I've taken melatonin on and off for about 10 or 12 years. I sleep very lightly and tend to get into patterns of very disruptive sleep. I'll be exhausted, lay down - can't sleep. Or sleep for two hours and be wide awake or wake up every 30 or 40 minutes. Yuck.
Melatonin takes care of that without the groggy morning after feel of OTC sleep aids. Side effect? Holy smokes - my dreams are crazy enough... When I take melatonin they go from crazy to smokin' bat**** crazy. From just in color to colors so rich they seem to have three dimensions, add sensations of hot/cold, the feel of any texture in the dream (clothing, grass under my feet, skin, metal - you name it), I even smell things in the dream.
The nightmares would make Stephen King crawl into a sniveling ball of horror. For that reason, when I take it, it's only for a few days at a time. I breaks my erratic sleep patterns and re-sets me to something more normal.
Well, as "normal" as I get!
angela