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Comment by dimeatree | Hacker News Reader

As with others I have been suffering from frequent attacks of insomnia over my life, while anecdotal I have found my stack that has been working for me for the past 4 months.

- Supplement L-Tryptophan

- 350 mg Magnesium Carbonate before bed

- 3 mg melatonin (bioavailability is claimed to be between 10~15% - was on 10 mg but I found I was waking up too frequently)

- 10 minute meditation with calm app

- Timed air con.

If I do wake up, I immediately meditate.

It is a ritual, but I am sleeping well most nights.

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It might be worth it to experiment with a lower dose of Melatonin -- 3mg is still way above the .3-1mg dose usually seen as 'most effective'. (See https://slatestarcodex.com/2018/07/10/melatonin-much-more-th...)

I used to take 3mg melatonin -- this used to work for a day or two, but then it stopped working.

I switched to 300mcg or 450mcg and it just keeps working, no tolerance whatsoever (actually, after 4-5 days of getting into a sleeping routine with melatonin, I find I no longer need it and I can just fall asleep on my own).

300mcg means I don't notice the melatonin working, I just fall asleep.

450mcg of melatonin -- I actually feel it kicking in like I'm a child wanting to stay and watch the movie, but I just can't stay awake.

The reason I go 3 mg is because of the bioavailability https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10883420/ I find it is working perfectly for me at the moment

I can confirm the magnesium and meditation has done wonders for my insomnia

As a side there has been some interesting studies around Magnesium L-Threonate with regards to sleep and memory, which I am curious about - but it is possible to become "addicted" to it which has me cautious.

I found a few anecdotes on reddit about how a user had “withdrawals”. I’ve used bottles of the stuff, have randomly run out and not re-ordered for months/years, and never noticed any withdrawal symptoms. If you have any studies, I’d be interested, but I think this is just reddit lore at this point.

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