Great info. I took it for a while, stopped, and am now taking it again at night. Thanks for this, CP418.

I take the 1mg sublingual dissolving melatonin tabs - I get them from GNC. I was taking 3 or 5 mg of the regular ones (that you take with water), but I find that using a 1mg dissolving one before bed works just as well. I like that I can just place it under my tongue and it dissolves. I keep them by my bedside, so that if I wake up in the middle of the night and can't get back to sleep, I can just put one under my tongue and it will dissolve by itself - no fussing with water.

Dosages of 20mg in the evening have been tested. I do know from my wife's experience with those dosages that it seems to disturb sleep.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8912546

please, those considering taking melatonin make sure with your Dr. before self administering. There are several affects that could be negative. Melatonin can interfere with blood thinning medications and acts as a blood thinner- I can not take it for this reason. It can also affect blood pressure medication, it can decrease the effectiveness of steroids and immunosuppressant medications as well as interfering with normal hormone levels such as estradiol, progesterone, luteinizing hormone, prolactin, cortisol and thyroid hormone. I know we would all love for there to be a simple supplement that we can take to increase our chance of eliminating recurrence but there can be pre existing conditions where this could be harmful. Just looking out for those who may not be aware

I've been taking 3mg melatonin dissolving type just after my nightly dose of tamoxifen. Feeling great after two years of this regimen.

I took Melatonin for 10 years, prior to diagnosis. Nuff said.

A strategy I am experimenting with is to take one just before bedtime and leave another on the side table. If I wake up during the night, I pop another one down. That lessens the chance of a high dose disturbing my sleep, and spreads out the release. There are time release versions, but its hard to say how effective they are at acheiving that goal.

Well none of this stuff is ever simple. This link is to a naturopath thread. The explanation on Melatonin supplementation is well rounded. It gives a guide of other things to consider. As always more study. I had thyroid troubles in 2013 and then dx'd with thyroid cancer(TC) in 2014. My look at Melatonin must have been before the thyroid problem years. I don't think I would have forgotten a connection of melatonin to thyroid in the study of my problem at that time.

It creates a whole new study area for me, as I now have to figure out what melatonin and TSH mean too me. The primary treatment for TC is suppression of TSH, as estrogen suppression is the primary treatment to ER+ BC. No clue what this means to melatonin. I do know the last many months I was back to insomnia. OH well, it's always something.

http://www.naturalendocrinesolutions.com/articles/melatonin-thyroid-health/

Poop lost a long post. It is CYP 1A2.. Ever notice how posts get real short when they have to be retyped.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16128905

Only real value of the link is in building a base of melatonin data.

Kayb's quite right that any response is individually based on genetics and other factors.

I think the light at night (LAN) that comes with modernization may have a role in why cancer rates are higher in industrialized compared to undeveloped countries. It has an effect on melatonin levels, which impacts the immune system and has epigenetic effects. I posted a few studies on the John Smith thread that Sas linked above, if anyone wants to delve into the mechanisms.

I also think it is important to maintain good "sleep hygiene" and try and sleep as close to the 10 pm to 6 am pattern as possible. If we are continuing with light interference and staying up late, it will probably counteract the benefits of taking a melatonin supplement.

The other thing that jumped out at me from this study is they used BPA (as well as estrogen) to increase the growth and size of mammospheres. Not to go on a tangent but I've always wondered if BPA wasn't an "accelerant" for me. I worked at Trader Joe's for 5 years, and then got cancer the following year. Of course it takes a long time for BC to become detectable, so it was probably in the works for 15 to 20 years, but could the BPA that I was exposed to on receipts and money (88% is contaminated with BPA residue) have caused the existing cancer to take hold or grow faster? Trader Joe's receipts are now BPA-free, but when I wrote them in the last year or two to ask if they are BPS-free (BPS is the replacement for BPA, and in some studies has been shown to be worse), they said they didn't track that. I wonder how many BPA-free items out there now are full of BPS.

I believe there are many different factors at play with BC and other cancers, but melatonin is probably a key player. We are now exposed to a lot more light and a multitude of endocrine disruptors, and our traditional sleep patterns as well as our diets have changed. Sometimes it is unavoidable, like the nurses and other workers who get night shift, but a lot of it is. (I probably could have avoided those all-nighters I used to pull in my teens and twenties, for one thing)

Here's an article about BPA and BPS, which also mentions their link to premature puberty (early menstruation is another risk factor for BC): http://www.takepart.com/article/2016/02/02/bpa-pla...

Fallleaves - agree entirely on the need for sleep hygiene. My fitness tracker has an alarm feature, and I set it to go off 90 minutes before my normal bedtime. That's my signal to begin winding down. No more food and if I've had a glass of wine with dinner I make sure to finish it by then and instead fill my water bottle and drink from that. I try to have dishes and other household work done by then so that I'm not up and working on chores. We have a room AC in the bedroom (thank you hot flashes) so I turn it on then so the bedroom is nice and cool when I get there. I've put tape over all the LED lights in the bedroom. When I go to bed, the curtains are closed, and I even turn the clock face away from me. I do everything I can to minimize my exposure to light.

Shetland - I get up between 5:30 and 6am. I've never taken my 1mg after 3:30am, so I'm not sure if I could take it any closer to my wakeup time and still not be sleepy. You may just have to do some trial and error. When I do get up, I do "reverse sleep hygiene" and turn on lights and open the curtains to expose myself to as much light as I can to help wake myself up.

Timothy - I've used that strategy of taking a lower dose at bedtime and keeping a tablet on the nightstand in case of waking for some years now, and it works well for me.

@NatsFan, just like me...I have to cover up all lights in my bedroom because they keep me awake. Even the little ones, like a phone charger, seems to alert me to wakefulness or disallow me sleep.

I use a sleep mask too. Light doesn’t normally bother me, though noise dose. I wear earplugs. If my husband turns the light on and I still want to sleep, I grab the mask and pull the covers over my head and out I go again. I’ve tried and tried to go to bed and rise early, but it never works. (The worst is music conferences, where the showcases sometimes don’t end till 2 am but breakfast is served from 7-9 and panel sessions start at 9. Or if I’m touring, the show is over around 10 or 11 and am starving. Rarely get back to my room before 12:30 or 1 am; and those motel breakfast buffets close by 9:30 or 10). Also, my husband rarely gets home before 11 pm, so I don’t get much time with him if I go to bed too early. I am a night owl, as was my mom; my sister is a lark, as was my dad. I think it’s genetic.

We have an electronic noise maker in the bedroom and it makes sounds from white noise to rain falling. It helps drown out outside noises, or the occasional snoring. I put silver metalized bubble pack over the bedroom window. It makes the room pitch dark. Bev also wears a sleep mask. It gets light out at 4:30 am in the summer, disturbs my sleep.

ok I'm taking some now.