What I learned from 10mg melatonin
I took 10 mg melatonin gummies for about two years before phew. I built phew because of what those two years taught me. This is the part I don't usually put on the front page.
It started because I wanted to fall asleep faster. The aisle had gummies at 5 mg and 10 mg, and the marketing said stronger. So I picked 10. Three months in, I was sleeping faster but waking up worse. Heavy, slow, drugged in a way coffee couldn't fix.
I assumed it was age. I was 32. I assumed it was stress. I assumed it was the news. I never once thought maybe the dose was too high — because the gummies were sold next to the cereal at the supermarket. How wrong could the dose be?
Eighteen months in, I was sleeping the same amount on paper but functioning measurably worse than I had at 25. Mornings were eaten. The first three hours of every workday were a battle to wake up. I started skipping morning workouts because I couldn't get going.
The thing that finally broke the loop was reading the actual research on melatonin. 1 mg is the dose used in sleep-onset studies — a tenth of the 10 mg you'll find in the aisle. Not 10.
I had been taking ten times the dose research actually backs. Every night. For two years.
The reason wasn't biology. It was marketing. 10 mg felt stronger at the shelf. The supplement aisle is built on what feels stronger, not what actually works. Once I'd seen the gap, I couldn't un-see it.
Phew started as me cutting my own dose. I found a manufacturer who would dose down to 1 mg. They thought I was nuts. Customers want stronger, the rep said. If you go below 5 mg they'll think it doesn't work and bounce off your subscription.
I went to 1 mg anyway. I added valerian root, lavender, chamomile, and hibiscus — four botanicals that have actually been studied for wind-down, at doses that move the needle. I put it on a strip because I'd gotten sick of swallowing gummies at 11 pm.
Two months on phew at 1 mg, my mornings were measurably better. Workouts came back. Coffee did what coffee is supposed to do. The lower dose worked better — for me, and now for the people we ship to.
If you're three years into 10 mg melatonin and the mornings are worse than they used to be, this is what you should read first. The aisle isn't going to walk you back. Someone has to be honest about the math.
— Marius