If you wake up at the start of a sleep cycle and taking melatonin immediately does not work best to wait until you are close to the end of that cycle before taking more.
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My subjective lifetime experience belies this point. Melatonin only produces the onset of sleep and has little effect on sleep duration, no matter what amount is taken.
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Ifs a timing issue for prolonging sleep. The half life is short.
How to choose the right dose? Please point to an information about benefits of mega doses of melatonin.
Here is a good presentation by Dr Casey Peavler discussing a recent melatonin review paper. Dr Doris Loh has dosage recommendations but it is centered around viral replication and not general health or anti-aging. The penial gland only produces about 5% of the bodies melatonin, the rest is produced in the mitochondria and is not nighttime dependent.
Dr Casey Peaver, Melatonin
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José
#253
FWIW
This is a posting from May 2023 in another thread.
Also review posting;
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I’m experimenting with taking a large dose (100mg+) of melatonin when I wake up in the middle of the night and so far it seems to help. Could you offer any practical tips on how to ensure optimal timing for taking melatonin, assuming timing is critical? How do you determine exactly where you are in a sleep cycle to decide whether to take or delay the melatonin dose?
I use a fitbit for sleep tracking. It is relatively obvious where the cycles are. You should look for a pattern about every 90 mins.
What I do is I spread out the melatonin I take, but I take a lot. The reason I take a lot is because of melatonin’s other effects.
The main thing is to understand that you need to get into the next cycle to sleep and not to worry if you are not falling asleep before that. The worry itself can cause you to stay awake.
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Thank you! An interesting video, but still no information about the dose of melatonin required for all the possible amazing benefits.
Do you take a very high dose of melatonin because of proposed qualities of antiaging, anticancer, anti oxidation? How did you decide on the current dose?
Preventing mtDNA damagd is key
This was very interesting and mentions a dosage of 180mg iirc
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Wow, as a true believer in the power of melatonin, and one of my favorite supplements, alongside rapa, I’ve now come to believe I’ve been taking a wussy dose of 10mg at night… some of those videos are saying true anti-cancer affects don’t come in until 20mg? wow, I thought I was taking a healthy dose all along…
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Much that I take something between 1 and 2g of melatonin a night I would not describe 10mg as a “wussy” dose. That is because I don’t think that is a good argument for or against any particular approach.
We should be looking for the evidence for both increasing and reducing the dose of any particular intervention.
If there is evidence that a dosing level is good for health then that is what matters not whether or not someone should be considered a wuss for being cautious.
It took me some time to build up to my current dosing strategy because I was sensibly cautious and studied the evidence.
I am currently running an experiment to see if increasing the daytime melatonin when i get drunk results in a lower night time heart rate.
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I probably typed this sentence wrong
" wow, I thought I was taking a healthy dose all along…"
I meant “healthy” in that sense as a synonym for large, and yes, we don’t know for sure which way to go…
But, now in the hospitals, the oncologists who are actively prescribing this stuff for cancer, are they going really high on the dosage and if so why?
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I think the main pathway is protection of mitochondria
tj_long
#265
5 CONCLUSION
In our study, the treatment of male patients with type 2 diabetes with 10 mg of melatonin for 3 months before bedtime reduces insulin sensitivity. Given the worldwide increase in the use of synthetic melatonin, future studies are warranted to investigate whether these results can be translated to women with type 2 diabetes, healthy adults, and children and whether the effects of lower dosages of melatonin are similar. If our results are replicated, we recommend that patients with type 2 diabetes limit their use of melatonin in high doses, as reduced insulin sensitivity is central to the pathophysiology of type 2 diabetes
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jpi.12809
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Apart from when I am drinking I aim to take melatonin normally around 1.5 grams during the night not before going to bed. I like to get my initial period of sleep purely endogenously.
When I am drinking I tend to take 200mg of melatonin to reduce the harm from acetaldehyde. I accelerate its conversion to acetate, but there remains an issue with acetaldehyde anyway.
tj_long
#267
Several sleep doctors have told me that melatonin should not be taken after 11 p.m. to avoid disrupting the circadian rhythm. Apparently, this hasn’t been an issue for you? In general, melatonin is recommended specifically for recovering from jet lag, so that warning seems quite logical. However, if your own internal production kicks in at the right time, then perhaps external melatonin doesn’t disrupt your sleep pattern.
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