Weird Occurance with Melatonin

So I tried the “Flex” magazine advice on taking 2-3mg of Melatonin before a workout. They state that studies show that it boosts GH levels. I thought it was b.s. but a buddy of mine said he got an “awesome pump” while in the gym and taking it. I tried it and no different pump than normal. lol anyways…

The weird thing that happened was when I was driving home I felt paranoid. I’m never like that and I’ve made that trip 1000 times. Of course I felt tired on the way home and when I got home. Melatonin always knocks me out when I’ve taken it before bed in the past. This was the first time that I’ve taken it and tried to stay awake. My vision was somewhat blurred to. The only way to describe what the vision was like is if you where intoxicated. Lights are blurry and brighter, etc.

Every car that drove past me seemed like they had their high beams on. I didn’t know if it effects the pupils such as other drugs or alcohol. I was kind of in a pissy/grumpy mood for no reason. Kind of like I was tired (imagine that. lol). All of these “sides” seem to be related to the same feeling as if you awoke in the middle of the night.

You know the kind of cranky feeling, just wanting to crash out. I know this is melatonin’s function to cause a person to want to go to sleep but I didn’t like the feeling. I had that paranoid feeling where I just wanted to get home and then I’d be okay. Kind of like something bad would happen to me if I didn’t. I’m not sure if I’m describing it that well. It was definitely odd. I’d recommend against taking it unless you where planning on going straight to bed.

I know this sounds like a weird post but I searched and found nothing about Melatonin having these sides as far as the bright vivid lights and kind of paranoia. As I said maybe all this happened because the Melatonin did it’s job and was putting me to sleep. I know it is a drug that is still in research and many people advise against it unless you have a sleeping problem. This creeped me out tho and I thought I’d share and check to see if this has happened to anybody else.

Gerdy

I would never advise taking melatonin during the day to anyone, unless I wanted them to… well go through the same shitty experience you did :slight_smile:

[quote]Dirty Gerdy wrote:
So I tried the “Flex” magazine advice-

Gerdy[/quote]

Your first mistake. Having said that, I think your diagnosis of your symptoms is probably about right. Your paranoia could have stemmed from the fact you subconciously thought you might fall asleep at the wheel, and need to get home before you did.

If melatonin increases GH, then taking it AFTER a workout seems a better option. A release of GH during wouldn’t seem to be any more beneficial. A release of T, probably, but I don’t think GH is really a hormone that would enhance performance in an immediate sense.

cueball

Cueball: LOL ya I knew that was the first mistake. I thought it was total b.s. The only reason I gave it a shot was because my friend said he got a better pump with it. We are all kind of biochemist on ourselves to see what works and what doesn’t, I figured it wouldn’t hurt to try. The GH postworkout I totally agree. I didn’t see the point of having increased GH during workout. lol Good point on the paranoia being from subconsciously thinking I’d fall asleep at the wheel.

Have you ever heard of melatonin having effects on pupil dilation? I think I might take it again and stay awake for a few hours. I will have a trusted friend (not the one who gets a better pump from melatonin in the gym. lol) check my pupil dilation before the melatonin and after to see if it has an effect on it.

Thanks for the response Cueball.

Gerdy

[quote]Dirty Gerdy wrote:
Cueball: LOL ya I knew that was the first mistake. I thought it was total b.s. The only reason I gave it a shot was because my friend said he got a better pump with it. We are all kind of biochemist on ourselves to see what works and what doesn’t, I figured it wouldn’t hurt to try. The GH postworkout I totally agree. I didn’t see the point of having increased GH during workout. lol Good point on the paranoia being from subconsciously thinking I’d fall asleep at the wheel.

Have you ever heard of melatonin having effects on pupil dilation? I think I might take it again and stay awake for a few hours. I will have a trusted friend (not the one who gets a better pump from melatonin in the gym. lol) check my pupil dilation before the melatonin and after to see if it has an effect on it.

Thanks for the response Cueball.

Gerdy[/quote]

Honestly, I don’t know much about melatonin other than it helps with sleep. If I was to speculate, I do know that when I’m sleepy my eyes tend to get glassy/watery. The extra water around your eye refracting light could contribute to the “brightened” lights you experienced. But like I say, it’s purely speculation.

It’s quite possible that it does dialate your pupil. I would be interested in hearing the results of your experiment.

cueball

lesson learned.

cueball: Tonite I will ask my roommate to shine a light in my eyes similar to a doc. We have one of those med pens that we accidentally took from the trainer from my baseball team. lol Tomorrow night I will take the melatonin and at the same time have him repeat the process. If the pupils do not constrict like they normally would then we will know if melatonin plays a role in pupil dilation. If it doesn’t thats another good point about your eyes just being glossy, etc and causing lights to be brighter/more vivid. Thanks again.

Gerdy

If you take a good dose of melatonin and go to sleep directly after you’ll usually notice that you have some incredibly vivid intense dreams.

Melatonin is produced naturally in our brains and is signaled for release in low light situations. The presence of melatonin is thought to signal the release of N,N-Dimethyltryptamine (yes, the illegal “hallucinogen” DMT) DMT is supposed to have much to do with our dream state.

When taken is sufficient doses from an outside source (plant or synthetic) it causes a profound and powerful dreamlike state. DMT is the primary entheogenic constituent of the amazonian brew called ayahuasca or yage.

You probably promoted a minute quanity of DMT to be released while awake with the melatonin. I’m guessing this could induce extremely minimal symptoms of a “psychedelic experience.”

I recommend putting a little research into DMT, it’s incredibly interesting.

[quote]Bujutsuka wrote:

I recommend putting a little research into DMT, it’s incredibly interesting.[/quote]

Dr.Rick Strassman MD is a doctor who has done a research project on DMT. Check out his book about the subject on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/DMT-Molecule-Revolutionary-Near-Death-Experiences/dp/0892819278/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1208370646&sr=8-1

BTW, I’ve done a few of my own “research projects” with DMT…and no, they weren’t triple blind studies :slight_smile:

i get the same thing sorta before i go to sleep. u just feel kinda off, kinda reminiscent of a drug-like state. 'wouldnt worry about it, i’d just lay off it during daytime :wink:

I started taking melatonin to help fall asleep and it didn’t help that much, so I found out that 5htp helps your brain manufacture more serotonin. And serotonin supposedly helps synthesize melatonin. Anyway, 50mg of 5htp and 2mg of melatonin knocks me out in about half an hour.

Bushy: Was that fact or joke? lol I read a lot of your posts on this site and know that most of what you post is legit and not b.s. Thanks for the useless fact. :stuck_out_tongue: lol

Bujutsuka & entheogens: Thanks for the info, I will certainly research it and how it corresponds to melatonin.

Latenight Lifter: thanks, I usually do not have trouble falling asleep. I’ve used melatonin for it’s sleep effects before and it has worked well enough for me. I combined it with ZMA. Thanks for the info tho, I will look into 5htp just for learnings sake and may use it someday.

Dexslave: ya no more daytime except for my little experiment tonite. lol

Gerdy

Well…what happened?

cueball

[quote]bushidobadboy wrote:
Dirty Gerdy wrote:
Bushy: Was that fact or joke? lol I read a lot of your posts on this site and know that most of what you post is legit and not b.s. Thanks for the useless fact. :stuck_out_tongue: lol

Gerdy

Ah. I rarely joke about chemicals, nutrition, training or physical therapy.

Only sex and ‘get a life’ stuff.

This was a true (if useless :wink: ) fact that I read somewhere.

Bushy[/quote]

Where did they get the melatonin from?

[quote]bushidobadboy wrote:
OK, the dried leaf of the feverfew plant has about 7000ng/g.

So that’s about 7mcg of melatonin per gram of dried leaf.

You would need to consume a kilo of leaf to get 7mg of melatonin.

Hmmm, unless they made a tea out of the stuff which potentiated the extraction of the active ingredient, I can’t see this being very practical.

However, urine contains melatonin, so as the head shaman, one might feed ones’ disciples a lot of feverfew tea and then drink their urine later on.

Pretty gross, but hey, that’s shamanic medicine for ya.

Bushy[/quote]

Thanks for sharing your always valuable (and valued) thoughts.

Sorry for not posting right away. Last night I was unable to do my “experiment” because I had too much homework and didn’t want to be taking melatonin and falling asleep before I finished. lol I will do it tonite tho and promise a report within the next 3-4 hours at the latest.

Gerdy