Melatonin and Me

I’m a tad bit later getting started this morning than I meant to be…especially considering that I got up at 5:30 this morning. Why did I get up at 5:30? I’m not entirely sure. I am suspicious, however, that it has something to do with the fact that I was able to go to sleep by 9:30 last night, thanks to my lovely melatonin.

My brother turned me on to melatonin several years ago, but it wasn’t until about a year or so ago that I actually tried it.

Prior to that, I’d been taking trazadone for my insomnia on a less than regular schedule. Trazadone worked wonderfully…for a few nights. The problem was that I’d have to take increasingly larger doses each night for it to work, up to the maximum dose. When I’d reach the maximum dose, I’d feel like a zombie the next day. It just wasn’t a practical solution.

The Experience of Melatonin

The first time I took melatonin, I knew that I’d found something wonderful. It doesn’t knock you out the way prescription drugs do. No, instead it just relaxes you to the point that you become very, very sleepy. If you go your rear end to bed when you feel it taking effect, you will generally sleep wonderfully for the rest of the night. At least I do.

Melatonin is a natural chemical that your brain releases when it’s time to sleep. That’s a big reason I have no qualms about taking it—it’s already in my body, there just isn’t enough of it. I could go into a whole spiel about what might cause you to not have enough melatonin, but I’ll save it for now. Perhaps a later post exploring insomnia is in order.

Why I Haven’t Been Taking Melatonin Lately

You might be wondering that if I’ve found something that helps my insomnia so well, why haven’t I been using it regularly. Well, see…the problem is that more often than not, I have work that needs to be done late in the evening. So, I don’t take the melatonin because I need to stay up and work. Then, by the time I get done, I’m afraid to take any because I’ll be drowsy in the morning.

However, if I don’t take it, I have a really hard time getting to sleep. Which means that I’m up till 5 or 6 in the morning. And then I sleep till 2. And so the cycle continues until you have what we have now—someone who is completely backwards on her sleep and work schedule.

I took it last night in yet another attempt to flip myself around. I arranged work so that I would have no deadlines to keep me up, then I took my melatonin and passed out. I woke up around midnight with my hands itching, but slathered on some cream and went right back to sleep. When 5:30 came, I was tempted to go back to sleep, but my hands needed attention and I honestly felt ok as far as being rested.

So, I’m going to do a couple of more personal posts, then get to work on my professional writing. I want to be finished today by 5:00, have a nice supper with my family, and then repeat the experience tonight. You can only take melatonin straight for 2-3 weeks, then you have to take a break from it. Otherwise, your body can get dependent and stop making its own. But for now, I need sleep and I need to do it on a decent schedule. So that’s the plan.