You are absolutely correct. Thank you. It appears I misread the abstract, which is worrisome, but I’m glad to have been corrected. I added a note to the original post retracting that statement. I also tracked down another post where I made the same claim and retracted the claim there. I’ll have to read things more carefully*.
I am now not aware of any studies which looked at the long term effects of melatonin supplementation. I would not be surprised at all if oral melatonin lost effectiveness over time, though I recall gwern saying he did not see evidence of a tolerance effect. I also think people claim many positive things about melatonin that don’t seem to check out (negative things, too, in my case). In particular, I don’t see solid reasons to believe melatonin improves sleep quality. It seems to basically only shift the circadian cycle, which can be useful in circadian rhythm disorders and insomnia. I don’t have my papers available right now, but I can pull up a few on melatonin’s effect on sleep architecture if you are interested. (I’ll probably do this anyway just to make sure I read them correctly after the mistake you highlighted!)
* To be honest, when I was reading studies about sleep a year-ish ago, I was very tired. My motivation was understanding why I might be so tired during the day. I should not be surprised if I was sloppy through this process. I decided I’m a long sleeper, and I’ve been considerably better since trying to get as much a sleep as possible.
I’ve been taking melatonin for about … 5 years, so if you DO have some evidence for any long term effects, that is of course something I’m interested in.
I suspect that there is some genetic variation in the circadian system such that melatonin isn’t one size fits all. In particular I have a pretty long sleep onset. Before melatonin, my estimate of my own sleep estimate was about 30 minutes to an hour. With melatonin it’s usually less than 30 minutes, although I’ve adjusted my dose down to 2 mg or so trying to get the minimum that works.
For me the benefit seems to be more than the 30 minutes saved, my sleep also becomes somewhat more effective.
You are absolutely correct. Thank you. It appears I misread the abstract, which is worrisome, but I’m glad to have been corrected. I added a note to the original post retracting that statement. I also tracked down another post where I made the same claim and retracted the claim there. I’ll have to read things more carefully*.
I am now not aware of any studies which looked at the long term effects of melatonin supplementation. I would not be surprised at all if oral melatonin lost effectiveness over time, though I recall gwern saying he did not see evidence of a tolerance effect. I also think people claim many positive things about melatonin that don’t seem to check out (negative things, too, in my case). In particular, I don’t see solid reasons to believe melatonin improves sleep quality. It seems to basically only shift the circadian cycle, which can be useful in circadian rhythm disorders and insomnia. I don’t have my papers available right now, but I can pull up a few on melatonin’s effect on sleep architecture if you are interested. (I’ll probably do this anyway just to make sure I read them correctly after the mistake you highlighted!)
* To be honest, when I was reading studies about sleep a year-ish ago, I was very tired. My motivation was understanding why I might be so tired during the day. I should not be surprised if I was sloppy through this process. I decided I’m a long sleeper, and I’ve been considerably better since trying to get as much a sleep as possible.
I’ve been taking melatonin for about … 5 years, so if you DO have some evidence for any long term effects, that is of course something I’m interested in.
I suspect that there is some genetic variation in the circadian system such that melatonin isn’t one size fits all. In particular I have a pretty long sleep onset. Before melatonin, my estimate of my own sleep estimate was about 30 minutes to an hour. With melatonin it’s usually less than 30 minutes, although I’ve adjusted my dose down to 2 mg or so trying to get the minimum that works.
For me the benefit seems to be more than the 30 minutes saved, my sleep also becomes somewhat more effective.