Melatonin

Melatonin was a life-changer for me - after chemo and when taking AIs they interfered with my sleep terribly - if I managed to string together 3 straight hours of sleep any given night, it was a miracle.  After several months of this I was at my wit's end.  At the recommendation of many women here on BCO, I started taking melatonin - a small dose of 3mg.  Wow - I actually slept!!!  

Peggy is absolutely right about proper "sleep hygiene" while taking melatonin - it reacts to even minimal light hitting your retina and diminished in your system, so it's essential that your bedroom be as dark as possible.  Be sure you have dark blinds or light-blocking drapes, no TV, no smartphone, and if you have LEDs glowing from various electronics, turn them off, or at least cover the light or turn it away from the bed.

The timed release tabs are effective if you have trouble staying asleep, but you may also want to get some 1mg sub-lingual tabs (I get mine at GNC.)  You can keep them on your nightstand, and if there's a night when you wake up and can't get back to sleep, you can simply slip one of them under your tongue (no fussing with water).  They dissolve slowly and get the melatonin into your system quickly.  You'll be back to sleep in no time. 

You may have weird dreams the first week or so you use it - not scary dreams, just weird.  As your body adjusts, those diminish. 

Aside from melatonin, physical activity helps me sleep.  I can always tell the days when I don't exercise, as I tend not to sleep nearly as well as I do after an exercise day.  

Melatonin doesn't work for everyone, but it's effective for a lot of people.  I'd give it at least 2 weeks to see if it helps.

The more I read, the more I believe that good sleep is critical for good health.  You're smart to treat lack of sleep as a serious issue and do what you can to address it. 

tart cherry juice had both melatonin & triptophan, so if you don't like tablets      some supermarkets have organic tart cherry juice now

Carpe,

I just bought a time release 5 mg melatonin formula on Amazon.  The brand is Lifesmart.  I've only taken it one night so far, so a bit early to evaluate its effectiveness, but I have my fingers crossed.  Like you, I typically wake up between 3&4 each night, so we'll see what happens.

Have you tried raising your own melatonin levels? You need to sleep in complete darkness. Research on rats proved even low levels of light stop melatonin production. Melatonin peeks between 12 and 2pm so you should aim to be in bed attempting to sleep by then. You need to get out in the light in the morning if possible so your body recognises day and night. Also avoid electronic devices for a couple of hours before bedtime. Light at night stops tamoxifen working in rats. We can assume it may also be the same for humans.

I was told by a nutritionist to take at least 20 mg. of Melatonin. She said I could take up to 40 mg. It has strong anti-oxidant effects and is recommended at high levels for breast cancer. I have posted the long articles she sent on other boards, but if anyone is interested, I could post here. She also said NOT to take the time-release version, and NOT to take it in the middle of the night. She said to take it once, at exactly the same time every night, even if you don't go to bed at the same time. Its purpose is to re-set your circadian rhythm. She recommended a product, GABA relaxer (http://www.amazon.com/Country-Life-Gaba-Relaxer-90-Count/dp/B0001VTXPQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1420057597&sr=8-1&keywords=gaba+relaxer) as something to take if you wake up in the middle of the night and can't get back to sleep. I've also been taking zyflammend PM which also helps with the insomnia. Even with the melatonin and zyflammend (also theanine and 5htp) I hardly slept last night. Tonight I'm going to take some advil (the joint pain was part of what was keeping me up, also the hot flashes) along with some benadryl. sigh. I wish I could just get a decent night's sleep.....

I'm taking 1 mg since Monday, 2 hours before going to sleep. It helps me to relax, and fall sleep but no fast enough.. I'm getting headaches and I get tired during the day.

I was told that more than 1mg would give me the opposite effect and to stick with no more than 1mg or try Tylenol pm.

I will try for 1 week and see what happen.

RedshoesClaire, I also take 1 mg melatonin on most nights. It has been enough to help get to sleep and stay asleep. I've read that it's better to try to use the least amount needed if you're taking it for sleeping purposes. As far as keeping cancer away I don't know much about that.

I have looked into melatonin a bit since the study came out that said tamoxifen was ineffective in mice exposed to nighttime dim light. There are a lot of studies measuring melatonin and circadian rhythms and It seems pretty certain that tumor proliferation is greater when melatonin levels are low. At minimum, I think we should all be practicing good sleep hygiene as Scotty mentioned above - turn off electronics and blue light a couple of hours before bed and sleep in complete darkness, get outside light in the morning. As for how much melatonin to take, there doesn't seem to be a lot of human studies regarding cancer and melatonin but I did find one that mentioned 10 to 40 mg. The tag line, as always, "further study is needed".

It's funny, it help me to relax and fall sleep, but sometime it takes 1/2 hour - 2 hours to have some effect. I'm sleeping 8 hours or more and I don't wake up in the middle of the night, the bad thing.... I get headaches and sometimes really weird dreams.

I have the same experience with dreams, and I've been attributing it to the Femara.

I know that melatonin at low levels does nothing to help me sleep but needing to ration my ambien generic, lorazepam, and Unisom ( I know I need to cutback heavily on the Unisom when I go back on Tamoxifen) I tried the 20mg of Melatonin. I did sleep but it was kind of wild and I felt particularly tired the next day. I woke after dreaming within a dream that somebody had smashed my guitars up (one was stolen nearly 20 years ago) .It felt like I was yelling in my sleep, then I kept dreaming about space aliens LOL, and I can still remember the dreams days later. I will try again but use a lower dose!