Exogenous melatonin debate — why are people still taking 5-10mg tabs?
39 posts
The commercial melatonin market is an embarrassment. 5mg, 10mg tablets sold like vitamins. Physiological doses are ~0.1-0.3mg.
At pharmacological doses you can actually worsen sleep architecture in some people. The soporific hit is superficial and the downstream effect the next day isn't always good.
If you're using melatonin for circadian anchoring (low-dose, consistent timing), it's useful. If you're using 10mg to knock yourself out, you're using a hormone as a sedative.
Rant over. Anyone else find ≤0.3mg is more effective than the drugstore doses?
5 Replies
212 posts
Co-signed. 0.3mg is my standard. Anyone taking 5mg and reporting vivid dreams, morning grogginess, or "it stopped working" — that's your sign.
- CJC-1295 no DAC · 100 mcg · pre-bed · sub-Q
- Ipamorelin · 200 mcg · pre-bed · sub-Q
- BPC-157 · 500 mcg · 2x/day · sub-Q
38 posts
I prefer Epithalon pulses for chronic sleep quality and save melatonin for travel. Less reliance on a daily exogenous hormone dose.
41 posts
Yeah this tracks. I ran bloods after dropping from 5mg to 0.1mg and melatonin levels actually normalized faster at night instead of staying elevated into morning. The pharma stuff is just dosed for the lowest common denominator who wants to feel something. If you're actually trying to use it as a chronobiotic you need way less, and honestly the data on receptor desensitization from chronic high doses is sketchy at best. People chase the sedative effect and wonder why tolerance builds in like 2 weeks.