If I don't it takes 2 hours for me to fall asleep. Don't tell me about sleep hygenie or whatever I have spent a lot of time doing that it doesn't help much. Pretty sure it's my autism but idk.
I used to have a lot of issues with falling asleep as a kid. One of my friends who is also autistic pops a melatonin gummy every night to sleep. I wouldn't worry about it. It's probably just latent anxiety from the tism
It's the modern world in general. You can control your sleep hygiene to an extent but you can't fully control all the chemicals entering your body, the crap you're breathing, the sounds and light pollution coming from outside, etc. Melatonin is just "treating the symptom" but since treating the cause is well outside our capacities as individuals it's the best anyone can do, so I say take that shit if you have to and don't feel weird about it.
My sister eventually built a massive tolerance to melatonin and says it does nothing for her now. She eats a few weed gummies before bed now.
I got ahdhd. We have have irregular sleep cycles. I know there is a lot of crossover with bits if the spectrum.
I have a physically active job but on days I don't work I can have some pretty significant problems regulating my sleep patterns
If you use melatonin regularly, it can make it so you have trouble sleeping without it. If that describes your situation, you may want to start tapering your dose to get off of it. Once your tolerance returns to normal, consider only using it once a week tops.
My doctor made me aware of this a while ago, so I take small doses now.
If you can manage seeing a psych most sleepaids are rather cheap. I pay a little under 20 usd total per month for zaleplon and doxepin and my insurance is absolute dogshit.
I don't need melatonin but it can really help. I have to take it when my body is hitting its natural sleep cycle though, doesn't do anything for me if I take hours earlier. Unfortunately my natural bed time is around 4am but melatonin can push it back to 3-3:30.