i think everyone should try this supplement found in most health food stores. wild oats etc.
It reduces jet lag, helps you sleep and wake up rested, plus every night i take 3 miligrams(normal dose) i have vivid dreams everynight!
Plus it puts me in a great mood during the day.
definatly worth a try!

I started taking Melatonin nightly about 6 weeks ago, I've been very pleased with the results.

I only take 500 mcg - It's helped me get to sleep faster, increased the frequency of dreams and has completely changed the way that I feel when I wake up in the morning. For all of my adult and teenage life I've had great difficulty waking up and feeling well rested. I would dread the alarm clock, snooze through many alarms and feel like crap once I finally got myself up and out of bed. All that has changed, now I wake up feeling like I had a good nights sleep (even on 6 hours of sleep when I prefer 7 - . My mood in the morning has improved greatly and I am not nearly as tired throughout the day.

If you have any trouble sleeping or waking, I too highly recommend Melatonin.

Great description sippy.

Thats pretty much how i feel too.. its so natural & isnt really a standard, addicting, "sleeping pill" in that sense..you slowly ease into each faze towards falling sleep.

Ive heard that some people only take 1mg-3mg or less, and some take up to 10-100mg for effect.

Did you notice more dreaming? more vivid? mine are pretty normal, it just takes practice remembering them..

I'm definitely going to try this, I don't think I've woken up feeling refreshed in literally years. Tried magnesium with a slight improvement but still can't get to the levels of energy of most people I know.

Its really cheap too, available in tincture and time release..
under 10bucks..

I buy mine from Trader Joes (small chain supermarket / health food store) and it comes in a small pill in dosages of 500 mcg. I do believe I am dreaming with more regularity, but then i've never been great at remembering my dreams.

I did read on Wikipedia that high dosages are potentially counterproductive:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melatonin

"Use as a dietary supplement

The primary motivation for the use of melatonin as a supplement may be as a natural aid to better sleep, with other incidental benefits to health and well-being due to its role as an antioxidant and its stimulation of the immune system and several components of the endocrine system.

Studies from Massachusetts Institute of Technology say that melatonin pills sold as supplements contain three to ten times the amount needed to produce the desirable physiologic nocturnal blood melatonin level for enhancement of sleep. Dosages are designed to raise melatonin levels for several hours to enhance quality of sleep, but some studies suggest that smaller doses are just as effective at improving sleep quality.[63] Large doses of melatonin can even be counterproductive: Lewy & al[64] provide support to the "idea that too much melatonin may spill over onto the wrong zone of the melatonin phase-response curve" (PRC). In their study, 0.5 mg of melatonin was effective while 20 mg was not."

Yea ive heard about that as well, i had good results with 3mg, then later i went to 1mg, still with good results.
Never hurts to start small & work your way up!
Good point sippy.