less anxiety, and on and on and on.
People say exercise should be put into a pill - I really wish they did this with sleep.
- marrone12 10y agoThere are sleeping pills, everything from benadryl to xanax to ambien. It's just that there are a lot of side effects to any of these approaches.
- coralreef 10y agoMelatonin is at least natural, don't know if there are many studies on it though.
- Mz 10y agoCo-Q-10 in the a.m. -- either by itself or paired with melatonin at night -- is probably a better solution.
- arielweisberg 10y agoI tried Melatonin during a heavy travel stressful period doing interviews. Getting back off it and falling asleep naturally was not easy for me. I think conventional dosages may be a bit extreme at 3-5 milligrams.
- dashundchen 10y agoI agree on the dosages sold being too high. I'm a terrible sleeper that wakes up all through the night. I've found taking a fraction, between an eighth and quarter, of the 3mg pills is enough for me to sleep and wake up refreshed. Also I've found sleeping at least 7-8 hours is necessary while taking it. Any less and I feel groggy all morning.
- heimatau 10y agoStudies tend to say that any more than 3mg of melatonin, your body will just evacuate it. Also, taking it more than 5 days is most likely pointless.
- zeroer 10y agoI can tell you with personal experience that this is not true. I have taken 30-40mg before bed, and there is a definite difference in my experience from taking 1-5mg. The sleepiness I felt 30-45 minutes after dosing was the most extreme sleepiness I've ever experienced in my life, the dreams are mind-blowing, and I feel tired the next day far beyond what I feel after taking a smaller dose.
- heimatau 10y agoThanks for your personal experience but I was talking about scientific studies [1]. - [1] - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12076414 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12076414 - [2] (a narrow google search that i'm sure i could find more) - https://www.google.com/#q=melatonin+dosage+site:.gov+OR+site:.edu https://www.google.com/#q=melatonin+dosage+site:.gov+OR+site...
- zeroer 10y agoI don't see anything in that study about excess melatonin being evacuated. The paper only talks about effectiveness as a sleep aid.
- heimatau 10y agoUnder the main results section "Daily doses of melatonin between 0.5 and 5mg are similarly effective, except that people fall asleep faster and sleep better after 5mg than 0.5mg. Doses above 5mg appear to be no more effective." [1, from parent comment] Upon further research with the link I provided. It seems that for older people dosage levels should be introduced small and then increased, this study talks about the effectiveness of 50mg in older patients [1] [1] - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24802882 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24802882
- carlisle_ 10y agoI think his comment was more about the idealism of the idea rather than the practicality.
- rhcom2 10y agoAnd they only help you get or stay asleep. The actual quality of your sleep can still be horrible. Like not breathing 40x a night like I just found out I do.
- zo1 10y agoHow did you get that diagnosed/discovered? If you don't mind me asking.
- toast0 10y agoSounds like sleep apnea[1], which is usually discovered by a sleep partner, would be diagnosed with a sleep study, and can often be treated with a CPAP[2] machine, it keeps your airways open while you sleep, which helps you breathe. [1] https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/health-topics/topics/sleepapnea https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/health-topics/topics/sleepa... [2] continuous positive airway pressure
- TheDauthi 10y agoI'm late to this one, but the most common symptom is extreme sleepiness during the afternoons, even to the point of narcolepsy. It'll cause all kinds of havoc with your sleep routines. I got suspicious after falling asleep at work a few times, just an unbearable sleepiness, like I had just taken Benadryl and some vodka. Turns out I had sleep apnea to the tune of 61 events/HOUR.
- rhcom2 10y agoPretty much what these two posters said. Extremely tired all the time no matter the amount of sleep, went in for a sleep study and discovered I never fully entered deep REM so my brain was never fully rested. Got the Rx for the CPAP but haven't received it yet.
- monksy 10y agoThats a lot.
- derefr 10y ago"Sleep in a pill", to me, would be something that gives you the effects of having slept without sleeping, not something that makes you sleep.
- deleted_soon 10y agoThat might be modafinil, but again it comes with side effects and probably doesn't address the core issue
- derefr 10y agoMaybe I'm still not being clear. I don't think people mean "the effects of having slept" in a symptomatic sense, either (alertness, etc.) Rather, what people want is "the effects of having slept" in a physiological sense: a pill that rapidly sweeps the same toxins out of your body that sleep does gradually. Taking such a pill would have all the same long-term benefits that a healthy sleep schedule would have. Of course, a "pill" that did this properly would likely have to contain something like complex organic-waste-molecule-chellating molecules, or perhaps even biofilm-scrubbing nanomachines. :)
- oxide 10y agoyou still get psychosis after not sleeping for a few days, just like with amphetamine IIRC. the brain needs sleep, we aren't sure why, but stimulant psychosis does a pretty good job of proving that you start to break down after depriving yourself of sleep. paranoia, hallucinations, etc are all very common with this kind of stimulant abuse where you're keeping your body awake for days at a time. generally speaking, if you use stimulants (or "wakefulness promoting agents" like modafinil) regularly you should be dosing first thing in the morning after feeding yourself, not re-dosing, eating what you can when you can and sleeping each night as much as possible.
- dirtyaura 10y agoExercise and quality of sleep are related. Timing exercise to the right time in afternoon can improve your sleep considerably
- cocoa19 10y agoThat's tough, given a lot of people work 9-5. Easier to time your exercise before or after that.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- colept 10y agoI wish Americans as a whole took sleep more seriously. We stay up late, brag about how little of it we need, and ignore the downsides. When I sleep less I find myself more irritable. To see studies like this is refreshing.
- minikites 10y agoThis is America, where we ask strangers, "So, what do you do for a living?" as an opening question because income generation is the most important thing about a person in the USA.
- grzm 10y agoOr, more charitably, because we're interested in what it it they actually do, as opposed to the income itself. There is an issue with conflating work and what's the most important defining characteristic of a person, but I don't think it has to do with income in general.
- minikites 10y agoWe don't ask that question though. That could be covered by "So, what are you interested in?" and if it happens to overlap employment, you find out just the same.
- whatshisface 10y agoWe ask what people do because everybody does something, while only a fraction of people have hobbies. (Hobbies include people whose work is their hobby, and exclude people who happen to care deeply about more private, or at least bigger-than-smalltalk things.)
- Apocryphon 10y agoStrange that more people have jobs than hobbies...
- giblaz 10y agoMelatonin is naturally occurring and works wonderfully for me. After popping 3mg, I'm out after an hour. Worth a shot, if anything.
- mjmj 10y agoSupplementing with Melatonin can cause your body to down regulate natural Melatonin production, so coming off of it can be troublesome or cause insomnia in some people. Another way to shift your circadian rhythm without the rebound effect is to use SAD lamps or gadgets like the humancharger which work with photoreceptors in your ear.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]