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I never took it because I read a long time ago that it causes your body to decrease melatonin production long term. I guess that’s just a myth because people in
by GuardianCaveman 8y ago
I never took it because I read a long time ago that it causes your body to decrease melatonin production long term. I guess that’s just a myth because people in this thread seem very positive about using it long term.
- craftyguy 8y agoPeople in this thread didn't RTFA (top posts are addressing the title/subject of 'melatonin'), and generally the responses are anecdotal. Don't assume folks here know what they are talking about.
- Broken_Hippo 8y agoI don't think it is a myth. I worked at a pharmacy for years before moving overseas. I'm not a pharmacist, but overheard pharmacist-customer advice for melatonin many times. While melatonin is one of the safer sleep aids, the pharmacists would always warn to take the lowest dose possible, and only take it while needed without a doctor's oversight because of the threat of decreasing natural melatonin production. It causes a sort of dependency on the supplement. It always seemed occasional use was OK, and generally safer than some of the alternatives. I think these risks are why the supplement is a prescription here (Norway), and I fully agree with this. It can still be better than the dependency on other sleep aids and have fewer side effects, though.
- rofo1 8y agoThe best book on this topic (that I've read) "Why We Sleep" is uniformly against all kinds of medicine. There isn't long-term effect after 6 months (I think) of any sleep medicine, according to certain studies. The effect literally "wears off", despite the subjective notion of the user.
- jonhendry18 8y agoIn the long term, your body produces less melatonin as part of aging.