Every once in a while, I wake up at two in the morning ready to go. Why? They tell me that Melatonin, a hormone, is naturally secreted by the pineal gland at the base of my brain according to the amount of light my body senses and naturally allows me to sleep, but my body short-changes me or sometimes my body wants different hours or I'm traveling or similar, or I've had too much caffeine, or I wake up worrying over something or my body gets confused, and I can't sleep no matter how hard I try. Store bought Melatonin, which is all vegetarian, works well to let me drift back off into a deep, natural,restful sleep. I'm very pleased with the results.
You can buy Melatonin at just about any health or drug store.I'd suggest you buy the 1.5 mg or cut the 3mg size and take only one-half. One 3mg tablet just seems to be overkill at least for me. A 120 tablet bottle is about $10.00 and is good to have around. (Keep out of reach of children.) I believe this is much better for you than prescription sleep inducers.

I agree that melatonin can be a good sleep aid. However, you ought to add that one should be able to commit a full night's rest after taking it (i.e. 7-8+ hours). If I take it when I have to wake up 5-6 hours later, I'm in a sleepwalking daze.

You wrote: If I take it when I have to wake up 5-6 hours later, I'm in a sleepwalking daze.


Which is why I cut the 3mg size in half to 1.5.
Some may want to halve the 1.5 size.

As with all medicines, finding the correct dosage is the key to it's effectiveness. Sometimes a little is just enough to do the trick.
Gregorio