[canjobear]

In grad school I got to attend a talk by one of the researchers who was involved in the discovery of melatonin as a sleep aid for humans. He said that his team had hoped for it to become a prescription medicine dosed at 500 mcg, because anything higher gave paradoxical effects and actually made sleep worse. But it ended up being classified as a supplement in the US rather than a drug, so they had no way to control the dosage on the market.

The other useful thing I learned is that melatonin isn't primarily involved in falling asleep, its main function as a hormone is in staying asleep. I've started taking it sporadically if I wake up in the middle of the night, to make sure I get back to a deep sleep and stay there, and it seems to be super effective for this.

[BobbyTables2]

I suspect each brand tries to put more to out-compete with other brands.

People look at multivitamins and think “more is better”. Unfortunately they are stuffed with ingredients that can’t be absorbed well together, but do result in higher sales…

[kstrauser]

My wife diagnosed a patient with acute vitamin E toxicity. They were taking a “more is better” daily dose.

Don’t do that.

[tlavoie]

I've taken it rarely, but not found it to be a panacea on the night I'm having trouble sleeping. That is, if it isn't already early when I take it, I'm positively trashed for the morning after. The next night is when I find that taking one early helps in catching up.

[richbell]

> He said that his team had hoped for it to become a prescription medicine dosed at 500 mcg, because anything higher gave paradoxical effects and actually made sleep worse.

Tangentially, I'm reminded of this interview around ~31m.

TL;DR they found something that promoted deeper sleep, but people didnt necessary feel "well rested", and so it was shelved for something that subjectively improved sleep but actually reduced the quality of sleep.

https://youtu.be/UWhk2LMDwCc?t=31m