Melatonin

I recently started with Melatonin - hoping to give me a general boost in well-being, as well as more + vidid dreams, and higher chance at lucidity per night.

So far I've found that its given me a greater level of well-being (after lowering the dose - too much gave me headaches).
But few dreams - and recall is now really really bad.

Anyone had any experiences with Melatonin and its effects on LD and dreams in general?

Oh, its also strangely made me aware of areas of my brain. I can consciously stimulate different areas of my brain simply by will.
Interesting, but haven't seen any concrete uses for it.
Any ideas?

you just have to wake yourself up in the night. melatonin seems to make you not want to wake up... so all you have to do is wake yourself up and give the dreams some time to come to you.

good luck

(by any chance would you have named yourself after placebo the band?)

I can't even remember the dreams - only vague fuzzy thoughts of them.

I'm going to leave the melatonin alone for a few days. Perhaps I'm too young to get any sizable reward from it...

I'll donate some to my father. He got some decent R & R with it

As for the band 'Placebo' - not really, although I was aware they existed.
Haven't heard their music yet

hey placebo, i'm the exact opposite from you, I think the melatonin helps me, exactly how much dosage are you taking every night?? I usually take 3mg of melatonin, it also has a lil b-6 in it. I've been able to recall a lot move vivid dreams then I ever could before. It probably varies by individual though, how old are you?? most people on this site I think would say stay away from the supplements, but I say do whatever works man.

Well what I like about melatonin is that its naturally produced by your body, and has a zero toxicity.

I'm 25, and using it for about a week.
One reason I started taking it was also because I wasn't feeling rested in the mornings.
The dosage was originally 3mg, but it headaches started getting too bad. On top of that, I was waking up a little drowsy, and so was my wife (she was also trying it)
I dropped the dose to 1.5mg for 2 days, and upped it to 3mg for the next 2 days.
Strangely the headaches never came back - perhaps it had to do with 'detoxing' or something.
I still think 3mg is more than I need.

But during this time, I haven't been able to recall a single dream properly.
Let alone become lucid... although who knows if I've been having amazing LDs and forgetting them.. haha... will never know...

[edit]
Another thing: my wife took it because she wasn't sleeping right through the night. From the second night she slept like a baby - but we dropped the dose to 1.5mg because she was way too drowsy in the mornings.
In the last 2 days however - she's been having problems sleeping again. She wakes up at 1AM and gets restless.
It seems like she too isn't finding any benefit any more.

I've found it to be more effective when used sparingly during the week, maybe 3 times a week, or only on days where you can sleep late and have a good rest. I also like the fact its all natural in your body, and its usually released around 2am in your body, I like to take it 30mins before I go to bed, and try either meditating or different relaxation methods to calm my body down, I can then usually fall asleep like a baby, and remember awesome dreams. but hey, if its giving you headaches its not worth it man, try an alternative sleep aid.

Well I'm going to stop using it completely
However.. for my wife, I'm not sure what to do :(

With many drugs used in Chemotherapy (depression, etc), that act on NEUROTRANSMITTERS, effects are seen in MINIMUM 4 weeks.
It could be the same with Melatonin or any other drug like it.

yeah, it took me probably a couple of weeks of taking supplements a couple times a week before noticing any effects on dream recall and vividness.

I didn't take it yesterday, and had my first decent-recall dreams for a while last night.

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effects are seen in MINIMUM 4 weeks. [/b]

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Could be. I was led to believe it wasn't like that, since the melatonin levels are affected immediately....

And what worries me then, is that you can become reliant on the supplement in about 8 weeks. Doesn't give you much time to enjoy the effects, if you know what I mean. Becomes a sine wave of ups and downs/advantage and cold-turkey.

I think these pills will help my father a lot more than me!

sure the melatonin levels are effected immediately, but melatonin is produced to help you fall asleep at night, and thats what it does.. it just might not start effecting your subconsious blah blah for maybe 4 weeks or so.. thats what were sayin

I bought some melatonin very recently; I've been using it for abobut 4 days now.

My overall reaction to this is that it really fcks up my dreams. In an interesting way. If I had to choose I'd say it's good. I can remember my dreams every night now, but I'm surprised because they seem to be so incredibly messed up; more so than before.

For instance, (as I can't really explain this as I've forgotten the dream), entire _basic_human_nature_ has changed in these dreams. It's like totally ... incomprehensible. It's a sentence without a verb, but it makes complete sense.

I haven't had any lucid dreams, as I've hardly been training for it, but I'm sure, through odds themselves, I will sooner or later. Very cool stuff. Weak, but I think it does something at least. It's cheap enough to try.

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Originally posted by MonkeyElk
sure the melatonin levels are effected immediately, but melatonin is produced to help you fall asleep at night, and thats what it does.. *it just might not start effecting your subconsious blah blah for maybe 4 weeks or so.. *thats what were sayin

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But by taking those pills you want to INCREASE PRODUCTION...or actually act on the RE-UPTAKE of the neurotransmitters, so they can be more readily used, then taken up...thats how the MAO's work anyway...

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Originally posted by Lowercase Society+--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Lowercase Society)</div>

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<!--QuoteBegin-MonkeyElk

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sure the melatonin levels are effected immediately, but melatonin is produced to help you fall asleep at night, and thats what it does.. *it just might not start effecting your subconsious blah blah for maybe 4 weeks or so.. *thats what were sayin

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But by taking those pills you want to INCREASE PRODUCTION...or actually act on the RE-UPTAKE of the neurotransmitters, so they can be more readily used, then taken up...thats how the MAO's work anyway...[/b]

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Melatonin regulates the physiological changes related by light, the time of day, etc. in co-relation with the suprachiasmatic nucleus. Melatonin pills will immediately inhibit monoamine oxidasers (MAO) which inhibit the production of serotonin which produces melatonin from the pineal gland which is then secreted into the blood stream. Soo, by taking melatonin pills, you kind of skip the process of secretion from the pineal gland and the whole physiological change from serotonin (since melatonin is excreted from serotonin).

The effects can sometimes take a while depending on the individuals serotonin levels within the digestive tract (there are strong levels of serotonin within the digestive tract to begin with too... alcoholics will be easy to adjust).

Since during sleep the levels of melatonin increase dramatically during the waking stage with the arousal of the ascending reticular activation system (A/RAS), by taking melatonin pills, you keep a regular dosage of melatonin throughout sleep without arousal of the ARAS (and waking you up). The amount of acetylcholine is also dramatically reduced during sleep in order to regulate norepinephrine and other neurotransmitters involved with waking state.

Blah,
~

Thanks O'nus.

Just one question there - the info about melatonin on the net indicates that your serotonin levels keep pace with your melatonin. Implying that if you take melatonin replacement pills, you will up your level of serotonin too.

What you seem to imply is that the opposite is more likely - that your serotonin levels will drop, as it no longer is needed to produce melatonin.

While your theory sounds quite plausible, I was wondering how sure/accurate you/that is?

Another thing: What is norephineprine and its relation to adrenaline (ephineprine). Because if melatonin replacement has an effect on my adrenaline... it maybe be one of the reasons for my strange reactions to the pills.
You see... since quite an early age I learnt that I could consciously stimulate release of ephineprine into my blood stream. At least this seems to be what I'm doing. Takes a fair bit of concentration, but I'm pretty good at it now.
No - I haven't had it tested yet. It only occured to me recently that a well timed blood test should be able to shed some light on the subject.

i might not know all of this scientific mumbo jumbo, but I know it helps me fall asleep and go back to sleep when I'm trying my wilds....

I guess a negative aspect of this is if you take it purely for dream associated reasons then it could be a 'dependant' variable in your DV journeys. Once it's gone ect......it might be a setback for you.

But it's all up to the individual, if it works for ya good stuff. ;)

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Originally posted by Placebo
Thanks O'nus.

Just one question there - the info about melatonin on the net indicates that your serotonin levels keep pace with your melatonin. Implying that if you take melatonin replacement pills, you will up your level of serotonin too.

What you seem to imply is that the opposite is more likely - that your serotonin levels will drop, as it no longer is needed to produce melatonin.

While your theory sounds quite plausible, I was wondering how sure/accurate you/that is?

Another thing: What is norephineprine and its relation to adrenaline (ephineprine). Because if melatonin replacement has an effect on my adrenaline... it maybe be one of the reasons for my strange reactions to the pills.
You see... since quite an early age I learnt that I could consciously stimulate release of ephineprine into my blood stream. At least this seems to be what I'm doing. Takes a fair bit of concentration, but I'm pretty good at it now.
No - I haven't had it tested yet. It only occured to me recently that a well timed blood test should be able to shed some light on the subject.

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No no, I was not implying anything about the decrease of serotonin or anything like that, just delving more into the details about melatonin and what it does, etc.

How can you stimulate the release of epinephrine? Because that would be quite the nifty gift. Is it similar to how you feel when stressed?

By the way, I thought I should just add to this topic because it's interesting and I forgot to add it:

It is illegal to sell melatonin in Canada. *Whimpers*

~

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release of epinephrine?[/b]

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Honestly I don't know how I do it... like all odd abilities.
It feels the same as perhaps going on a rollercoaster and experiencing that one terrifying piece of the track. Or in a scary movie when the bad guy jumps out and scares you out of your skin.

...Without the feeling of terror

There are some differences - I can only keep it up for about 20-30 seconds at a time. But I can keep doing it all day, it seems.

The only uses I seem to have for it is to wake me up and clear my mind a bit. The effect only lasts for a minute or two though :(
I read up on ephineprine and found to my delight that there are some other possible uses - I might save my life one day with it.
(Eg. heart attack, bronchial spasms, etc)

About two weeks ago I discovered a guy on the ld4all forum that could also do this. He had only just started doing it, so it was quite difficult for him still. (I've been doing it for years already, getting slowly better at it)

Want more info? Like how I learnt to do it? The other guy's story?

[edit]
- Melatonin in Canada - That sucks :?
- Oh, I'm not 100% sure its ephineprine, but it has the same effects. I used to have delusions about it being paranormal. At best its simply body/mind control.

Perhaps I should start a separate thread to chat about it, if you want more info?

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Originally posted by Placebo

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release of epinephrine?

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Honestly I don't know how I do it... like all odd abilities.
It feels the same as perhaps going on a rollercoaster and experiencing that one terrifying piece of the track. Or in a scary movie when the bad guy jumps out and scares you out of your skin.

...Without the feeling of terror

There are some differences - I can only keep it up for about 20-30 seconds at a time. But I can keep doing it all day, it seems.

The only uses I seem to have for it is to wake me up and clear my mind a bit. The effect only lasts for a minute or two though :(
I read up on ephineprine and found to my delight that there are some other possible uses - I might save my life one day with it.
(Eg. heart attack, bronchial spasms, etc)

About two weeks ago I discovered a guy on the ld4all forum that could also do this. He had only just started doing it, so it was quite difficult for him still. (I've been doing it for years already, getting slowly better at it)

Want more info? Like how I learnt to do it? The other guy's story?

[edit]
- Melatonin in Canada - That sucks :?
- Oh, I'm not 100% sure its ephineprine, but it has the same effects. I used to have delusions about it being paranormal. At best its simply body/mind control.[/b]

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lol, I was just correcting the spelling of epinephrine :-P

Might as well keep going on about it - it's still related in some manner anyway. (Don't see why anyone would care) Up to you *Shrugs*

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Originally posted by O'nus+--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(O'nus)</div>

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<!--QuoteBegin-Placebo

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release of epinephrine?

---

Honestly I don't know how I do it... like all odd abilities.
It feels the same as perhaps going on a rollercoaster and experiencing that one terrifying piece of the track. Or in a scary movie when the bad guy jumps out and scares you out of your skin.

...Without the feeling of terror

There are some differences - I can only keep it up for about 20-30 seconds at a time. But I can keep doing it all day, it seems.

The only uses I seem to have for it is to wake me up and clear my mind a bit. The effect only lasts for a minute or two though :(
I read up on ephineprine and found to my delight that there are some other possible uses - I might save my life one day with it.
(Eg. heart attack, bronchial spasms, etc)

About two weeks ago I discovered a guy on the ld4all forum that could also do this. He had only just started doing it, so it was quite difficult for him still. (I've been doing it for years already, getting slowly better at it)

Want more info? Like how I learnt to do it? The other guy's story?

[edit]
- Melatonin in Canada - That sucks :?
- Oh, I'm not 100% sure its ephineprine, but it has the same effects. I used to have delusions about it being paranormal. At best its simply body/mind control.[/b]

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lol, I was just correcting the spelling of epinephrine :-P

Might as well keep going on about it - it's still related in some manner anyway. (Don't see why anyone would care) Up to you *Shrugs*[/b]

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Sounds interesting to me...

~Corbin

No point boring everyone and wasting my time
Depends on the amount of interest I guess

And its not related very closely to Melatonin - thats why I intended to make a new thread on it.