“Well, I can prescribe you something for sleep – or I can recommend something over the counter…”
My therapist officially had my interest.
She knows I’m not big into popping pills.
And that goes especially for those with long lists of possible side effects (and that are possibly habit forming), so anything au natural is optimal. For years, I was stuck on meds that left me dependent. I had to work hard to dig myself out of that hole. And, once out, I mostly had a handle on insomnia. But, lately, anxiety was getting the best of me, so I decided to reach out to my life advice giving pro. And I was totally open to it; however, to be honest, I was a little upset. Why didn’t I already know the answer? I write about sleep. I have been for years. I’ve tried it all. The herbals. The tinctures. The teas. The special pillows. The amber screen fliters. So, what could I have possibly missed? As it would turn out, I hadn’t missed anything. What I was doing just needed some tweaks. When I prompted her to offer her advice, she said:
“Melatonin.”
She saw my disappointed look straight away (I’ve got a crap poker face) and asked if I was already taking it. When I confirmed, she then asked how much and what form. And that’s where the mistake lay. Now, because I was misinformed somewhere along the way (or perhaps the research evidence has changed over the years), I had a misconception. And that was that only 3 to 5 mg was safe or healthy. When I relayed this to her, she shook her head. Apparently, 10 mg is the top recommended amount. Also, I wasn’t taking mine as a dissolvable. Also-also, I wasn’t taking mine as pure melatonin. (It was mixed with some other stuff, making me groggy the next day.) So, armed with my new knowledge of soporifics, I opted to hit my local Wegman’s and give this stuff a try:
Natrol’s Melatonin comes as a pink dissolvable (although, honestly, I just chew it).
It does come in 5 mg options as well – but that’s what I started with before my therapist’s suggestion – and got nada from it. I like this one because it’s pure melatonin with nothing else mixed in. The result? Finally… a night of sleep. And when I say “sleep”, I don’t mean take ten hours to get there and then wake up every half hour after midnight. I’ve been taking this for two months now, nightly. And each night I do, I’m starting to nod off within half an hour to an hour. Once it’s lights out, I stay out until it’s time to be up. But that’s not the best part. I had tried so many other sleep aids before. And, to be fair, many of them are good at taking you down for the count. However, each seemed to come with the price tag of a groggy morning where the snooze button seduced me into missing more and more of my morning workout. Not with Natrol. Often, I’ll even wake up right before the alarm (which is great because the mere sound of it now gives me PTSD) and have no desire to play the “five more minutes game”.
The only caveat? The weird azz dreams you sometimes get.
Keep reading here for some “drawbacks” to taking this little tablet.