Sometimes, I work all day, followed by a 2nd job all night, then returning to the all day job and back to an all night job. It is a 12 hour day job and 8 hour night job. There is no time to sleep. Just go home, eat and go back to work. Literally no moments of unconsciousness and under artificial lights pretty much the whole time.
My question is, would my body prefer to get melatonin for when I'm pulling the night shifts? (Because it would have got it if I went to bed instead) I did take a 3mg time released one last night as I'm currently doing these shifts this week. It doesn't seem to make me sleepy though (in fact I was able to get home early and lay in bed for half an hour but could not fall asleep as my mind is too active).
I'll be honest though. After the night shift and going back to the day job and repeating this, mentally I feel as 'normal' as if I had the sleep. Last time it took to the 4th day without good sleep (~1 hour 'attempted nap' in car between jobs) to feel like crap at certain periods throughout the day and ONLY if it were times of no stimulus (eg just standing or sitting with nothing to do). Go for a walk, feel normal. No micro sleeps driving either. Brain knew when to keep alert I did not take melatonin during that time at all though.
So in short, is taking melatonin at the usual dose of 3mg or less beneficial when pulling all nighters or is it harmful as the body is not used to having this hormone at the same time as being awake and under lights. I don't care if the only drawback was that I were to feel sleepy, to me that's not a reason to not do it if it has other benefits (I don't feel extra sleepy on it anyway).
I've also read some people take it and deliberately stay awake with coffee to get hallucinations. I have not ever found this in my case. However a few days without sleep is what is enough for me to get auditory hallucinations (in a dead quiet room). It's as if there is a radio in the background somewhere but the voices or music is too muffled to 'understand' what is being said.
And why are some people 'non functional' or 'feel like a zombie' if they don't get their '8 hours' sleep but it takes me at least 4-5 days without it before I would feel that way. Are some people just wired to require sleep every night to function? I am 34 by the way but even the first time I would do an all night after being awake the whole day, I would 'feel fine'.