And it turns out I am a lightweight.

I endure what is called Hypnic Headaches which are headaches that come to you while asleep. They are also referred and Alarm Clock Headaches because they come to you almost the same time at night and are painful enough to wake you up.

Doctors do not know what cause them and there is no proper cure for them. Coffee before hitting the sack seems to help some nights and there are webpages full of exotic remedies and recommendations, some which sound silly. However one site advised to try melatonin as some people (not too many) reported an improvement, so I gave it a shot.

I am not one who takes pills and medication for fun and hypochondria. As official Old Fart, I am on prescribed med so I do not like to add more crap to my daily intake. But for the sake of an uninterrupted night of sleep, I decided to give melatonin a try. According to the instruction, I took a tablet 30 minutes before bedtime and waited with some measure of skepticism. Fifteen minute later, I am staring stupidly at the TV and wondering why my eyelids are in the way and why I am about to drool.

Damn! That was fast! The little warning voice in my head was signaling I should assume horizontality ASAP, preferably in bed, so I went heeded the notice and passed the hell out and deep. I woke up the next morning, refreshed and sans headache amazed at how effective melatonin was and wondering how come the FDA had not classified that crap as Schedule IV and some pharma company charging up the ass for it. Next night, again another tablet and the same descent into controlled stupor, hard sleep and…. fucking headache is back at is usual time.

Crap.

Once more the following night, but this time I chased the tablet with coffee. Again, the stupor returned and before I passed out, I giggled thinking about the cocktail I just had and baptized it “Senior’s Speedball.” Again a headache, but not so bad.

I did neither for the next couple of nights and got no headaches on the second night. As I said before, they are not a daily occurrence, but it is clear that I had not found my particular magic bullet, but I did find I am a lightweight when it comes to a OTC supplement.

Oh well.