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Comment by jobu | Hacker News Reader

My youngest daughter is borderline ADHD, and rather than trying Ritalin we've been using Melatonin in the evenings to help ease the bedtime process. (In the hopes that more sleep will help her cope with problems focusing.)

The change has been dramatic. Previously it was a 3-4 hour battle each night for her to get ready for bed and stay in bed. Now with 3mg of Melatonin she spontaneously decides to get ready for bed herself and goes to sleep in minutes.

The most interesting thing about Melatonin isn't that it makes you drowsy or helps you sleep, it's that it increases the _desire_ for sleep. While I don't usually have trouble sleeping, it's often hard to break myself free from a computer or a device at night, and Melatonin changes this. As the author says, "It works."

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I too have ADHD. I was diagnosed with it nearly 10 years ago now. I'm not hyperactive or anything like that. I do tend to bounce from one thing to the next sometimes, and this can be problematic around bedtime.

Not only that but I take medication to treat my ADHD. This medication is a pretty low dose, but sometimes it's still going strong at 8 or 9pm, which is not good for sleep.

Melatonin has helped A LOT. I take between 1 - 3mg. It's not a drowsy feeling. I just want to sleep after taking it. Glad to see there seems to be no side effects.

You may also consider trying different medications. Ritalin/Concerta types have always had weird effects on my sleep, but the Adderall/Adderall XR ones have always been neutral/helpful when it comes to sleep.

Have you been able to reduce your ADHD meds after taking melatonin (or getting better sleep from melatonin)?

3mg might be too much. I am not a doctor, but my sleep doctor is, and she recommended half that amount -- right around sunset.

I remember reading in at least one study that there's no added benefit of doses above 1mg. I checked the "Brzezinski et al" article and it says:

  The dose response relationships in 11 of the studies 
  (see Refs. 17,18) support the existence of a plateau
  effect, with maximum effect generally being achieved
  at low doses (e.g. 0.3 mg) and maintained or 
  diminished at higher doses.

That was a concern I had too, so we tried breaking them in half, but didn't notice much difference in her nighttime routine after a week. We actually gave up on the melatonin for a while after that, but I decided to try again with an increased dose after talking with a coworker. Their child is more severely ADHD, and he was taking 5mg per night (and Ritalin).

The pills I have are a dual-release version, so that might have had an affect as well (http://www.swansonvitamins.com/swanson-ultra-dual-release-me...).

This is similar to something I read a couple years ago, where overactive/hyper children could actually be a result of lack of sleep, since tired children do not act "tired" like adults do.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8016531.stm

Endogenous melatonin is in the realm of 5-25mcg, I've had great success supplementing 150mcg. Better results than with 3mg even. Consider trying a microdose.

Especially given that you are dealing with a developing brain and melatonin is a hormone.

>The most interesting thing about Melatonin isn't that it makes you drowsy or helps you sleep, it's that it increases the _desire_ for sleep.

Exactly! After having tried almost all Hypnotics/Sedatives for a sleep disorder that has lasted better part of a decade, it was so refreshing to find something that:

Doesn't have any hangover,

Doesn't make you feel more crappy if you are unable to go to sleep after taking it. The headache/light-headedness that follows if you don't sleep after taking other sedatives/hypnotics is generally very annoying and sometimes even unbearable.

The quality of sleep is much better too. No nightmares as such. More dreaming, yes, but that may be just because of better sleep quality.

3mg is a very large dose, particularly for a child.

I take 0.5 mg myself.

Yeah, the Trader Joes ones are 0.5 mg, taste like peppermint candies, and knock me out within 15 minutes.

I buy the 5 mg ones, crush them up to powder and then mix them thoroughly with a carefully measured 5 teaspoons of sugar.

1/2 a teaspoon of sugar is now a 0.5 melatonin dose.

Just curious, what would have happened if you hadn't battled her to go to sleep?

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