Does anyone have experience with taking melatonin?

I’ve had insomnia for about two years. I don’t want to take any of the prescription, or over the counter sleeping pills, because of the potential (awful in my opinion) side effects.

This weekend, my cousin, who is a year older than me (I’m 51) said she’s been taking melatonin for several months and it has helped her with her insomnia. I guess women of a “certain age” are susceptible to having insomnia. She said it helps her to sleep and it doesn’t make her groggy in the morning. Sounds good so far.

I’ve only read up on it a little bit, because she just shared this info with me this weekend. Two of the side effects that were listed were morning grogginess, and vivid dreams. The grogginess would be very problematic as I have to get up fairly early to go to work.

The vivid dreams worry me too. I’ve suffered from pretty dramatic nightmares for most of my adult life, but oddly enough, now that I’m entering my middle years (and all of the physical changes that that involves, including internal chemical changes) I finally have stopped having those awful dreams. What a relief!

Last year, when I had some type of mystery stomach pain ailment, they gave me Vicodin when they sent me home from the emergency room. They never actually diagnosed what my problem was and it went away after two days and taking a pain med that was specifically for abdominal pain (no side effects either). On the other hand, the Vicodin was not even really for abdominal pain and I have no idea why they gave it to me. That night, when I was given the Vicodin, I had crazy hallucinations and bad dreams. I never want to experience that ever again. I would have made a bad hippie LOL.

Anyway, I was wondering if any of you, especially you middle aged ladies, have ever taken melatonin, and if so, what was your experience? Besides the potential for grogginess and vivid dreams, did you have any other side effects from taking melatonin?

I don’t really relish the idea of taking any kind of pill or supplement for any extended length of time, but I am considering taking melatonin if I think it might be able to relieve my insomnia.

What say you?