Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[lesley998]

Hi ladies, sorry for late reply.

Thanks for the comments - I was on Prempak C but had to come off in March it because of new high blood pressure and visual migraines.  I was only on HRT for one meno symptom - really bad joint pain - my only  symptom, or so I thought.   I didn't realise The Sweats and Insommnia were up ahead!  For the last month or two I started having a really bad hot sweat on the hour every hour, stopping me in my tracks and waking me up at night.  Not so much a flush, as a full on dripping sweat.  Yuk.  I don't understand the wide awake bit - I get loads of exercise during the day, running after three dogs, one husband, one son and own business...but I am quite simply not tired.  Never felt anything like it, I don't yawn, I feel wide awake and lie staring into space and fidgeting watching the minutes go by on the digital clock.   I have now gone into another room as the snoring was doing my head in (didn't really hear it before as was nearly always asleep before DH)  I have also bought ear plugs, tried listing to 'white noise' and soothing sleep sounds....and I am still only getting about two hours a night.   I feel fine...apart from a little bit of anxiety back again.  I seem to always have this odd unsettled feeling, a sense that I have missed something...or forgotten something, and cannot settle to to do anything without thinking I should be doing something else!     Heyho, I guess this too will pass! 

[lesley998]

...I've decided to give the melatonin another go.   I tried it a couple of weeks ages ago and had flutters and palpitations - maybe it was just coincidence and just another night of 'oh what new symptom is this, thank you   menopause'.  I have LBBB, so am wary of anything that sets of my arrhythmia, but I am at my wits end after three more nights of hell! 




edit: cos of typing too fast and dreadful spelling as per usual...

[CLKD]

LBBB being 

Do you find that you can drop off in the chair?  Then do so.

I've had 20 mins deep sleep this afternoon and feel refreshed.  So if I don't get as much sleep tonight I won't be worried. 

[Clovie]

...I've decided to give the melatonin another go.   I tried it a couple of nights ages ago and had flutters and palpitations - maybe it was just coincidence and just another night of 'oh what new symptom is this, thank you   menopause'.  I have LBBB, so am wary of anything that sets of my arrhythmia, but I am at my wits end after three more nights of hell!

good luck with the melatonin re-trial!! 
It works for me, as I say. I never had palpitations (luckily! I've had ectopic beats in my time so it would freak me out a bit if I did get them ) but I do have vivid dreams when I take it 

What dose are you trying?
I started with 5mg but found it didn't work so I now take 10mg.
When you take the melatonin, apparently you are supposed to be already in bed, chilling out, dimmed lights - that kind of thing, and I do find that works for me. It's not like a sleeping pill which you would take an hour or so beforehand. 
When I take it I just drift off to sleep, its lovely, no drowsy feeling either which is a bit weird  , just drift off nicely. And no grogginess at all the next day 

Let us know how you get on?

What is LBBB by the way? x

[Rowan]

If I took 10 mgs of melatonin at night I would be off the wall the next morning and walking with lead weights and irritable too.

You really should only take 3mgs at the most http://www.doctoroz.com/videos/fact-sheet-melatonin

[lesley998]

Hi,

LBBB - Left bundle branch block  -  is a cardiac conduction abnormality, which can be seen on the ECG as big pointy peaks.   Its caused by damage to the heart (I had a viral heart infection years ago)  I have to get it checked every now and again and am prone to arrhythmia  - and it is bloody scary when it happens!!

I thought I would try about a quarter to a half of the 5mg tablet, as I have read that the smaller the dose the better, and to take it with carbs (like a breadstick)?   

Interested to know if you ladies take it every night ...and if it is Ok to do so.

[Rowan]

It is but you should remember that melatonin is a hormone not a sleeping pill.

Taking more then is needed is not a good idea. It does have an interaction with estrogen

http://www.livestrong.com/article/282334-estrogen-melatonin-levels/

[lesley998]

Wow...found this on pubmed

Abstract
The purpose of this clinical trial on possible effects of nocturnal melatonin administration in perimenopausal women was to find if melatonin  by itself modifies levels of hormones and produces changes of any kind, independently of age (42-62 years of age) and the stage of the menstrual cycle. It is accepted that a close link exists between the pineal gland, melatonin , and human reproduction and that a relationship exists between adenohypophyseal and steroid hormones and melatonin  during the ovarian cycle, perimenopause, and menopause. Subjects took a daily dose of 3 mg synthetic melatonin or a placebo for 6 months. Levels of melatonin were determined from five daily saliva samples taken at fixed times. Hormone levels were determined from blood samples three times over the 6-month period. Our results indicate that a cause-effect relationship between the decline of nocturnal levels of MEL and onset of menopause may exist. The follow up controls show that melatonin  abrogates hormonal, menopause-related neurovegetative disturbances and restores menstrual cyclicity and fertility in perimenopausal or menopausal women. At present we assert that the six-month treatment with melatonin  produced a remarkable and highly significant improvement of thyroid function, positive changes of gonadotropins towards more juvenile levels, and abrogation of menopause-related depression.

[Clovie]

If I took 10 mgs of melatonin at night I would be off the wall the next morning and walking with lead weights and irritable too.

You really should only take 3mgs at the most http://www.doctoroz.com/videos/fact-sheet-melatonin

Really? Well you can buy 10mg tablets in the shops 
I've read up loads about melatonin in the past and I'm happy to take 5mg or 10mg as and when I need it 
and I have never been groggy at all in any way with melatonin - at any dose 

Sweet Pea, about taking it every night, for me - I don't take it every night, probably take it about once a week. I think you can take it every night though from what I've read.

[Rowan]

Clovie you must not be in the Uk as you cannot buy melatonin in the shops here, only online. It is illegal to sell over the counter and only available on prescription.

I would never advise anyone to take more then 3mgs and at the most 5mgs.

If you google you will find that it was banned in 1995, because of dosage.

[Clovie]

Clovie you must not be in the Uk as you cannot buy melatonin in the shops here, only online. It is illegal to sell over the counter and only available on prescription.

I would never advise anyone to take more then 3mgs and at the most 5mgs.

If you google you will find that it was banned in 1995, because of dosage.

Thank you Silverlady, I am aware of that  I buy mine in the US.

[pj44]

Sweet Pea   You sound just how I am.  I feel like I am wired.  Usually about 8pm I am yawning so bad I feel totally shattered but think its too early to go to bed so I try so hard not to go to bed. but then I think sod it I have had hardly any sleep I might as well go to bed. I read for a bit and think that's it i'm shattered turn the light of and its like I just cannot go to sleep.  So on goes the light I read or play candy crush and the hours just go by and I just don't  feel tired.  I  usually end up going to sleep about 1am and then I will be awake at 3am then 4.30am usually give up now trying to get back to sleep after that as its so light.  I have been like this for about 9months now. Its not all menopause as I have not been a good sleeper for years.  But this feeling is different it just feels like i'm hyper so I think it is hormones. Melatonin did not help me but it was years ago that I tried it when my anxiety was sky high.

[lesley998]

PJ44....its hell isn't it.  Even though I eventually got through level 77 on one of my wide awake at 5am nights!!!    I don't think looking at an ipad screen under the covers is doing me any good either...my brain obviously thinks it it is still daylight.  But I don't even feel tired in the early evening, I can't remember the last time I felt properly tired at night  - but at 9am in the morning I feel like it is bedtime!! I could sleep for a week then, but have to get up for work.  It's all topsy turvy.   I used to be a great sleeper. I feel 'wired' too, like there is too much adrenaline.  Its definitely physiological, and not just me not being tired.  I have learned to never ever underestimate hormones!

Tried melatonin again last night.  I nibbled about a quarter of a 5mg chewable tab at 9pm.  Can't say it did much for my sleep - it was fitful and broken as usual with the dreaded Sweats -  but I must have slept at some point and I certainly did not feel as groggy in the morning.  In fact, I felt great this morning for the first time in a long time.  Leaped out of bed at 7.30 ready for the day instead of dragging myself, bleary eyed,  into the shower ten minutes before I have to leave.   

And no heart palpitations.

[CLKD]

Thyroid function tests? 

[pj44]

Sweat pea yes I do seem to do better on candy crush in the middle of the night i'm only on level 50 though and have been stuck on that for a week.

pleased that you got some sleep it really makes the day feel better.