Melatonin and younger people?
 

After some bad cases of insomnia and disturbing dreams that wouldn't go away even when I excercised and cut back on coffee, I started taking 3mg of melatonin a day. It worked at getting me to sleep on a regular basis and my dreams are much, much more vivid and unusual, but not as nightmarish. I've read quite a bit about it, but there's a serious lack of info on it. I'm 19 and am curious if this is not a good thing at my age (i don't take it every night, only in moderation)

I tried melatonin and found my dreams were very vivid, to the point where I was having trouble distinguishing between what I had dreamt and reality. I also felt like I had been awake all night. Needless to say I don't take it anymore.

I was suffering from severe insomnia for several months last year (and I'm about your age) when I started taking melatonin because I didn't want to use sleeping pills. I talked to my doctor about it later and she recommended that I stop using it on a regular basis. Apparently, though 3mg is the recommended dose (10mg is the maximum amount recommended on the side of the bottle), 3mg is hundreds of times more than your body would naturally produce to make you sleepy. To me, that just doesn't seem very safe. Unfortunately, there haven't been any long-term studies on melatonin supplements going either way. I've heard that the only reason it is still produced and on the market is for warding off jetlag.

My first piece of advice is to take government recommended portions/doses with a huge grain of salt because the government's only job is to warn us about what will poison (as in kill) us or make us seriously ill. Any negative effects up to that point are hardly mentioned, if ever.

My second piece of advice is to limit your melatonin intake to nights when you _really_ need it (ie. you have a big exam the next day and you need your rest) and only for one night. Two nights in only the direst of circumstances.

Your bad dreams are probably symptoms (along with your insomnia) of a larger problem you're dealing with right now. I wish you lots of luck in finding the source of your troubled nights. Sleep well!

I use melatonin very rarely and wisely. My mom suggested I try it when I really need sleep and only when I really need sleep. I haven't had any problems with it either, and my dreams a funky anyways, so if it changed anything, it wasn't enough for me to notice.

On a side note, I genereally prefer Benadryl. I have a perpetually stuffy nose anyways.

I have persistent sleeping problems, so I've tried melatonin (I'm 19). The first time I took it, I had the most incredible dream I could remember for years. I also slept well. Unfortunately, I never got those effects again. I tried it a few more times, but it just ended up making me extremely tired yet not able to sleep - even worse than usual. It was very unpleasant.