3. Melatonin supplements just doesn’t work on you, period.
• Possible, but unlikely. This isn’t some mental trick—it’s a fundamental fact of mammalian biology.
The presence of melatonin in the body and its function there may be fundamental, but that does not make the effect of supplements equally fundamental. The role of vitamins is also fundamental, but you yourself cite evidence that vitamin supplementation for all is a bad idea. I don’t see anything in what you have written to suggest that melatonin supplementation for all should be any different.
FWIW, I have tried melatonin—last night, in fact, 3mg—and observed no effect. I did not fall asleep more quickly (I was still awake three hours later, at 01:40); I woke at a typical time; my waking lethargy was, if anything, slightly more than usual; my dreams were typical.
I’ll give it a few more goes with a reduced dose (from further reading, 3mg seems excessive), but real science is supposed to work every time.
The presence of melatonin in the body and its function there may be fundamental, but that does not make the effect of supplements equally fundamental. The role of vitamins is also fundamental, but you yourself cite evidence that vitamin supplementation for all is a bad idea. I don’t see anything in what you have written to suggest that melatonin supplementation for all should be any different.
FWIW, I have tried melatonin—last night, in fact, 3mg—and observed no effect. I did not fall asleep more quickly (I was still awake three hours later, at 01:40); I woke at a typical time; my waking lethargy was, if anything, slightly more than usual; my dreams were typical.
I’ll give it a few more goes with a reduced dose (from further reading, 3mg seems excessive), but real science is supposed to work every time.
ETA: 1mg had the same lack of effect.