I’ve heard this before that common doses are unnecessarily high but why is that? Patents?

zemvpferreira 6 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Rather, lack of. Melatonin is over-the-counter, generic, badly understood by the people taking it and dosed according to personal preference which means marketing it is all abouy big numbers. Bigger number on package = more sales.

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Projectiboga 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

The help aiding sleep is only one function for melatonin. The reason for higher suggested doses is due to its anti-oxident function. From personal experience melatonin needs to be paired with vitamin e to really clear out over night. I take vitamin e as I get into bed right before I take a melatonin sublingual. Another benefit of melatonin is that it upregulates our insulin receptors.

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kstrauser 5 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

They’re considered dietary supplements and not medicine, so they’re not meaningfully regulated in the way meds are.

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quietsegfault 6 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

> why is that

Why buy 1mg pill when you can buy 100mg pill?

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temp0826 5 hours ago | parent [-]

Even funnier is that often 0.25mg or 0.5mg is closer to the correct dose, and those sizes tend to be hard to find.

There actually is a condition that calls for extremely high (100mg+ doses), but it is a very rare thing, no one should ever consider that much without instruction from a doctor. But you'll find it right next to the normal <=5mg doses without any explanation.

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calfuris 4 hours ago | parent [-]

The Natrol liquid isn't usually too hard to track down. They advertise it as 1 mg or 2.5 mg, but it's the same stuff, the bottle just direct you to take 4 or 10 mL respectively.

	▲	Projectiboga 3 hours ago \| parent [-]
		So 1ml (20 drops) would yeild an average dose of .25mg in that form.