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Yes. Actually, the ideas that were posted here early on have helped me with chronic insomnia. One biggie that I had never even heard of was inositol. Valaerian root also helps some people but I found that for me, I have to take it for weeks before it kicks in. My doctor recommended the valerian but I stopped taking it when it didn't work for the first few nights.
Isn't there some negative effect to melatonin? It didn't work for me anyway but I thought there was some hormonal effect.
It all depends on WHY are aren't able to sleep. With me, anything that increases gaba seems to help. Don't ask me why, I don't know. Rx Gabapentin helps me but takes hours to kick in and it makes me dizzy and hyper for hours before putting me to sleep.
On the melatonin, years ago I bought some and don't even know what dose it was and took one for sleep and I ended up so groggy and out of it. Years later when I started with my combo, it was 1/4mg melatonin and the inositol and then I embellished on it for my own body. Adding the Calms Forte' and Gaba which I've stopped for a while now. Added some Lemon Balm when I stopped the Gaba but never stopped the Inositol. So at this point after many yrs I still take only 1/2mg Melatonin and what I take with it. Sleep soundly and do dream and do wake up for bathroom but get back to sleep and don't really wake up until 8:30ish....rouse about 7ish but sleep to after 8ish...I'm retired and have 24 hours to do my day.
There is a product Amazon sells called "Sleep." It has melatonin and I'm in no way affiliated with it.
It also has 4 other "natural ingedients."
I take it when my Klonopin doesn't work.
****BUT****
Melatonin products are meant to be taken 4 hours before desired sleep time per my sleep doc. I've never seen this on any supplement bottle. It's not a knockout drug, it's a hormone that peaks in blood about 4 hours after ingestion.
That's why I start my sleep combo at 7:30PM, my start contains the melatonin. I hit my pillow about 11PM or a little later and I'm out pretty quickly. I've mentioned this in my remedy post.
There are all sorts of other things you should be trying first, in terms of your hours, your bedtime habits, your eating habits, etc. There are all kinds of articles and books on the subject. Go do a little research.
No surprise at all, I knew about the benzo/alz connection. Thanks.
The connection is weak, if there is any at all. I read the study this article referenced thoroughly, and although the results were statistically significant, there are a few points worth mentioning when interpreting its results:
A. Correlation is not causation. Most people know this, but just because A is linked to B doesn't mean A causes B.
B. Since the mean age of the patients was 74+ years, they would be likely to begin showing signs of dementia no matter what meds they were taking. The article referenced the patients all having concomitant medical conditions, so it would be difficult to determine if the other medical conditions would be a contributing factor to their mental and cognitive decline.
C. The anticholinergics the patients were on most in the study weren't sleep aids, but bladder drugs, antihistamines, and antidepressants (90%+). Thus, assuming a link between dementia and long term sleep aid use is probably not valid. Clickbait synopses on websites are not accurate journal results. I suggest anyone who wants to know the true results of a study go to the printed journal article itself and read the study in its entirety.
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