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Comment by joeyspn | Hacker News Reader

I have sleep problems and sometimes I take melatonin (4gr) at night 30 mins before bed. It is a harmless supplement and is easy to find and buy online or in farmacies... it works wonders

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4g or 4mg? Natural amount of secreted melatonin is much less (< 1mg), you're overdosing with 4mg. I use 0.3mg Herbatonin, which is bioidentical natural form of melatonin from a plant. 10-20mg is therapeutic dose.

I find it interesting that over-the-counter melatonin comes in pills ranging from 0.25mg up to 10mg - a 40X range.

I suspect some people just try whatever bottle they grab first, and may find either no effect, or unwanted effects (excess grogginess/nightmares), and never try another dose.

Any bio-availability studies on that? I assumed the high doses were because uptake was bad / it was destroyed by stomach acid.

The whole "bioidentical hormones" thing some describe as unscientific, but I've been taking 10mg synthetic without knowing I've overdosing (that was the most popular OTC dose) with no effect. 0.3mg Herbatonin works pretty quickly. Here's something I just found: http://www.naturalhi.com/media/custom/Newsletter%20Melatonin...

Sorry... typo, 4mg obviously. I know is "slightly" overdose (1mg/day is the recommendation here in the EU), but as I said I take it every now and then, because of stress and jetlag.

Ditto! I've been taking 5mg Melatonin Fruit Gummies for almost two years now – Love them :)

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