why does melatonin have opposite effects on me?
Wednesday, March 10th, 2010 at
9:20 pm
i took a regular dosage of melatonin and i didn’t feel any more tired and actually felt a little more apt at articulating and visualizing, and had racing thoughts to the point where it felt like i was consistantly thinking/dreaming/waking up randomly throughout the entire night. i woke up feeling surprisingly rested, but like my head had been through a sort of marathon. any idea why this could have happened?
Tagged with: google • marathon • melatonin
Filed under: Insomnia
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melatonin is normally produced by the pineal gland, and it is one of the few proteins that can penetrate the blood-brain barrier.
You need to know several things:
1. Melatonin + serotonin in the brain is almost a constant sum. So more melatonin means less serotonin. This is responsible for the sleep assistance–the temporary reduction of the brain stimulant.
2. Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) is a condition where the pineal produces more melatonin in some people than others. The pineal does this routinely in high light conditions for nocturnal animals and in low-light condtions for diurnal animals like humans. In northern areas where winter is a big dark, down to six hours of daylight in Anchorage, Alaska, for example, SAD is a problem for some. This is more due to a lack of serotonin and subsequent depressive symptoms. Some I know who were affected began to read and sleep under Vita-Lights and the symptoms eased (yes light reaches the pineal along the optic nerves even when the eyes are closed).
3. Melatonin destroys melanin in the skin. That is how the weasel in the summer becomes the ermine in the winter, and also how humans lose their tans.
4. Melatonin affects sex drive, reducing it for all animals and apparently for humans as well.
What you describe is a set of emphasized effects, as the dreaming is probably categorizable as an idiosyncrasy.
You can use it if you want. I prefer not to defeat the cycles of endocrine secretions that have been developing into a balance over thousands of years of evolution, particularly not in tinkering with my brain function.
don’t know, but it had some effect on your brain…
ambien/zolpidem has had an opposite effect on some coma/vegetative state people…http://www.scribd.com/doc/2105741/tag1124152pagenews1tAmbien-Appears-to-Wake-Up-Coma-Patientd694
interesting…