I tried Melatonin during a heavy travel stressful period doing interviews.

Getting back off it and falling asleep naturally was not easy for me.

I think conventional dosages may be a bit extreme at 3-5 milligrams.

I agree on the dosages sold being too high. I'm a terrible sleeper that wakes up all through the night. I've found taking a fraction, between an eighth and quarter, of the 3mg pills is enough for me to sleep and wake up refreshed.

Also I've found sleeping at least 7-8 hours is necessary while taking it. Any less and I feel groggy all morning.

Studies tend to say that any more than 3mg of melatonin, your body will just evacuate it. Also, taking it more than 5 days is most likely pointless.

I can tell you with personal experience that this is not true. I have taken 30-40mg before bed, and there is a definite difference in my experience from taking 1-5mg. The sleepiness I felt 30-45 minutes after dosing was the most extreme sleepiness I've ever experienced in my life, the dreams are mind-blowing, and I feel tired the next day far beyond what I feel after taking a smaller dose.

Thanks for your personal experience but I was talking about scientific studies [1].

- [1] - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12076414

- [2] (a narrow google search that i'm sure i could find more) - https://www.google.com/#q=melatonin+dosage+site:.gov+OR+site...

I don't see anything in that study about excess melatonin being evacuated. The paper only talks about effectiveness as a sleep aid.

Under the main results section "Daily doses of melatonin between 0.5 and 5mg are similarly effective, except that people fall asleep faster and sleep better after 5mg than 0.5mg. Doses above 5mg appear to be no more effective." [1, from parent comment]

Upon further research with the link I provided. It seems that for older people dosage levels should be introduced small and then increased, this study talks about the effectiveness of 50mg in older patients [1]

[1] - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24802882

I don't see anything in your comment about excess melatonin being evacuated.

Could it be a placebo effect? If you were to randomly take either 5 mg or 40 mg would you notice the difference?

I did not do a double-blinded experiment, so I suppose I can't conclusively rule out a placebo effect. All I can say is that the effect is extremely unsubtle. 40mg of melatonin is a lot. It was a bad time in my life when I chose to do that, and I have no intention to repeat the experiment.

Co-Q-10 in the a.m. -- either by itself or paired with melatonin at night -- is probably a better solution.