Thread: Task of the Month for June 2014

Originally Posted by StephL

Take it with a grain of salt, of course - but if you seriously spend two hours in order to fall asleep - my advice would be - take 3-6 mg Melatonin a quarter of an hour before you want to be asleep. That is a very low dose - see below - and it completely does the trick against my own considerable problems with insomnia (~1 hour was what I needed). In most countries, like the USA for example, you can simply get it over the counter. It is a substance your pineal gland produces on it's own every night, so it is nothing artificial, no unwanted side effects, not addictive, too. Even in much higher doses it only makes you more tired. High doses are even used as antioxidant (like vitamin C) in cancer patients.
How it affects REM is seemingly not clear - but it's used for dreaming purposes anyway. Some people on here say, it lowers REM time in the beginning of sleep and prolongs REM later on, which is also good - Wikipedia says the following on the topic:



Worth a try - good luck - who wants to waste hours of lifetime waiting for sleep? Not me!

I have in the past taken melatonin before bedtime, but I am currently living in the UK and it is not easy to acquire due to strict regulations on these kind of drugs. I've been experimenting with meditation and relaxing techniques as a way of naturally improving sleep, and it has to some extent helped. There's also the issue of me falling asleep and then waking up with no recollection of any dreams I had, which is unusual because 99% of the time I would remember at least some fragments of a dream (or dreams). Maybe it's because I have too much on my mind and my new lifestyle has kinda killed the way I used to be able to become lucid??

Originally Posted by Marm

I have in the past taken melatonin before bedtime, but I am currently living in the UK and it is not easy to acquire due to strict regulations on these kind of drugs. I've been experimenting with meditation and relaxing techniques as a way of naturally improving sleep, and it has to some extent helped. There's also the issue of me falling asleep and then waking up with no recollection of any dreams I had, which is unusual because 99% of the time I would remember at least some fragments of a dream (or dreams). Maybe it's because I have too much on my mind and my new lifestyle has kinda killed the way I used to be able to become lucid??

It's the same in Germany - but it's perfectly fine to order over the internet - I get it over Biovea dot com - not sure, if I am allowed to link through directly.