Been taking melatonin for 15 years, I can’t seem to quit taking it
Been taking melatonin for 15 years, I can’t seem to quit taking it
Title. I have taken melatonin every single night for 15 years. I’ve attempted to stop or cut the dosage of melatonin but if I quit taking it I can only get a few hours sleep each night. I didn’t realize that this was a supplement that you can be become dependent on. Has anyone else experienced this?
Jesus. You aren't supposed to take it for more then four weeks. Your body probably no longer knows to produce it as you've been providing it artificially. I'd see a doctor for how to fix this circumstance.
Doesn't the label on the meds tell you that? It does on all melatonin I've ever purchased, I'm in Canada. I used to use it for jet lag but I no longer travel.
There were no warnings on the bottles back then. It was advertised as a non-addictive sleep aid
That is rough. If doctor is not an easy option my only advice is to keep taking it and just start slowly lowering the dose over a period of weeks and see if that works for you first.
I have read of it being a drug that can form dependence, as your body will produce less of it due to it being supplemented (I haven't done a deep dive to confirm that with scientific papers, but it certainly sounds plausible).
This article advocates for micro dosing 100 to 300mcg of melatonin, and anecdotally I have found it to be quite effective.
It mentions offhandedly that if you overdose on melatonin for long periods, as you appear to have done, it'll "take days before your brain goes back to normal." But it's hard to say how long it would actually take for your sleep to resume to something approaching normal if you went cold turkey or microdosed for a length of time. It's possible you may want to use some other form of artificial sleep aid temporarily until your body responds to the correct doses of melatonin.