I’m not exactly what you would call a pill popper.  I take a multi-vitamin, and love my Advil, but that’s pretty much it.  I almost never get sick, which makes me a teensy bit resentful of all the sick days I could have taken when I was gainfully employed and never did – I swear, I’ve maybe taken a grand total of two sick days ever, and at least one of them was a really bad wine flu.  So when I was wide awake last night at 1 am (which was only 5 am in the UK due to the difference in daylight savings this week), I took the opportunity to take melatonin to help me sleep.

Seriously, a touch too much packaging - ya think?!?!

Now, all of my former roommates would attest without a shadow of a doubt that I do not belong in the good sleeper category.  If I get 5 or 6 hours on a weeknight, that’s loads, and I will wake at the drop of a hat or full bladder.  I come by it honestly, though, as my father and his mother are the same.  So many things to do, so little time…  All three of us have been caught ‘just resting our eyes’ in front of the television or movie screen on more than one occasion.  Hey, if you’re going to force us to sit still, that’s the risk you’re going to take…  But I digress.  Again.

I had bought the melatonin a couple of months ago, and conveniently forgot to take it (I will eventually remember to talk about my memory ‘opportunities’ in another post).  So, I saved it for just such an occasion.  The tasty strip that comes in the little cartridge inside the ever-so-slightly oversized box melts on your tongue, and is chocolate mint flavoured.  So far, so good.  I then read a few pages of a book, and turned out the lights.  Then, it happened.  I fell asleep rather quickly, and do not recall waking up until around 6:30 am or so.  That’s actually really good for me – normally, Mr. Insomnia wakes me at least once or twice to check what time it is.  In the past year, I haven’t even used an alarm clock, except as a safety net when I have had to catch a flight.  Before that, I usually woke up a few minutes before the alarm was set to go off, and just stared at it, evil thing that it is.  But this morning, I even managed to go back to sleep for another hour.  True story!  There might be something to this.

I’m reading the box now (as I do, because it’s almost like an instruction manual, and I’ve got a lot of male friends who dismiss all forms of instruction that I guess has partly rubbed off on me), and it purports to help reduce the time it takes to fall asleep, increase total sleep time and improve sleep quality.  In the immortal words of Meatloaf, Two Out of Three Ain’t Bad.  There’s 2 cartridges x 15 strips in there, and it says to use daily, but for use beyond 4 weeks, consult a health care practitioner.  Good thing it’s not February.

So if you’re thinking there’s a bit of a theme happening here based on yesterday’s Tantra post (the old sex, drugs and rock and roll tri fecta), then I need a rollin’ idea for tomorrow’s rockin’ new thing.  Suggestions welcome… Hmm.  I think I’m regretting this already.