Melatonin questions.

Alrighty, yesterday I got some melatonin (3mg tablets.) I took 1 tablet and watched tv for about 35 minutes before I was just to sleepy to stay awake and went to bed. I woke up today feeling very refreshed, like I had gotten very good sleep. I recalled 4 dreams. I slept for about 7 hours. Now my question is, is what exactly does melatonin do to REM? I heard it "rebounds" REM so that later on you will have more. Does this mean that sleeping longer than 7 hours would be better because I was have more or better REM or w/e? I'm just a little confused on what it does to REM.

-Thanks;)

It helps you fall asleep

Yes but I also hear that it makes you sleep deeper for a little longer, then you have more REM later on, is this true?

Yes, melatonin is a REM suppressant, meaning that for the first part of the night, you will have longer periods of slow wave sleep (deep sleep).

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Serenity

Yes, melatonin is a REM suppressant, meaning that for the first part of the night, you will have longer periods of slow wave sleep (deep sleep).

---

Does this mean my REM will come later or will it be more effective?

To my knowledge, it means that sooner in the night you will have longer periods of REM.

Imagine this: We dream in 90 minutes cycles. During each cycle is a tug of war battle over the balance between deep sleep and REM. In a normal circadian rhythm, we start the night out with a long period of deep sleep, and a very short period of REM. As the night progresses, deep sleep decreases in time, and REM increases. But if you take something that suppresses REM, it will need to catch up and re-balance, which is what we know as REM rebound. If you suppressed REM earlier in the night, it will naturally overtake your deep sleep time so it can restore the balance.

More effective? Well, the general belief is that your dreams will be more vivid, which for most people tends to lead towards lucidity.

i have melatonin 3mg fish oil and b6 does it matter what time i take any of these before bed to enhance my dreams ?

You can take them 30 minutes before bedtime, or nearing it. That's what I do to my melatonin and Vitamin B6. After that I'll wait for the drowsiness to kick in.

Thank you for the help everyone, I now know what I was wanting to know :)

yeh thanks have any of you noticed the theme change in dreams when taking these supplements

I personally don't notice a difference, but melatonin isn't a supplement that tends to work with the brain in that regard. Something that does tend to enhance dreams in that way would be something like galantamine.

guys try this tension tamer tea before bed its only 3.19 in us stores i recalled 5 dreams last night and 1 i was lucid

Melatonin is used by the body to tell your brain that it is night time, which means that it does not help you fall asleep, it just helps the brain to realize that it is time to start making the chemicals that naturally make you fall asleep. The problem with melatonin is that if you take it too often, your body will slowly stop creating it on its own because you are already getting it from an external source. Therefore, if you decide to try melatonin, don't take it every night. I'd say don't take it for more then 2 weeks at a time to avoid having other complications. I am new to LD so I don't know if it helps or anything like that, but I have done a lot of research on melatonin because I have trouble sleeping at night.

Rather than make a completely new thread, I thought I'd ask here.

Does anyone know a 100% safe place to buy Melatonin in the UK? I'm preceding with caution in buying any medication from an online place.

I don't know if its different in the UK, but I got 300 MCG tablets at wal mart. Here in the US you can get them at just about any supplement store or any big chain like wal mart and k mart.

I have been taking melatonin for quite a long time, due to some minor sleeping problems. Since I started working on my dreams and trying to improve dream recall, I tried to do without melatonin and my dream recall improved greatly (not just because of this, of course). I guess the effect of melatonin is quite subjective, so everyone interested needs to test it by himself. What I do now, is going to bed at night without taking melatonin; usually I wake up after more or less 4 hours, at this point I take a 3mg tablet and go to bed after 20 minutes. It works for me, both for falling asleep than for dream recall. If I take melatonin before going to bed at, let's say 10 or 11, my dream recall is very poor or not existing at all.

How strange! I generally would never suggest to anyone to take melatonin during their wake back to bed, but you're the exception to the rule (and there's always got to be one, right?!).

Fascinating! :D

I take 3mg melatonin on weekends and 1.5mg on week nights and i've recalled more dreams than normal and most have been almost nightmares... like my car rolling away on the road without me, or i take lsd and my parents find out, or i take to much melatonin and drive a car and stumble in and out of sleep while driving. I've always told myslef that if i'm having a nightmare then i know i'd be dreaming but these almost nigtmares are something that could realistically happen so... it's hard to tell if i'm dreaming or not. either way, i feel like it helps.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Serenity

How strange! I generally would never suggest to anyone to take melatonin during their wake back to bed, but you're the exception to the rule (and there's always got to be one, right?!).

Fascinating! :D

---

I know, I would have never thought of it by myself. I tried this just by experiment, one night that I wasn't able to fall back asleep... and it worked. :)

I've a problem with my melatonin lately. Whenever I take 3mg tablets also consists of 3mg Vitamin B6, I would feel drowsy but I just can't seem to go to sleep. Yesterday I took half a pill and I fell Ito what felt like light sleep. I had 2 vivid nightmares but they certainly were not in the later part of the sleep cycle. Is it overdosage or is it my body?