Recently, I have been reading on Melatonin, sold in the vitamin section of drugstores and at almost all health food stores.

In the mid 1990's there was a buzz of interest in this stuff as a sleep aid, jet lag aid and more exotically, for anti-aging, improved immune system and sexual enhancement.

I tried some at a 1 mg dose two nights ago and fell asleep solid for almost 8 hours - which I ordinarily never do. Last night, I took it again, but the sleep was somewhere between the normal fitful sleep and the wonderful sleep of the previous night.

A number of web citations indicate that older folks need somewhat higher doses for sleep aid.

The Mayo Clinic website has a page on melatonin. Gives a fair rating for sleep aid applications, and mostly rates the other applications as having poor quality research in back of them.

It also cautions that long term safety hasn't been demonstrated, and the usual statement that the over the counter medications can't be relied upon to be pure and at the potency given on the label.