Case study: Melatonin

gwern

I discuss melatonin's effects on sleep & its safety; I segue into the general benefits of sleep and the severely disrupted sleep of the modern Western world, the cost of melatonin use and the benefit (eg. enforcing regular bedtimes), followed by a basic cost-benefit analysis of melatonin concluding that the net profit is large enough to be worth giving it a try barring unusual conditions or very pessimistic safety estimates.

Full essay: http://www.gwern.net/Melatonin

I discuss melatonin's effects on sleep & its safety; I segue into the general benefits of sleep and the severely disrupted sleep of the modern Western world, the cost of melatonin use and the benefit (eg. enforcing regular bedtimes), followed by a basic cost-benefit analysis of melatonin concluding that the net profit is large enough to be worth giving it a try barring unusual conditions or very pessimistic safety estimates.

Full essay: http://www.gwern.net/Melatonin

I'm confused on why the value of an hour isn't just your hourly wage. If you value your time more, you'd be working less. If you value your time less, you'd be working more. Since you clearly spend exactly as much time working as you do, you value your free time that much.

Then again, that only works if you value the time you're trying to fall asleep or are asleep the same as you value work.

Back on topic: I've heard that taking melatonin makes your body produce less of it, though doing so the the point of having less total melatonin seems unlikely, and even if it's only a slight increase, it's only a few cents. Also, I didn't exactly hear it from a reliable source.

I'm confused on why the value of an hour isn't just your hourly wage. If you value your time more, you'd be working less. If you value your time less, you'd be working more. Since you clearly spend exactly as much time working as you do, you value your free time that much.

Here's a secondary justification beyond the economics substitution arguments of the others.

Assuming you have a job at all which could have an hourly wage, the wage must be equal or greater than the minimum wage. The more your hour is worth, the more valuable melatonin use is. The most ... (read more)

2Peter_de_Blanc16y

Even if you did nothing but work all day, that wouldn't be true. There's also the value you get from doing the work.

6thomblake16y

It's a very complicated problem. Many people cannot work more/less than they do and yet retain their current job. And working to find a 'more optimal' job can be extremely costly. Also, as you note, different time might be valued differently. I can clip coupons while I'm tired from working all day, but I can't do more programming or research as effectively. If it was more on-topic, I might expand this into a post...

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Case study: Melatonin

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Case study: Melatonin

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