I was up until 2am this morning, simply couldn't sleep. Once the initial thought of "oh no, I can't sleep" hit me I knew I was destined for a late night. It's 20x worse if that thought hits me and I know I've got an early start the next day.
I've met lots of people who self-medicate their sleep patterns using a combination of alcohol, sleep tablets (Melatonin for example), or weed. Over time a dependency forms which then means they can't sleep without their particular crutch.
Personally I've found exercise and avoiding work and computers 2 hours before bedtime to be the best way to get a good night's sleep, but these good habits are hard to maintain.
One thought pattern that's helped me with that kind of dread-feedback is to say "No problem, I can just lie here awake all night. At least I'll rest my body, and I can handle an occasional day without sleep."
I do often fall asleep shortly afterwards as a result, but it requires actually not stressing over in the odd case that I don't.
At times I inexplicably wake at 2am no matter how tired I am. After three nights of this I will start taking a single Melatonin tablet before bed. This works and I stop after a week and then generally go many months before it starts again. If I kept using Melatonin it would certainly lose its efficacy.
A couple quick notes here further to your point: the effective dose for melatonin seems to be around 250mcg, while most supplements are sold at 1, 3, or 5mg. There is no evidence of melatonin losing effectiveness over time that I'm aware of, but there is some evidence that larger doses are less effective than 250mcg. Try splitting your pills or titrating your liquids and see how it works for you.
Source: sorry, on mobile and just taking a quick break, this information has appeared in other discussions on HN though, and should be googlable.
I've met lots of people who self-medicate their sleep patterns using a combination of alcohol, sleep tablets (Melatonin for example), or weed. Over time a dependency forms which then means they can't sleep without their particular crutch.
Personally I've found exercise and avoiding work and computers 2 hours before bedtime to be the best way to get a good night's sleep, but these good habits are hard to maintain.