Chronic Rants

For a short time, I thought I had finally fixed my sleep problems. And I had. Until it all went to hell.

My entire life I have been wide awake at night. It didn’t matter how tired I was, I would suddenly be awake. Mornings were horrible. I remember my mother’s struggles to get me out of bed from a young age. There were years of snoozing the alarm, and the ensuing difficulty getting to school or work. I never understood how people manage to do anything before work in the mornings. Go to the gym? Wash dishes? Clean? Read? It was all I could do to get on clothes, eat something, and get out the door.

When I developed sleep apnea, I began seeing a sleep specialist. In addition to treating the sleep apnea, he figured out that this problem of mine was due to a circadian rhythm shift. There’s nothing wrong with this as far as the body is concerned. It is only a problem because we live in a 9-5 world. What to do about it? He had me use a blue sunlamp for a short time in the mornings. That definitely helped me to feel more alert in the mornings. (And as a bonus, I am now much less bitchy when my seasonal affective disorder kicks in every fall and winter.) Still, I was sleep-deprived because I wasn’t going to bed at a reasonable hour. I wanted to, but I was too awake.

This worked so well. I wish they still made it!

Then the doctor introduced melatonin. Most stores sold 3mg tablets or more. He had me start much smaller. He recommended a site that sold 0.3 mg tablets. I took that it knocked me out, but I had a hangover effect in the morning. I cut it in half. That was better, but I was still tired in the morning. I cut it into quarters. Ah, much better. It took a lot of trial and error, but finally I found the right dose and the right timing. If I was out then I had to skip it (which always led to too little sleep) but most nights I was home, and I took my 75mcg melatonin every night. It wasn’t perfect, but it helped a lot.

Then I started taking hydrocortisone for my adrenal fatigue. I had also recently figured out that a few of my supplements were making me sick from corn derivatives in their ingredients. Fixing these things, combined with my new sleep routine, felt nothing short of miraculous. For the first time in my life, I was sleeping! I went to sleep at a decent hour, slept with my ASV (a form of CPAP machine) and woke up feeling rested. It was a miracle! Yes, I still had chronic fatigue, yes, I still had pain and all sorts of other symptoms, but at least I didn’t wake up feeling more tired than when I went to bed. And in general, my health was much better. It was amazing!

Sadly, that only lasted a few months. I noticed I was running low on my melatonin so I went online to reorder it, and found that the company had gone out of business! I was so disappointed. This had been working so well! My doctor didn’t have any suggestions, so I went online. Finally, I found a liquid melatonin that was gluten-free and corn-free. The dose was too high, but I hoped that a single drop, instead of a dropper-full, would be ok.

I took one drop and it was too much. I diluted it with water, making a 1:1 ratio. Nope, still a hangover in the morning. So I did a 2:1. I felt better in the morning, but still hungover. Meanwhile, it wasn’t doing such a great job of making me sleepy at night. Huh. That wasn’t right.

I struggled for 7 loooooong months. I tried different amounts. I tried different times. I thought maybe something about my body had changed. Or maybe it was the stress of the pandemic (even though I started it before the pandemic and had troubles even then.) I still had a few of the old pills. I had saved them, thinking it would be easier to take them with me on trips instead of the liquid (this was just before the pandemic, when still I expected to do some travel.) I took those 1/4 tablets for a few days and felt so much better. I went to sleep earlier, woke up feeling alert, and had more energy all day long. I took the liquid again and stayed up too late, woke up sleepy, and had less energy all day. What the…..?

This should be labeled as slow-release! This hurt me so much and I didn’t know why until yesterday.

It made no sense. They’re both melatonin, right? Finally, last week, I had an epiphany: what if this is a slow-release? The assumption for all medications (or so I thought) is that they are immediate-release unless they say otherwise. In fact, many melatonin products are specifically labeled as being slow release. I looked up the old melatonin and yes, it was immediate-release. I checked the new one and it didn’t say anything on the label. Yesterday I called the company and got my answer: it is slow-release. Holy crap!

This means that for 7 months, I have been struggling, feeling worse, because my supposed medication is slow-release and wasn’t labeled as such. I was pissed! I still am, but I’ve calmed down a bit. Sort of. Ok, not really. This is inexcusable!

Now the search begins again. Yesterday I started a spreadsheet. I am scouring the web, checking all forms of melatonin. No one else makes anything less than 1mg, so I need to get a liquid form that I can dilute. It has to be gluten-free and corn-free. It has to be immediate release. I will pay anything, but I must find this unicorn of melatonin products. Because damn it, I want my sleep, my alertness, my energy back!

If you happen to know of a gluten-free, corn-free, low dose, immediate release version of melatonin, please let me know and I will be forever grateful.

Meanwhile, if anyone needs me, I’ll be at my computer, spending hours researching a product that I should have had last winter, if only the one I bought had been properly labeled.