Case study: Melatonin

gwern

I discuss melatonin's effects on sleep & its safety; I segue into the general benefits of sleep and the severely disrupted sleep of the modern Western world, the cost of melatonin use and the benefit (eg. enforcing regular bedtimes), followed by a basic cost-benefit analysis of melatonin concluding that the net profit is large enough to be worth giving it a try barring unusual conditions or very pessimistic safety estimates.

Full essay: http://www.gwern.net/Melatonin

I discuss melatonin's effects on sleep & its safety; I segue into the general benefits of sleep and the severely disrupted sleep of the modern Western world, the cost of melatonin use and the benefit (eg. enforcing regular bedtimes), followed by a basic cost-benefit analysis of melatonin concluding that the net profit is large enough to be worth giving it a try barring unusual conditions or very pessimistic safety estimates.

Full essay: http://www.gwern.net/Melatonin

I stopped taking melatonin because I'd wake up extremely groggy. Although I also have a (bad?) habit of covering my eyes with a pillow or the corner of a blanket AND I have a light blocking shade in my room, so I was basically waking up in complete darkness. One thing I considered to counteract this was plugging a lamp into a "vacation" timer and having it fire up around 7a or 8a or so. I think I'll stop at the hardware store and give the whole setup, melatonin and all, another try after reading this post.

Here's a thought: use the melatonin and wrap a scarf around your head before going to bed, but leave the shade up or loose. The melatonin & scarf will put you to sleep, and sunrise around 6 or 7 will slowly wake you up, since by then the melatonin will have run out and your scarf will have come off.

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Case study: Melatonin

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Case study: Melatonin

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