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Comment by tedks | Hacker News Reader

> it tends to induce horrific, apocalyptic nightmares

I've used melatonin for years, as have many of my friends and family, and I've never had anyone mention this. I've always had more vivid dreams with melatonin, but I've never had nightmares.

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I've attended a few week long meditation retreats where you generally have to adhere to the schedule laid out for you; that includes waking up early (~5:00AM) and going to bed early and also refraining from using anything that could be considered a distraction, namely computers, phones, etc. More often than not, a few days into a retreat I would start experiencing extremely vivid and violent dreams. One of my meditation teachers said that this tends to be a regular occurrence as the mind goes through a form of detox when it's deprived of stimuli. It was interesting to read about the parent's experience with melatonin and then be reminded of these episodes, with possible increased presence of melatonin and deep sleep states being the common factors.

I've also had spectacularly vivid dreams on retreats, but mine weren't violent, at least.

Perhaps it's something to do with particular makes of the drug, but I've also had my worst nightmares while on it, and the words GP used are spot on for me. My mom, aunt and other members of my family had similar experiences and we've mostly stopped taking it. I did partly because it no longer has the surefire effect it once had on me, and partly because I'd often wake up in a crappy/despairing mood because of the apocalyptic nightmares.

On the other hand, I really miss it back when it worked mostly wonderfully. I coupled my intake with an experiment on segmented sleep, where I'd take it some time before 4pm and sleep till around 9pm, often waking up in a so called "writer's mood," and then sleep again (without Melatonin) from roughly 1am till 4am. I tend to be a very unfocused person, but on these intervals between first sleep and second sleep I'd feel in an elevated state of consciousness where my focus was like a laser I could point anywhere. Sublime is a good word, everything feels light and effortless, and the right thoughts just flow when you need them. I'm sure people have felt similarly while on other kinds of drugs, which is interesting to say the least. But I was sober and really productive, and have written my best fiction in this way.

Melatonin isn't a drug, it's the neurohormone that provokes sleep. Your body produces it naturally already.

Damn straight it's a drug. It's one your body just happens to produce. It's having a biochemical interaction at concentrations far less than would be required for a chemical reaction (such as neutralizing acid in the stomach with calcium carbonate). Similar to using the pill to modify the reproductive cycle.

What kind of dosage are we talking about though? Like 1 or max. 2mg once every few weeks to get you over the hump of sleeping or 5mg every few days and occasionally a double dose?

Melatonin intensified my dreams but did not prompt nightmares; but then, I never have nightmares any way!

A friend who was prone to nightmares tried melatonin and it made her nightmares worse.

So perhaps it just induces worse nightmares in those prone to having them in the first place.

It is a common side effect http://umm.edu/health/medical/altmed/supplement/melatonin possibly dosage related. I have found that 1 mg is more effective than 5 mg, but perhaps I could try .5 mg.

I've had intense freaky sex dreams from melatonin, but... You know, they were very tolerable. An acceptable side-effect.

Melatonin does not directly induce nightmares, per say, just the vivid or lucid dreams you are familiar with. However, if just one of those incredibly vivid melatonin induced dreams goes awry and descends into nightmare territory, you will remember it for a long, long time.

I've had nightmares while taking melatonin with the same frequency as I've had them the rest of my life. They're more vivid, but I've forgotten them just fine.

I have had problems with chronic insomnia and tried melatonin — horrible nightmares. So bad I would lay awake in the morning a bit, just stunned at how horrible they were. No thanks.

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