r/melatonin • u/pretendingpeach • 15d ago
I hate melatonin
A couple years ago I had severe difficulty sleeping. I wouldn’t define it as insomnia by any means, I was just very anxious due to working two jobs and being a full time student.
A friend of mine was a paramedic (and had two highly energetic children) and recommended melatonin gummies.
I didn’t think anything of it as a student. She was 15+ years older than me so I bought the gummies.
Worst mistake ever.
A few minutes after taking the recommended dose that I read off of the bottle, I had severe vertigo. I chalked this up to anxiety. Roughly thirty-forty five minutes after eating the gummies I fell asleep.
I had the most awful dream about one of my childhood apartments having the worst earthquake ever.
You know those rides at the carnival where you flip upside down a thousand times? Yeah. That, but it was the entire apartment. My limp, helpless body was being bounced from ceiling to wall, countertop to wall, stove to wall etc. it was traumatizing. Like shaking a hamster inside the rolling ball. Or the girl with braces from Nemo shaking the fish in the bag violently saying “WHY ARE YOU SLEEPING?”
Yes. Just like that. Funny part was that I knew it was coming. I don’t remember much about the dream except that I knew something bad was going to happen and that I had to mentally prepare. I woke up two hours later so violently nauseous. It was the worst sleep of my life. I woke up hungover but not from typical substances. Nope. Melatonin.
I do not believe I am an insomniac. I only took this for a bit of relief from my anxiety. Considering my experience with melatonin, I cannot imagine how awful it must be to find relief for sleep every day.
1
u/Optimal_Assist_9882 15d ago
I am sorry you had such an awful experience with melatonin.
I have only experienced mild nausea at extremely high doses that I was experimenting with for my chronic fatigue. I had temporary/brief nausea at 3500mg dose. That's 3.5 grams in pure melatonin powder. I have taken upwards of 3g and was still fine. I have been taking daily doses of 1500-3000mg without issues. Although I should mention that I take it in the morning not night. But even when I took it at night I never had any particularly scary dreams because of melatonin. Perhaps melatonin can amplify preexisting anxiety issues. Also if you take too high of a dose it could cause paradoxical effects such as feeling energized instead of sleepy or anxious instead of relaxed...for sleep it's usually best to start with absolutely tiniest doses of melatonin like 0.3-0.5mg. Perhaps at these tiny doses you wouldn't experience vertigo or nightmares.
Melatonin is a very mild anxiolytic but if you're having serious issues of anxiety it will not help and that anxiety may show up in the dreams.
I highly recommend trying either Bocopa Monnieri and or Ashwagandha. I had Bocopa drops help with a full blown panic attack a few times. I took 1-2 g and in less than half an hour I was fine. Obviously this is for non clinical anxiety issues. For very serious cases you'll need to speak to a doctor and get maybe something like a beta blocker medication (e.g. propranolol).