Melatonin Dosage for Child and use for Insomnia, may cause nightmares and very vivid dreams, 1 mg, 3 mg, 5 mg

Melatonin is a natural hormone used for sleep and other conditions. It is made starting in the evening when it gets dark by the pituitary gland. For a child, we suggest a dosage no greater than half a milligram, taken about 2 to 3 hours before bed and no more than twice a week. For years, scientists have known that it's main function was in the control of our sleep patterns. However, more recent research has revealed that it also functions as an important antioxidant. After puberty melatonin output begins a gradual steady decline. Adults experience a gradual decline in daily output after age 25 with the majority of the decline occurring after age 40. This hormone is not present in foods.
   Melatonin is a hormone secreted by the pineal gland that aids biorhythm regulation. Biorhythm is disturbed by stress, crossing time zones and changing work shifts. Production by the pineal gland declines with age.

Testimonial
I began taking 3mg of melatonin about 1 year ago. It helps me to fall asleep, I also sleep very peacefully and I have noticed more dreams, and more vivid dreams. I wake up early and in a good mood, I jump out of bed cheerfully and I can't wait to get started with my day. I am definitely a morning person now! My moods are better thru the day, and I am more active and more focused. This is the interesting part, I used to be a daydreamer. I used to spend a lot of time watching tv, and listening to music and I used to have a very active imagination. I would daydream while listening to music. I have always tended to be creative and intuitive. The melatonin has changed my personality a little, I am not a daydreamer. I also don't "space out" so much like I used to. I am a focused, ambitious person. I use my time wisely and I am always doing something. When I am sitting in front of the tv or listening to music, I am paying attention to the tv show or I am paying attention to the people in the room, etc. I pay attention now and I am focused. I wish I knew about melatonin when I was in college, this would have helped me so much. I really pay attention to any topic I read or study. This is quite a change from the spacey day-dreamer I used to be. I have also noticed that I am more focused when I meditate. I have been studying yoga for 5 years, and I now really can control my mind. It doesn't wander so much. I used to day dream a lot while trying to meditate, and also while doing asanas (yoga postures) Now I am focused and really present. I also seem to be more successful in my daily life, but that is probably because I get up early and get things done. The only side effect I have noticed is that when I went up to 4 mg. I noticed a rapid heartbeat during the day. My heart would start beating fast suddenly for no reason. I cut back to 3 mg again and it stopped happening. I also noticed an improvement in my dental health. My dentist was very happy with my gums, and he said they were a good color and very firm. (for my age, this is good)

Adverse effects, danger
Some people find nightmares to be a disturbing side effect. Vivid dreams, including nightmares, occur more frequently and more intensely as the dosage is increased. Vivid dreams can occur even at a dosage of  0.5 mg. After more than 2 decades sold over the counter, no danger reports have been published.

Insomnia treatment natural remedy
Melatonin may help insomnia, but it is preferable not to use melatonin on a nightly basis. 1) Tolerance develops in some people with insomnia when melatonin is used every night. After a few weeks some find that melatonin is not inducing or maintaining sleep as well as it did in the past. To avoid the creeping up of tolerance, melatonin should be used at most every other night, or preferably every third night. Those who have insomnia should consider other options besides melatonin.

Benefits:
Lessens the effects of jet lag. Daily dosage of melatonin, at 1 to 5 mg, taken an hour or two before bedtime at the new destination for 2 to 4 days may be helpful in reducing symptoms of jet lag. It's very difficult to know exactly the dosage of melatonin that would be effective. There is a wide range of individual response to melatonin.

Antiaging
We won't know for sure for many years to come if melatonin use increases longevity, nor will we know in the near future the ideal dosage, timing, and frequency. For the time being, it appears to be safe to take this pineal hormone once or twice a week.

Is a strong antioxidant
Evidence continues to accumulate regarding the antioxidant benefits of melatonin. In laboratory studies, melatonin has been found to stimulate natural antioxidant systems in addition to offering protection to the DNA present within cells. While these effects have been observed primarily using pharmacological (very large) doses of melatonin, in a small number of experiments melatonin has been found to have antioxidant properties in small, physiological doses as well. The ability of melatonin in inhibiting oxidative damage has been tested in a variety of neurological diseases where free radicals have been suspected as being in part causative of the condition. Thus, melatonin has been shown to reduce amyloid protein toxicity of Alzheimer's disease, to reduce oxidative damage in some types of Parkinson's disease, to reduce brain injury when exposed to low blood or oxygen flow, and to lower brain damage due to a variety of toxins.
   Low dosage melatonin treatment in mice enhances the body's natural anti-oxidant system, and this may have anti-aging properties. This study has convinced me to take 0.1 or 0.2 mg of melatonin a couple of nights a week. I have a melatonin pill of 0.5 mg and I take a portion of it about an hour to three hours before bed.

Diabetes
Can someone with diabetes take melatonin ?
   A diabetic can take it and the antioxidant properties could be helpful.

Heart disease and failure
Is melatonin contraindicated with ACE inhibitors, beta blockers and blood thinners, and water pills? My dad has congestive heart failure and the sleeping pills the hospital gave him caused hallucinations. Now that he's home he wants me to find out if melatonin in safe with his drugs.
   We have not seen any research regarding the combination and these prescription drugs, hence we can't say for sure. Usually low dosages, such as 0.5 mg or less are safe, but unpredictable reactions can occur when supplements and medications are combined.

Immune system
There is a possibility that it could have a benefit on the immune system.

May have anti-tumor abilities
There's been quite a few studies with melatonin and cancer, most of them done in Italy. Most of the studies have shown benefits using 10 to 40 mg of melatonin dosage nightly. However, much is yet to be learned about this approach, and hardly any oncologists in the US are familiar with the use of melatonin as an anticancer agent. Therefore, at this point, the use of melatonin is still experimental. However, since cancer is ultimately a fatal disease in most cases, it may be worthwhile to try melatonin. Your physician can easily access all the research on Medline.

Menopause
Effects of melatonin in perimenopausal and menopausal women: our personal experience.
Ann N Y Acad Sci. 2005.
The purpose of this clinical trial on possible effects of nocturnal melatonin administration in perimenopausal women was to find if melatonin by itself modifies levels of hormones and produces changes of any kind, independently of age (42-62 years of age) and the stage of the menstrual cycle. Subjects took a daily dose of 3 mg synthetic melatonin or a placebo for 6 months. Our results indicate that a cause-effect relationship between the decline of nocturnal levels of melatonin and onset of menopause may exist. The follow up controls show that melatonin abrogates hormonal, menopause-related neurovegetative disturbances and restores menstrual cyclicity and fertility in perimenopausal or menopausal women. At present we assert that the six-month treatment with melatonin produced a remarkable and highly significant improvement of thyroid function, positive changes of gonadotropins towards more juvenile levels, and abrogation of menopause-related depression.

Thyroid disease
I have Hashimoto's thyroiditis and take Levothroid 112 mg but I have to adjust my medication from time to time. My question is does melatonin interfere with thyroid medication I am typically "hypo". I have also been treated for Lyme disease. I have trouble staying asleep. I average 5 hours asleep per night. I also went through early menopause. I am 43 years old and no longer have hot flashes or a menstrual cycle. I want to know if there are any studies that prove or disprove that melatonin interferes with thyroid medication.
   A. We come across one study of 3 mg nightly for 6 months that did not show major changes in thyroid hormone levels, but this was done in people with normal thyroid glands. We don't know how its use would influence those with a disease of the thyroid.

Lack of changes in serum prolactin, FSH, TSH, and estradiol after melatonin treatment in doses that improve sleep and reduce benzodiazepine consumption in sleep-disturbed, middle-aged, and elderly patients.
J Pineal Res. 2001.
An open pilot study on the safety and efficacy of melatonin in the treatment of insomniac patients was conducted in 22 subjects. All patients received 3 mg of gelatin melatonin capsules daily for 6 months, 30 min before expected sleep time. Twenty of 22 patients were on benzodiazepine treatment and they continued this treatment for part of or for the entire melatonin administration period. Serum concentrations of prolactin, follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH), thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH), or estradiol were measured by radioimmunoassay (RIA) in morning samples at the beginning and after 6 months of melatonin administration. Serum concentrations of prolactin, FSH, TSH, or estradiol did not exhibit changes after 6 months of melatonin administration, nor were any indications of hematologic or blood biochemistry alteration found.

Use before surgery
Giving children melatonin before surgery can reduce the occurrence of delirium after surgery. The prospect of surgery can cause intense anxiety leading up to the surgery. While some amount of stress is normal, extreme anxiety before surgery can contribute to what doctors call "emergence delirium" - distressing behavior changes such as crying and thrashing that may surface immediately upon "waking up" from anesthesia. Immediate post-surgery delirium can also lead to problems long after the surgery, such as the onset of nightmares, bed wetting and separation anxiety. Pre-surgery melatonin reduces post-surgery delirium, but not anxiety, in children having anesthesia and surgery. Dr. Zeev N. Kain from University of California, Irvine, reports that melatonin is as effective as midazolam, a sedative widely used to ease preoperative anxiety, in reducing the occurrence of delirium after surgery. Anesthesiology, 2009.

There are so many forms of melatonin. Should I take the regular melatonin pills, the sublinguals, or the time release?
Most of the melatonin presently on the market is the regular 3 mg pill. You may want to cut this pill into a fifth or even a tenth and use this dose your first night, about an hour or two before bed. Alternatively, you can also purchase melatonin pills at 1 mg or sometimes even lower dosages are sold. If this low dose is effective, then you may keep using it as needed for sleep. If you don't feel any effect, then take a little more the following nights.
   If your main problem is falling asleep, then try the sublingual form (also available in liquid form), in the melatonin dosage range of 0.3 to 1.0 mg, about an hour or two before bed. However, some people wake up in the middle of the night, or early morning, feeling alert. Most of these people would want to sleep a couple of hours longer. Melatonin has a short half-life and therefore is metabolized very fast and will be out of the body soon. This explains why many people wake up early.
   In order to stay asleep longer, a good option is slow-release melatonin, which is released consistently throughout the night. Slow-release (also known as sustained, time or controlled-release) melatonin will likely become more popular in the future. Another form that is useful is melatonin tea. The tea is drunk about an hour before bed. One company has added half a mg of melatonin to their tea bag. You can also find melatonin spray but we don't have as much experience using the spray form of melatonin.

Is Natrol melatonin a good brand?
   Yes, it is a good company and Natrol melatonin should be reliable.

Sublingual melatonin pill
I read where you put the melatonin pill under your tongue. Does it work the same if I swallow the pill?
   it depends on the how the melatonin pill tablet is formulated in terms of dissolving and absorption, but it can work that way. The advantage is that the melatonin sublingually may work quicker but it could also last less in the body and may not provide all night sleep. The only way to tell is by trying it. Different melatonin pills from different manufacturers may work in slightly different ways in terms of absorption under the tongue.

Melatonin for child, for children
The use of melatonin for a child appears to be safe as long as melatonin use is kept to no more than 2 times a week and a dose of 0.5 mg or less. Further research with melatonin in children will tell us if more frequent use is appropriate or safe. Many parents wonder if melatonin is appropriate for their kid, and in low dosages used infrequently should be quite safe. The child dosage of melatonin is about half or a third of an adult dose, as long as the child is older than 6 years of age.

I want to use melatonin and what is the best dosage for 18 year old boy? I'm considering to take Natrol melatonin 3 mg time release!
    We are not in a position to suggest a particular dosage to anyone since we need a full history and medical review before suggesting a dosage. All we can do is provide general guidelines that one can read about. As a general rule, it is best to use the least dosage that works and use as infrequently as necessary.

Combining with other natural sleep aids or dietary supplements
My 16 year old son has had trouble falling asleep for years. About 6 months ago we started him with 3 mg of melatonin dosage on doctors direction. Instead of 3-4 hours before falling asleep, he now falls asleep more quickly and sleeps most nights all night long. He seems to be anxious socially, and school and being 16 and a kind, tender boy, is not helping. Do you think adding theanine would help with the anxiety and worry of school the next day?
   It's possible and it is worth a try if his doctor approves of this combination.