Are There Any Sleeping Medications That Don’T Make You Nauseous?

What do you think about the link between melatonin and aging at the end of the article? 💊 MicroVitamin (multivitamin & mineral that I take): drstanfield.com/products/microvitamin 💪 Join Patreon for early access to my articles & Discord chat: patreon.com/bradstanfieldmd 💊 My full supplement stack: drstanfield.com/my-supplements

There are several bias here. There is a safety studies for to 800 mg / night with no side effect. It’s in Pubmed. There is a Sleep Institute in Mexico, they have more than 30 year experience using Melatonin in ranges between 50-120 mg/night long term use. The melatonin can delay puberty but on a healthy human it can boost your testosterone level (taking it at the right time). I have been working with melatonin for over 15 years (using at least 5-10 mg and in the last 5 years between 20-360 mg / night without any side effect. If you experience any side effect change the brand you are using.

I’m usually ok falling asleep, but I’m a light sleeper and often wake up during the night and have trouble getting back to sleep. That’s when I take melatonin. I buy the 3mg tablets and break them in half, so I’m taking 1.5mg. I sense that the onset of the effect is 20-30min and lasts for 3-4 hours. Maybe the sleep is not as restful as sleeping naturally, but definitely better than not being able to sleep. That’s my anecdotal experience anyway. I find it definitely helps. I’m 60 years old, so not concerned with puberty or anything like that.

My 7 years old daughter is diagnosed ASD and until we knew it she had really hard time to fall asleep she literally suffered . After the diagnosis she started to take every night 0.25 mg melatonin … it was like a magic .. like a miracle.. she slept 30 min after taking it .. life changing for her and us . Tbh I’m scared about long term side effects but it changed her life . Thanks dr.

I’ve been taking melatonin since 1996 (pre puberty), and i have needed it every night since to get to sleep. I started with .5 of a mg and now i do 1mg because i am much bigger than my elementary school size. Melatonin is definitely not a ‘more equals better’ but i personally love it. One thing ive noticed is people ignore the ‘sleep’ feeling it gives you and then say it doesnt work. When you get that feeling that is your ONLY moment to go to sleep, and you CANNOT ignore it or it will be useless. It is not a powerful knock out drug and i think a lot of people expect it to be. It’s very gentle, which means you need to be paying attention to your body. If you start feeling sleepy, that doesnt mean you can play another 30 mins of fortnight and then go to bed: it would be too late. You missed the window. Anywho, i hope that helps someone. Sincerely, someone who has taken melatonin for 25+ years.

Great article, thanks. One thing that wasn’t mentioned here was the negative effects of NOT sleeping well throughout life. If this low dosing 1-2hrs before bed works and gives insomnia suffers an edge, this seems like a good ‘poison’. I’d like you to do a article on Glycine, my sleep/skin/stress has improved with supplementing this. Be nice to hear a counter weight or second opinion to say ‘Siim Lands’ bullishness on daily Glycine.

I agree with your advice, but a very important part is missing. Having problems falling asleep is NOT THE ONLY REASON to take low dose and time released melatonin. When I was about 63 years old, the health app on my Samsung smartwatch told me that in the most nights I didn’t have any deep-sleep anymore. REM-sleep and light sleep were OK. This is normal for older people. I had no problems falling asleep. Since then I took 0,3 mg time released melatonin and my deep-sleep went OK immediatly and stil is OK after 4 years. Since-deep sleep is vital for body-repairment I think you should advice the elderly to track their deep-sleep by a smartwach and take low dose and time released melatonin accordingly.

This is great info for children and young people. I turn 69 this month and I take a lot of melatonin. Since my hysterectomy, I take high dose fast release melatonin. For me, it works with no noticeable side effects. I used to have to take a high dose fast release with a 10mg times release just to keep me sleeping. At the moment I don’t need the time release part but I do take the fast release every night. If I don’t get sleep, I will almost immediately start getting sick.

Sleep deprivation is a war crime of torture. I went for at least 5 years averaging about 2 hours of sleep a week. This will alter your personality and cause huge health problems that cannot be adequately addressed . Sleep is an essential element in normal healthy life. Sleep deprivation eventually leads to death. Getting restorative sleep is the only remedy to allow the body to recuperate from any work excersize or stress. Now I take Temazapam and melatonin and have for 20 + years or I’d be dead long ago or in prison. After enough sleep deprivation you don’t even recognise yourself or have direct control over your actions and often look back and wonder what happened ~ It’s an invitation to evil spirit possession. Aloha ~

There are experts that study melatonin for decades, Doris Loh is one of them, there’s another Italian doctor but I forgot his name . I was taking 100mg until I’ve talked to a person that’s taking a thousand mg divided 3 during the day, so I started taking a higher dose, my most significant change is that taking 300 to 500 mg at night makes me sleep better but not only that I wake up super energized with few body aches, definitely not stopping because morning grogginess is a thing for me, and besides that there are many other benefits .

There are a few alternatives that have been around for at least centuries that can also help sleep: valerian, the griffonia herb (5HTP), mistletoe, passion flower, lemon melisse, etc. For me personally, melatonin often leaves me feeling tired the day after – even after low doses. So I use it as an option of last resort: when I find myself staring at the ceiling during the night. Then and only then will I take it. When I anticipate I will be sleeping badly, I take other things.

It is at a high level naturally in children, has tons of benefits (antioxidant), has no lethal or toxic dose no matter how much is taken (that’s not true for much, not even water). So yeah, I’d say for an adult it is safe enough, at least to consider trying it. I think some older people taking large therapeutic doses might be fascinating. Sure there is a chance of temporary hormonal disruption but remember that children’s levels later decrease and their hormones kick in so it’s not going to permanently damage hormonal systems. The fear is unwarranted, the side-effects are pretty mild.

Once again, great article, Dr. Stanfield! I really appreciate and enjoy your content. This is a fascinating topic because I’ve recently started reading about the potential for high doses of melatonin as an anti-aging and anti-Alzheimer’s hormone. From what I’ve read, the argument for high melatonin dosing revolves around its ability to prevent Alzheimer’s by lowering luteinizing hormone (LH), which has been linked to the progression of AD. One study showed that suppressing LH halted Alzheimer’s progression in women but not in men, even though both groups were on standard AD medications (acetylcholinesterase inhibitors). The experimental group that didn’t decline also received Lupron, which suppresses LH. It seems that progesterone was key in protecting women from high LH levels, which is why LH suppression worked so well for them but not for men. So, from what I gather, a protocol for men to potentially stop the development of AD could involve high doses of melatonin along with pregnenolone and progesterone. Just to be clear, I’m not a scientist or anything like that—just sharing some information I find relevant to your article. I may be wrong about some of the facts, and if so, I sincerely apologize! This is just what I’ve read. Any thoughts? Thanks again for the great content!

I heard earlier this year that most melatonin, like around 70% is actually produced at a cellular level in conjunction with near infrared light, would be curious to have confirmation of this or not? It changes the whole idea that it just relates to the pineal gland. Using a near infrared/red light panel certainly seems to have given me more consistent sleep and tend to avoid supplementation over trying to produce it naturally, through natural light exposure as well.

We were talking about this with my friend and he is feeling very groggy after 2mg .. While I can barely tell the difference on 10mg the low dose just doesn’t do anything for me. I always had hard time falling asleep even as a child. It’s common for me to fall in sleep somewhere between 30-120 minutes I can see it on my sleep tracking data as well. Melatonin helped a little bit on first few days but only at very high doses, low doses are totally ineffective and I have tried different brands.

Organic chemist and pharma metabolism analyst here. Tryptamines/tryptophan derivatives are the least toxic chemical I’ve ever encountered and often show antioxidant properties. The “indole” structure contained in these molecules is regarded as a privileged scaffold in nature and drug design as it occurs/appears so often and is often non toxic.

I’m surprised to see that they didn’t mentioned the benefit of melatonin for stomach issues. I was diagnosed with GERD nearly three years ago. Doctors prescribed me 4 medications that did nothing to help how I felt. They said that the valve between my stomach and esophagus wasn’t closing and this caused acid reflex, etc. I asked them why it stopped closing and they blamed it on my age. I’m not that old LOL 😂 Apparently there was nothing to do to fix the issue only to try and mask the symptoms. I didn’t like those odds. I researched and searched until I found an answer. The melatonin production in the gastrointestinal tissues decline as we age and this in turn relaxes the valve between the stomach and esophagus and this is why it doesn’t close. So the doctors were right about the actual cause, aging, but weren’t specific enough so they could have help find a solution. Actually, normally, there is at least 400 times more melatonin in the gastrointestinal tract than in the pineal gland. Taking 6mg of melatonin before bedtime, every day, was the suggestion to cure the root cause of GERD. After about a month or two my GERD symptoms have gone away and I stopped all medication and only continued the melatonin. I didn’t go for an endoscopy to check if the valve is closing now, but I assume it does since I have no acid reflux whatsoever. I’d add though to make sure you take regular melatonin and not the gummy kind. When I switched to that, my symptoms were beginning to come back and when I went back to the tablets I was ok again.

I think it’s HILARIOUS these providers are screaming “Don’t give your kids melatonin!!”. But those same providers will write for adderall or clonidine for a 5 year old. And also, NICU doctors are giving preemies melatonin! I’m talking very early preemie babies!! I’m sorry, not sorry but no sleep is dangerous for everyone in my household.

I do my bloods regularly. Take melatonin, 5mg every night. My prolactin is never high, it’s actually low/middle of range and all my other hormones are great. Your body also releases melatonin in response to infrared light, so according to Hubermans theory, kids who play a lot outside (getting a lot of sun exposure) may experience delayed puberty due to higher melatonin production… Sounds like total crap to me!

I take 3 mg melatonin per night, about an hour before bed after trying various doses. Caveat: I’m not typical – I have a mild form of fibromyalgia that started after my first COVID infection. I started by taking 5-HTP, 300-500 mg per day. This significantly reduced the pain (to almost nothing) and helped me to sleep. However, it is a little expensive. I later added KSM-66 to my supplement list, taking 300 mg along with the 5-HTP, about an hour before bed. This helped too and with time, the pain disappeared altogether. Once the pain had gone, in an attempt to save money, I tried melatonin in place of 5-HTP. I started with 200 mcg but that didn’t do it. I eventually tried 5 capsules, totaling 1 mg, and that was much better. Then I decided to try 3 mg melatonin capsules. The result was better still. Later, I would go on to try 2 and 3 capsules (6 mg and 9 mg) just to see which dose worked best for me. 6 mg was even more beneficial for sleep but I awoke feeling sleepy and not wanting to get out of bed. Not so bad though – once I’d had breakfast and a coffee, that feeling was gone and I was ready to start the day. 9 mg was just far too much! It left me feeling spaced out the entire morning of the next day. I never repeated that. So, 3 mg seems to be just right for me. With 3 mg, I sleep better than with 1 mg and feel fine when I wake up. Fibromyalgia kind of complicates everything, even though the pain is gone now. It includes a-typical hormone, neurotransmitter and amino acid levels/balances.

I use .5 mg when i need to reset my rythem. I take 10mg when im having an MS flair or in getting sick because it seems to have a unique calming effect on my nervous system. I think that melatonin can be a bandaid and people should get to the root cause of why they can’t sleep which for most is probably nutrient deficiency, lack of grounding in sunlight in the morning and too much artificial light exposure. Ive not been able to sleep my who live. This is what changed things for me. I take magnisium glycinate, 800mg split through the day, 15,000IU vit D, Without taking the mag and D, I can’t sleep at all. I sleep great when my vit D is around 80ng/ml. Having a “normal” level is not enough. Most people have suboptimal levels. Without adequate levels you will never be able to sleep. And vit D needs mag to work properly so taking it Without mag will cause a further mag deficiency, which most people have. Many forms of mag are useless. Mag glycinate is best absorbed and best for sleep because it’s bond to glycine which is very relaxing. I can’t take b6 because my body can not get rid of it and I get b6 toxicity very easily with small doses. This is extremely rare. For most people b6 is necessary for sleep. I recommend taking a methl b complex as the b vitamins work together. I am only 36 but i have low hormones and I struggle to sleep the week before my period so I use bioidentical estrogen and progesterone during that time. Food intolerance plays a huge roll in sleep too so an elimination diet, like the carnivore diet, can help significantly.

Almost 15 years ago my then 11 year old son was put on melatonin to help him sleep by his psychiatrist. He has general anxiety disorder and ADHD. He was pre-pubescent. It took us almost 3 years to realize that there was something going wrong and his growth appeared to be stunted, including still having most of his first set of teeth at 14. I was fortunate to be able to dig into research and realized for the first time that melatonin was a hormone suppressor and the likely culprit. Within 2 months of getting off the medication, his long overdue growth spurt started with a vengeance, growing inches seemingly overnight, his adult teeth popping up quickly and all the other expected indicators of adulthood finally happened. (He is now a mechanical engineer, so no long term negative side affects.) Apparently my son’s reaction is not typical but I felt it worth sharing for those who might have had melatonin recommended for their kids.

I’m almost 40. I’ve struggled with sleep since I was 22. I recently started taking 40-80 mg of melatonin a night through high dose melatonin. Yes, I was UNVELIEVAVBLY groggy to the point I couldn’t function at first but eventually it leveled off. I now have the deepest rem sleep and the most vivid dreams Ive had since childhood. It’s unreal. Also I now get that melatonin isn’t for making you tired it’s for resetting your sleep schedule to your circadian rhythm. Usually when I take 80 mg it wakes me up at 8-9 am no matter what. It doesn’t matter if I took it at 2 am. It’s great for resetting your sleep schedule

Ive been a climical insomniac for 20 years, just started taking melatonin about 3 mknths back. Im sleeping. It’s the first anything that has made me sleepy. Unlike all the prescribed crap rhat gave me diabetes, caused high blood pressure, and basically ruined my health until i turned it around. Its chamged my life.

You said that “we have no idea what the long term health consequences are of taking high dose Melatonin supplements. All of the studies we have so far are short term.” Since that is the way you feel, do you feel the same way about the mRNA vaccines which also have no long term studies? Similarly, regarding three clinical studies of 434 doses of RECOMBIVAX HB 5mcg, these were administered to 147 healthy infants and children (up to 10 years of age) who were monitored for 5 days after each dose.” What is your position on the safety of such vaccines and if we should be giving them to our children?

What makes a poison is the dose. I decided to try some melatonin, but all I could find in stores was 5mg, 10mg, and 12mg. I tried 5mg, but was groggy in the morning, so after 2 days, I never used them again, with one exception. When I had Covid, and was suffering from intense exhaustion, I took 15mg a day for two days, and was back to normal in two days. Did the high dose Melatonin help? Maybe, or maybe it was a coincidence. I eventually bought some 200mcg by mail, and they were fine. I’m due to reorder, and I’m going to try your recommendation, 300mcg with time release.

Started using 5mg time release melatonin about three years ago I am now 64 years old and for a good 10+ years i couldn’t stay asleep. I fall asleep fine, wake up to use the bathroom and that is the end of sleep. melatonin works perfect for me. I have heard that our bodies may stop creating melatonin naturally with prolonged use. so I have been searching for evidence of that. so far nothing concrete however my search has not been extensive.

As someone once warned me, melatonin seems to work up to two times: After those two nights, in my experience I cannot fall asleep without it, and often not with it either. Is this not anyone else’s experience? For that reason, I avoid using it except when the immune effect of sleep is desperately needed- like when recovering from a cold.

I typically have no issue falling asleep quickly and I am genetically sensitive to melatonin. Everyone metabolisizes it differently btw, and that’s why some people need 10mg and some only need 0.5mg to fall asleep. So I split my 3mg tablets into quarters and take that. It keeps me asleep which is my issue. But I never take it too long term. If I take too much I just wake up drowsy and cranky the next day. If I take the right amount, I feel refreshed the next day. I disagree about melatonin not adding benefits if you fall asleep easily. It does help me stay asleep very well.

It would be helpful if, at some point in this article, you would define EXACTLY what you mean by “high dose” melatonin (beyond just showing a picture of a 10mg bottle). Is 5mg also considered “high dose”?? How about 3mg? 2mg? (I don’t recall ever seeing anything smaller than this at my local grocery store.)

PhD biochemist here: It’s a no-brainer. No one under 50 should be taking melatonin, except to reduce jet lag. The dosage, timing, and rate of release (timed vs quick) needed vary from person to person. It’s a tool, and you need to experiment with the variables to learn what works best for you. Trial and error is the way. As you get past 70 or 80 years old, your receptor sites become less functional, so you need more and more. Or you can switch to one of the synthetic melatonin analogs which are designed to fit into the receptor sites better. My 100 year old mother-in-law has been using an analog for 20 years now.

I think they’re useful for situations, sort of like probiotics. You take probiotics after being on antibiotics, not really much change after a few weeks, versus things like yogurt, bleu cheese, or other fermented foods. Melatonin can be good to reset a shitty sleep schedule, or after flying into a new time zone, but I think if you can avoid it, try to.

Thank you very much for the article, it is very interesting but I advise you not to be so repetitive. You could shorten the article in half just by not repeating so much. I took melatonin twice in my life because I had uncontrolled sleep and it caused so much discomfort in my head the next day that I would never take it again.

I’ve got bad ADHD and I’m at 1.57mins and already getting fidgety. Can I have a summary? I have 3mg capsules. I have no proper circadian rhythm but consistently will be awake till I’m exhausted at 6am-8am or later. I sleep 7-9hrs once asleep and sleep well mostly. But I only get tired about every 20hrs. I’m female 38. Would I be able to take the 3mg nightly for 2 weeks at 9pm and go to bed at 11.30/12 to try and regulate my sleep? In the UK at the minute it’s summer and light until about 10.30pm and partially light like dusky through the night in the hight of summer with the sun coming up about 4.30. It’s not helping. (Note I finished listening while writing this comment but will read the transcript if available to help me take it in better. I find soothing voices like this go in one ear and out the other that’s why I’m trying to discus it in the comments)

I took it once….. ONCE. Sent me to sleep, but afterwards it felt like I had been tranquilised. I was dopy for the rest of the day, like I was some heavily medicated dude in the “special” wing of the prison. Im sure it has its uses in emergencies, such as builders working near your home during night shift work, but frankly I just keep it in the cupboard just in case.

Melatonin for kids, definitely a no-no. For us older folks, our levels naturally decrease with age as discussed in the article. As far as I’m concerned, there is no real evidence of harm even at higher doses. However, perhaps as an alternative to taking a pill, consider drinking a small amount of tart cherry juice before bed, which induces endogenous melatonin production and has a variety of other health benefits.

I use tryptophan supplements, this is the precursor of melatonin. The body uses tryptophan to naturally turn it into serotonin en melatonin. I would say that tryptophan supplements work better than melatonin, because once you take these supplements you will notice that you sleep deeper and you’re dreams will become more exciting and more colorful. That’s how I noticed that tryptophan works.

Poor sleep can ruin your life. I got a script for a low dose anti anxiety that I take around 10pm and I fall asleep within 45 minutes, and sleep great every night, and wake refreshed around 8 am. We are not doing Melatonin over here with its potential unknown side effects. And who wants to wait 3 weeks for melatonin to kick in, and going to sleep 30 minutes faster, well faster than what? If it gets you to sleep at 4am rather than 4:30am is that really a winner? Get a script for anti-anxiety today, sleep well tonight. Don’t mess around dragging yourself for 3 weeks driving around exhausted, trying to be functional at work, it’s just not worth taking an unknown effect hormone.

In journal of cells, it talks about how it can help with kidney protection in those with kidneys disease and sleep. My provider and my boss, gave me the journal to read after I talked about getting back to natural sleep. But note I was a 3 rd shifter for 20 years I did keep a strict sleep wake schedule which helped me stay fairly healthy. Due to my kidney issue and sleep issues I take it and go on and off as well. But I’m also 50 too. This still is good article as it’s informative and say hey be responsible to your self.

I sleep great, only problem is it’s interrupted about two hours too early by my alarm. Unfortunately society expects me to working at 8am 😢 I’ve tried everything regarding healthy sleep hygiene, and I think it’s just my genes/chronotype. Everyone in my family are night owls can’t help it. I usually only use 1mg melatonin, for a couple days at a time when I’m trying to course-correct my circadian rhythm