The Effects of Melatonin on Dreams.

Last night, I took a melatonin supplement before bedtime. I haven't really had much experience with it, so I gave it a try to see what would happen.

My dreams were intensely vivid. There was this one dream, where I was in a complete and real reality, yet I remember telling myself, this is just a really real dream.

It was bizzare.

Any of you have extremely vivid dreams after taking Melatonin?

reply to post by SolarE-Souljah


My wife gives my boys 1mg chewable melatonin almost every nite, works pretty darn good especially when they dont want to settle down for bed. And just for info its pretty much harmless seeing as how our bodies create it. I sometimes take Valerian root but that makes me super drowsy in the morning and it does give me vivid dreams. Lobelia will as well. Actually my wife suggested I take some since I didn't sleep well last nite and I need a good nites sleep tonite. I will tell you tomorrow how vivid or not my dreams are. I think 3 mg is an adult dose so there's a starting point for dosage vs. vividness.

Good topic!

I generally have unpleasant dreams and fitful sleep when I take melatonin. Which is rarely, because it doesn't usually do much for me, due to chronic severe insomnia. I've taken 10 mg before and not slept a wink. Every now and then it hits the spot, though. I think some of my more psychotic nightmares have occurred on melatonin.

Originally posted by Springheel Jack
reply to post by SolarE-Souljah

 

My wife gives my boys 1mg chewable melatonin almost every nite, works pretty darn good especially when they dont want to settle down for bed. And just for info its pretty much harmless seeing as how our bodies create it. I sometimes take Valerian root but that makes me super drowsy in the morning and it does give me vivid dreams. Lobelia will as well. Actually my wife suggested I take some since I didn't sleep well last nite and I need a good nites sleep tonite. I will tell you tomorrow how vivid or not my dreams are. I think 3 mg is an adult dose so there's a starting point for dosage vs. vividness.

Good topic!

Not really. I don't have the reference on hand, but 150 "micrograms" was found in studies to be an ideal dose. It was found that higher doses actually shut off receptors rather than activating them after several days, and that after this happens it can take several days to reset.

In addition, as a hormone secreted by the pineal, I really don't think it's such a good idea to be giving children melatonin every night. The long-term administration of a hormone can lead the body to down regulate its own production at a time when melatonin production is already high and doesn't need to be altered. It could have unknown indirect consequences on physical or mental maturation, or lead to psychiatric problems. I don't believe there is enough research to support long-term use in children, especially at such a high dosage.

If you want your kids to sleep, don't let them stay up on weekends and make sure the room is dark, that they don't eat too close to bed, aren't active too close to bedtime, etc.

Reviews like the one below should give you an idea of why you should think twice about giving kids melatonin every night:
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Gynecol Endocrinol. 2009 Dec;25(12):779-85.
Melatonin and human reproduction: shedding light on the darkness hormone.

Srinivasan V, Spence WD, Pandi-Perumal SR, Zakharia R, Bhatnagar KP, Brzezinski A.

Sri Sathya Sai Medical Educational and Research Foundation, Prasanthi Nilayam, Coimbatore 641014, India.
Abstract

Melatonin, N-acetyl-5-methoxytryptamine, is a molecule with diverse physiological functions. This neuro-hormone affects reproductive performance in a wide variety of species. In most animals, but not exclusively all, melatonin has an antigonadotrophic effect. The seasonal changes in the number of hours per day that melatonin is secreted mediate the temporal coupling of reproductive activity to seasonal changes in day-length. These observations stimulated a search for a role for the pineal gland and melatonin in human reproduction. Clinical experience related to this issue has yielded inconclusive and sometimes conflicting results. This article reviews the current available evidence concerning the effects of melatonin on human reproductive processes (e.g., puberty, ovulation, pregnancy, and fertility). Possible reasons for the vagueness and elusiveness of the clinical effects are discussed.

Great input so far. Thank you.

What I was really looking forward to was, what kind of dreams did you have while taking melatonin?
What was your experience like?

Heya Sol,

I used to take melatonin years ago. Yes, most of the time it would help me to sleep.

As far as dreaming goes, they were vivid for me as well but always really disturbing. I would wake up feeling almost drunk and then crash again just to have more unsettling dreams. Needless to say I stopped taking it. I would rather not sleep at all, than wake up every hour or so feeling like my heart is going to pound out of my chest.

When I first started taking melatonin I had horrible vivied dreams but I would feel rested when I woke up. After some time 3-5 months taking 5mg a night I stopped dreaming, or if I did I never remembered them Also I was getting horrible sleep and felt terrible throughout the day. I decided to stop and it took some time before I was able to sleep without taking some. Now that I have stopped my dream pattern is back to normal and I am in a better mood. Also If I took some and didn't got to sleep soon after taking it I would have a hard time sleeping, I was tired but my mind was going to fast, and I couldn't fall asleep.
This is just my experience and I know people who have had good luck with it.

I do not take supplemental melatonin and had no idea about it's effect on dreaming. But after reading the OP, I remembered I had very vivid and weird dreams on Thanksgiving. Now I'm thinking all that turkey I ate had something to do with it.

reply to post by SolarE-Souljah


Hey bro, here is my experience of melatonin on dreams. I started using melatonin (3mg, NOW Foods) a few months ago, but never more than max 3 weeks at a time, the reason for this is I heard that people get too dependent on it and also I found that shorter burst are more effective.

I decided to do a test with it. I always log my dreams and did so before and after taking the supplement. After taking melatonin after the first few days my dreams were so vivid, almost lucid, and sometimes they were. I would have these amazing dreams and I could remember every minute detail, face, feelings, and even some conversations.

Like I said I would do this for maybe a few weeks then cycle off it. This would allow me to dream vividly still even without taking the supplement for some time, however, once the 3-D life finally caught back up to me and I couldn't remember my dreams anymore (vividly), I would start another cycle but only for a week and then my vivid dreams would come back.

So what I would recommend for anyone are these things;
1. Keep a dream journal (before and after the experience of taking melatonin).
2. Keep the time you take the supplement under a month or so (you have to test it out, but you don't want to be dependent on it).
3. Cycle your use (even throughout my melatonin taking cycle I would skip days and it would still be effective).
4. Try to see how your dreams change or remain the same after the cycle.
5. Try to remember your dreams by repeating to yourself before you sleep -- "I will remember my dreams with a lot of detail" -- and mean it! (Do this when you're not on the melatonin also).

Try it out and see what happens. The fun part is being your own test subject and trying to understand yourself and the universe through your dreams. I won't get too specific with the dreams I had but if you really want to know some of them, buddy just pm me, but if I were you I would try for myself. Good luck.

Peace.

oooOOOooo. I forgot about melatonin.O_o

I take melatonin sometimes just to get to sleep. It does put me down rather quickly....but I haven't experienced anything unusual from it other than being in like a sedated state for awhile.

I have taken it... had vivid dreams, sometimes vivid nightmares. It can get crazy with some people. I think i will be trying it again though. I need to get myself in better control of my sleep patterns anyway.

Wanna' talk about vivid awful dreams? PLAQUINEL. Every stink'n night it's strange and vivid and intense. I've been stuck on this for 4 months and will have to take it the rest of my life. It does a good job with the symptoms of Sjogrens - helps mitigate some of them - but I"m telling ya' ... nighttime? .... wow! ugh.

Originally posted by FlyersFan
Wanna' talk about vivid awful dreams? PLAQUINEL. Every stink'n night it's strange and vivid and intense. I've been stuck on this for 4 months and will have to take it the rest of my life. It does a good job with the symptoms of Sjogrens - helps mitigate some of them - but I"m telling ya' ... nighttime? .... wow! ugh.

Hey, I have a question about your medical issue. I hope this doesn't sound weird or anything but I see that one of the main symptoms is dry eyes. Do your eyes not tear?

I take melatonin nightly, but I have always had vivid dreams. I honestly can say it hasn't affected my dreaming at all.
I didn't know about becoming dependent on it. Dependency was the whole reason I switched from Ambien to melatonin.

Up until recently I had been working night shifts for quite a few years. This eventually came to have a great impact on my sleeping patterns and at times I would end up going days without sleep. A few people had suggested that I start taking Melatonin, and after researching it I decided to give it a try.

Firstly, I have to say it knocked me right out, which was great as that was the whole point of me taking it The dreams though, I can honestly say I have never experienced dreams like I have while taking Melatonin. I rarely woke up feeling rested and I feel it's due to the fact that I would spend the majority of the night having the most vivid dreams, waking up terrified, falling asleep and starting all over again.

Not only were the dreams extremely vivid and realistic, but the emotions that would run through me were also unbelievable. Some of the dreams would feel so complex, and often times would reveal a lot of answers to me after a few days of mulling them over. Anything from relationship troubles to stresses at work. Some were so silly, being chased by a pair of disembodied shoes, but literally fearing for my life and feeling effected by it for some time after. It was like my mind was literally being blown every time I fell asleep.

It's funny because I would mention the dreams to some of the guys at work who had taken it and they would swear up and down Melatonin put them to sleep and allowed them to wake up feeling completely well rested. I guess it's different for everyone. I mean for me the dreams alone are enough to make me use it as a last resort now, only if I'm totally desperate for sleep.

i like taking melatonin before sleep; it has helped me to regulate my sleep. my dreams are like being in a state of sleep paralysis within the dream, as in i cannot leave the dream: so i dont take much and have learned to tolerate it if i do. melatonin in combination with amino acids arginine and ornithine have really changed my perspective in dreams; stuff that i would normally do with a cloudy or dreamy "head" in dreams i do with more conscientiousness behind them.

Originally posted by Cinquain
Up until recently I had been working night shifts for quite a few years. This eventually came to have a great impact on my sleeping patterns and at times I would end up going days without sleep. A few people had suggested that I start taking Melatonin, and after researching it I decided to give it a try.

Firstly, I have to say it knocked me right out, which was great as that was the whole point of me taking it

The dreams though, I can honestly say I have never experienced dreams like I have while taking Melatonin. I rarely woke up feeling rested and I feel it's due to the fact that I would spend the majority of the night having the most vivid dreams, waking up terrified, falling asleep and starting all over again.

Not only were the dreams extremely vivid and realistic, but the emotions that would run through me were also unbelievable. Some of the dreams would feel so complex, and often times would reveal a lot of answers to me after a few days of mulling them over. Anything from relationship troubles to stresses at work. Some were so silly, being chased by a pair of disembodied shoes, but literally fearing for my life and feeling effected by it for some time after. It was like my mind was literally being blown every time I fell asleep.

It's funny because I would mention the dreams to some of the guys at work who had taken it and they would swear up and down Melatonin put them to sleep and allowed them to wake up feeling completely well rested. I guess it's different for everyone. I mean for me the dreams alone are enough to make me use it as a last resort now, only if I'm totally desperate for sleep.

"disembodied shoes"...that's funny.

one time i was on my paper route way out in the sticks and this was weird. I got very sleepy... VERY sleepy. I didn't think I would make it to the point of stopping I was so sleepy. It came on very quick. I pulled off the main highway onto a dirt road and stopped right after the train tracks and went to sleep almost immediately. I don't know how long I slept but it didn't seem like it was for long and when i went to sleep i went into sleep paralysis... and while in SP I saw the shirt i was wearing at that time... a plaid button up... it was dancing on the hood of my car.

i wasn't exactly traumatized by the event. Actually, I never really got scared while out on dark dirt roads while doing my rural routes. I would often smell strange smells. I would just put in a tape and keep driving. I loved doing those routes. If only the pay hadn't sucked so bad.

Hmm perhaps I should try Melatonin, I work in Walgreens and walk past the pills every now and again, and have thought about it quite some time especially since my A.D.D medication has messed with my mind quite a bit. I thought that the Melatonin might help me in some way shape or form. Sleeping hasn't been a strong thing for me either [though I guess it could be attributed to college life ]. So far I'm enjoying these comments thus far and tempted to try it just to see if it helps . At least in the sleeping department.

edit--
or maybe fish oil?

hmmm... I will try on melatonin then... my dreams are very vivid but not always. I take klonopin every night, not because it helps me to sleep but because I'm very anxious and my psychiatrist said so... he said my dreams would tend to 0 with that medication but no, they're as normal and I have been taking this meds since 4 years ago. Let's see if I can get it for a reasonable price here and I'm going to inform what happens