me and melatonin

Duh! Silly me. I forgot to ask my main question.

Is walking barefoot in the grass good for your melatonin levels? Or are you suggesting that it “grounds” you out from the magnetisim?

This is strange.

Luckily I walk barefoot most of the time, even in the snow sometimes … it feels funny.

Does it have to be grass though? or can it be bare dirt?

If only my feet had a handy “degauss” button like my monitor.

Dreeam Addict : You mean to tell me that your feet don’t have a degauss button?. . . I thought that everyone had one?. . . I was wondering about the same thing with the whole grass deal but I never saw Davion write any more about it. Maybe instead of walking without my shoes on in the park, I could just take all of my clothes off and roll around on the ground or down a small hill. That would most definitly increase my melatonin levels. . . right? I’m not sure if people around me would enjoy it to much though.
Anything for a Lucid Dream!
HaHAh,
J05h

Hey Josh,

Remember me? I am PVD from the irc chat room. My name is Josh too and we talked once. I just wanted to let you know that Melatonin can have a really bad side effect. I use to take about 3mgs a night. It helped at first. Than after a few months I couldnt get to sleep as easy any more unless I took them. Once you stop taking them you are probably going to have trouble going to sleep without them if you take Melatonin everynight. Well that is all. I just wanted you to know about that before you get too crazy with Melatonin .

Yeah, and that is because your body has stopped producing melatonin because it became accustomed to the fact that you were feeding it melatonin regularly.

That is what we refer to as CHEMICAL DEPENDENCY.

It’s hardly worth doing it regularly, isn’t it?

Woohoo I had a lucid dream!
I didnt take any melatonin last night either…I dont think I am gonna mess with the melatonin any more. I don’t want to mess any of my sleeping up. I am so stoked about the Lucid Dream. I wasnt like fully lucid but I was like hey I think this is a dream. And then I was like yea it is!!! . I looked at my hands and my voice sounded all funny. I was on a trampoline and not jumping but it was swaying up and down. I got really excited and the scene slowly blacked out. I started seeing another scene with a street light. Well I woke up and fell back asleep. I had another dream (not lucid) where fred durst was hitting on some girl and he was singing some song about (without you) and it was bad ass and it had a cool tune to it. I woke up again and fell back asleep this time I had like 3 false awakenings in a row. After the first one I knew the second 2 were fake cuz I saw the clock all fucked up. I got lots more to write and i hadone other dream after that but I got to get to class.
Me and Melatonin Final Verdict: Don’t need it. Case Closed
Im so happy I got a LD
L4terZ
J05h

Ill be happy to have the leftovers you have there then:)

Well done Josh:)Congratullations!!

I am thrilled you have discovered you don’t need substances to help you. There is nothing wrong with some of them, but it’s so much more fulfilling to enjoy a lucid dream through mental work, not the ‘quick fix’ of drugs/herbs, etc.

Congratulations!

I’m in love with melatonin

I have created a monster.

I have a small question about Melatonin.

I began taking it about three weeks ago because I had quit smoking weed and was having trouble going to sleep. At first, it didn’t seem to have any effect. If anything it actually seemed to hamper my ability to go to and stay asleep. I found myself lying down for, oh, an hour or so before I finally dozed off, and even then it was a totally restless sleep. I would wake up probably 10 times or so a night, would toss and turn, and would feel tired all day the next day.

Okay, from here I told myself, “Okay, maybe my body is REALLY short on melatonin,” so I increased my nightly dosage from 3mg to 6mg (ingested, not under the tongue). After a couple of days of this, I started going to sleep much better, and would wake up groggy-but-rested. I even had my first LD’s.

Okay, I’m rambling now so let me get down to it. I believe I suffer from what I believe is un-diagnosed Bi Polar Disorder, and I’ve read that people who are manic depressive shouldn’t take Melatonin because it can intensify their depression. I haven’t noticed any ill effects (no more than usual anyways) thusfar, and I feel that the Melatonin has helped me come along with my LDing. At the very least it’s been a successful placebo, which as you all know is more effective than the real thing a lot of the time. I know there are some really educated and knowledgable people who frequent these boards, so can anyone tell me what I should do? I don’t want to risk hampering my just-now-coming-around LDing skills, as I’ve been working on them for almost a year now. Any suggestions?

If you think you might have BPD, then you should stop taking the melatonin. Oddly enough, I wouldn’t recommend 5-htp either. You really need to find out what is chemically out of balance and correct THAT rather than treat the symptoms.

You need to find yourself a good homeopathic practicioner and have yourself diagnosed. If you go to a traditional doctor you’ll end up on klonopin for the rest of your life (or until they try zoloft, xanax, or whatever their pharm. salesperson is pushing on them next.)

With a homeopathic practicioner you can get your REAL problem diagnosed and go back to a normal life. But check out the credentials of the practicioner first. It’s best to find one who’s studied in more than one country. China, Egypt, Peru, and Mexico have some of the best places to study. If your practicioner has studied in one of those places along with a place in the US or EU, then you’ve probably found a good one.

taps mic hello? Is this thing on?

Davion, could you please explain this one?

It has to do with the electrical polarization of your body. With all of those electromagnetic fields around your body, you pick up ‘interference’ and undue static/other electricity. Walking in the grass nuetralizes that electricity similarly to the way the ‘degauss’ feature gets rid of all the static on your computer monitor.

Why? I don’t know. I’m not exactly an expert in Traditional Chinese Medicine. But I know someone who is and will ask him.

Good info Davion…about melatonin Yep!
Very good indeed!

ClintB24 also dont take St Johns Worth then…
like 5-htp and melatonin it will have an adverse effect on you…
Oh and dont take to high dosages of inositol…it can lift the effect of medicines for BPD…if they are lithium based.

Don’t take more than 3 mg?

I’m curious, Davion, as to where that specific number comes from. All of the information I’ve read about melatonin suggests that it has one of the widest “safe for use” ranges in existence. Considering melatonin is normally sold in 3 mg tablets and the instructions on the bottle I’m looking at right now suggests 1-3 tablets before bed, I’m very interested in any information that suggests this isn’t a good idea. (Man, I’m sure the manufacturers would be as well!)

Understood that melatonin is a hormone and there was quite a stink several years back regarding the possible negative side effects of melatonin use (lack of concentration, sleep disorders), but I was under the impression that the brouhaha was regarding melatonin tests that were performed on subjects in the middle of the day–obviously outside of their normal sleep cycle. Try as I might, I can’t find any concrete, current information anywhere suggesting too much melatonin leads to anything negative, and how much is too much.

And believe me, I’ve looked. For something as effective for LD studies as melatonin is for me, I’m very concerned as to what it might possibly be doing to my body in the long-term.

Any information you have would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Harlequin

Melatonin was a waste of money for me. I’m afraid to use it again.

The first night I tried 1.5mg. I took this (half a 3mg tablet) approximately one half hour before heading for bed. I had a deep sleep, woke up the next morning a little groggy at first, but a little more “up” than usual a half hour later. It didn’t seem to affect me too much.

Second night, I did the same thing, 1.5mg. I had the same results.

Third night, I decided to take one tablet (3mg). The effects were stronger. Tiredness set in quicker than the previous nights, I felt I slept even deeper, experienced some memorable dreams (nothing spectacular in any night).

I did not take any melatonin the fourth night. The next morning, my skin had gone nuts. I felt like a neanderthal; my forehead was “swollen.” Turns out my skin sort of broke out. I have no experience in dermitology and couldn’t tell what had happened. The skin seemed to break out, die, and form a small layer of dead skin which lasted for about a week. Finally, I worked on it and I’m back to normal (approx. 2 weeks later). This hormone did something wonky to my system and I don’t feel I’ll be taking it again.

Can anyone offer an explanation of what happened?

thanks

Mmm maybe your pineal gland is very sensitive for hormone changes from melatonin…we all have different sensitivity about everything…hormones …neurotransmitters.
Good that u stopped then…it out balanced your homones for sure…so melatonin is nothing 4 u then…

Sounds like there’s lots of confusion about what melatonin is and does.

Melatonin is produced by the pineal gland in humans and other animals, and (obviously) pertains mainly to sleep. The production of melatonin in the body increases in the dark and decreases in the light. Higher levels of melatonin help sleep but decrease libido and sexual function (which would explain why we get more when it’s dark/night and less in the light/day). Exceptionally high levels of adrenaline and noradrenaline in the bloodstream caused by stress can cause a slight increase in melatonin production by the pineal. Melatonin is a tryptamine, chemically similar to some phychedelics such as LSD, mescaline and DMT (also produced by the pineal), although it has very low phychedelic properties. The single danger dosage level is very high (probably a few hundred miligrams), so it’s hard to really “overdose” enough to cause problems. The problems arise when taken in high doses for long periods of time - the pineal gland slows it’s natural production and you can develop a chemical dependency as mentioned earlier. However, once you’ve stopped taking it for a while natural production should resume. You definately don’t have anything to fear when taking a few 3mg pills of the stuff.

Anyway, blah, blah, blah, there’s some basic info on melatonin. I’m going to pick some up today and start experimenting with it. I’ll let you know what I find.

Well, I took 3mg the other night and had the most dream recall I’ve had in a long time! I recorded the longest most detailed dream to date in my dream journal. . It could just be coincidence of course, I’m going to keep experimenting and I’ll let you know how it goes.

I even had a dream that I was at work, thought I was awake and was looking around imagining it as if it were a dream (as I do periodically in the waking world), but no lucidity. Wierd.

I’ve only tried Mel once a few days ago and it was as a sleep aid. Never tried it in conjunction with LD experimenting since I’ve been giving myself a break over the last month.

I took one 3mg pill and at first nothing but after about fifteen twenty minutes I was getting wiped. My eyes felt REALLY tired and when I stood up I was so relaxed I almost fell over. Unfortunately, I was sleeping on the floor of my gf’s dorm room and I slept restlessly due to slight dicomfort. I can only imagine how deeply I would have slept in a bed though (those damn dorm beds are too small.)

About chemical dependency… its never good to become reliant on anything. Luckily, I believe, with Melatonin, its like using eye drops too often… your body stops producing as many tears until you go off the drops for a while.