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Hi All,

Anita in your article on sleep you mentioned
. Many people won't believe this but believe it! I know 2 people who traveled BY CAR under this circumstances. One was stopped and sited for DUI; the other was in a small accident and her family managed to talk the cop out of siting her by talking about this Ambien thing. Both these incidences happen b4 the maker of Ambien started mentioning it in their ads. Scary!

Anita, what i want to know is what about Melatonin? I have some success with a little...less than even 1/2 a pill. It works better for me if i take it for a couple of nights then don't although i know people who take it every night. I have "heard" that it works well for those of us who are older cuz our Melatonin production slows down in "advanced" age!

pat d

Hi Pat,
First let me apologize for taking so long to respond to you! I have had difficulties with my DSL connection but that is no excuse. I'm very sorry.

About melatonin -- my understanding is that melatonin is safe in small doses and is recommended by doctors for those traveling on planes, to deal with jet lag.

However, melatonin can have unexpected effects when taken with psychological or neurological medications, or with alcohol. I wouldn't advise taking it in those circumstances.

Thanks for your question -- you have inspired me to write an article!

Thanks, Anita. And it would be great to have an article about it. As i said, i had understood that as we age we produce less and that "replacing" it helps. Of course, used to be that we automatically thought replacing estrogen was the only way to go at menopause! Anyway, i certainly didn't know about the potential problems with psychotropic meds...would that have been true just with what our bodies produced before we aged? (You can just put it in the article.)

pat

That's a great question! Look for the article on melatonin and sleep to be posted next week.

Thanks, Anita....i WILL!