How about Melatonin??

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It works with me but I need to take about 5 of them and be already calmed down.

I take it every night, but as I get older: I need to modify my dosage to one more pill. Right now, I take two and one efexxor.

http://www.drugdigest.org/DD/DVH/HerbsW ... in,00.html

Strange you normaly bite when FDA is not in you changed your view?

Although it is not approved as a regular prescription drug, melatonin does have a special orphan drug designation from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

I use Rozerem:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rozerem

Don't really understand how the hell it works, but it does the trick for me. Unlike everything else I've tried, it feels more natural, like I'm actually feeling like going to sleep rather than being drugged. Everything else I've tried put me into a dreamless, unconcious state, and IMO, being unconcious is not the same as being asleep. On thing that's great is that like real sleep, it's optional. If I've taken the pill and something happens, I can stay up to take care of it, so I don't have to feel so powerless and scared like with other pills.

Some nights, if I have a lot of anxiety, it isn't enough. That's when I take resperidal as well to calm me down a bit, but I try to keep away from that if I can help it, as I hear it isn't that good for me.

Two non-drug-related techniques that have helped are nature tapes and sleeping with my stuffed animals again. I have a feeling the only reason why the whole excercise thing is recommended is because people who sleep better are more active, rather than the other way around. That isn't to say excercise doesn't have huge benefits in other ways, of course.

I also think that insomnia in AS is completely different from regular insomnia, and should be treated as such. Most of these other treatments being touted as miracles haven't helped me in the least.

Should I take it?


Melatonin is a hormone primarily produced naturally by the pineal gland of mammals. In humans, the pineal gland is a very small organ located in the brain. Sensitive to light, it produces melatonin only during darkness -- with production increasing approximately an hour or two before an individual's customary sleeping times and then decreasing before usual awakening times. It is now believed that other body tissues, such as the retinas, also produce small amounts of melatonin. Children begin producing melatonin at about 3 months of age. Its production increases until about age 20 and then drops off as individuals age. By age 80, natural melatonin levels are estimated at 20% of their peak levels. Melatonin production also appears to be reduced in conditions such as dementia, which are usually associated with aging.

In humans, melatonin affects daily cycles, also called circadian rhythms, such as sleep and temperature. In other mammals, melatonin plays a role in seasonal changes such as hibernation. Melatonin also seems to promote growth and sexual maturity and it may assist in maintaining balance. Low levels of melatonin have been associated with depression, fibromyalgia, insomnia, some seizure disorders, and other conditions.

Supplemental melatonin should be synthetic ¯ derived from sources that are not animal or human. In the past, some melatonin products were made from animal tissue, which carried the risk of possible contamination with viruses and other toxins. Because of concerns with contamination and safety, Japan currently prohibits the sale of melatonin supplements and Britain restricts their use.

Thought this might be interesting maybe the mel is out of wack with people who take it...

Administering Melatonin isn't a good idea. It might produce bad side effects like hangovers and headache.

Instead, we have our good buddy 5-hydroxytryptophan which works like this:

5-HTP -> Serotonin -> Melatonin

The conversion from serotonin to melatonin occurs at nighttime only, which gives us a double benefit: We get the calming antidepressant effects from Serotonin during daytime and the deep sleep from Melatonin at nighttime because the body regulates the conversion itself. However, overdosing on 5-HTP is still possible.
Administering Serotonin won't work since it is unable to cross the blood-brain barrier.

I one time took melatonin for a short while from a supplier outside of the UK. It did allow me to have an excellent nights sleep and feel very refreshed in the morning - probably being the case that I'm not a very deep sleeper and it allowed to fall into a deep one. However I soon noticed that it was starting to make me feel irritable and often feel frustrated & bad-tempered. Haven't taken any in the past two and a half years, and have no intention to. Other sleeping tablets have been prescribed for me but have never worked.

okay, maybe this wasn't such a good topic after all. Now I am more confused than when I started! I feel like I have a more natural sleep with the Melatonin than with Benedryl and I just wanted the same for my son. I'm not sure about the reasons why he has trouble falling asleep, I just know he seems to have a lot of anxiety. He always wants to sleep with me too (he is 6). I am assuming his sleep problems are AS related.

One guy mentioned exercise before bed. The logic of that is too raise your body temperture with exercise or a warm bath then you naturally feel sleepy as your temperture falls.

If you plot your temperture during the day you will see that that 98.6 F standard body
temperture is total crap. it varies thoughout the day. At the highest your and maxium energy state and lowwest your sleeping http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circadian_rhythm

Getting your circadian_rhythm on a 24 hour cycle and where you sleep and wake at the correct time is the goal. Things that help include waking up at the same time no matter what! Not napping. Exposure to full spectrum light during the wake period.
Not using caffiene past a certain time. Not watching tv or laying in bed during non-sleep time.

Complex carbohydrates encourage the brain to take up tryptophan and manufacture
serotonin that makes one sleepy. So a slice of toaste before bedtime might help.

I think melatonin main purpose is reseting circadian rhythm.