Here are a few things you should know about melatonin.
1.) If you are under 20ish it’s probably not a good idea to take it because it’s a hormone, and can effect your development, and interact with other hormones in your body.
2.) Taking more than 1-2 miligrams at a time, over an extended period, is a bad idea at any age. It can, once again, throw other hormones out of balance. 2 miligrams is a large safe does. 4 miligrams is a very large dose.
3.) If you are going to take it, you will get better results by crushing the tablet into a powder and putting the powder under your tongue and holding it there til it mostly dissolves. This is called taking it ‘sublingually.’
4.) If Seratonin is Yin, then Melatonin is Yang. The one effects the other’s production and release by the body. Seratonin is the ‘happy’ chemical that you get when you get your face all warm in the sun, for instance. People with certain forms of depression lack a healthy amount of seratonin. People with mania tend to have large bursts of it, and manic depressives have a wild seratonin cycle of swings way up and down. That is an oversimplification, but nevertheless true. So, messing with this cycle is probably not a good idea to do long-term for recreational purposes.
5.) Melatonin is found in large quantities in turkey, which will put you to sleep and cause you to have major body lag. I personally hate the feeling.
–Now to answer your question. As Jack said, you have a very specific body chemistry and melatonin/seratonin cycle. There is no way to know how your body will react to it, and how long it will take to develop a chemical tolerance to low doses.
If you MUST take this hormone, do so in very small doses and work up to the 2mg mark, and no more. That is what doctors have said. And remember, melatonin was marketed for the purpose of being a sleep aid.
FINALLY: I am not a doctor or healthcare professional, so don’t believe anything I’ve just said (or anyone else on LD4ALL has said) without verifying it with a healthcare professional… bla bla bla.