@birdiejayne I can definitely relate to your husband's hesitation. I'm sure it DOES scare him (I deal with this myself, constantly). However, with PD, early diagnosis and treatment are the keys to slowing progression.

Regarding melatonin dose, this is the instruction I was given by the Mayo sleep doctor to find the (possible) effective therapeutic dose:

First, you'll keep a nightly 'sleep journal' so you can tell when/if the Melatonin is beginning to work. Nothing fancy, just record whether there was any kind of RBD episode or not. It helps (but isn't 100% necessary) to first record 3-4 weeks of baseline data before Melatonin, so you have something to compare to.

Essentially, you're beginning with 3mg nightly, and increasing the dose by 3mg every 2 weeks until you see a reduction or elimination of RBD episodes. I believe 15mg was the "max" I was told to not go beyond. Here's how that works:

1. Begin with 3mg before bedtime and stay on that dose for 2 full weeks. Record # RBD incidents during this time.

2. If there's been no elimination of RBD episodes, or the # of incidents has at least reduced a bit, increase to 6mg and stay on that for 2 full weeks. Continue recording incidents.

3. Wash, rinse, repeat every 2 weeks... ioncreasing the dose by 3mg each time until you find your maximum effective dose. Again, don't go above 15mg.

4. It's important to give each dose-level a FULL 2 weeks to show effects, if any. It's slow-going, I know, but necessary as these things take time.

Honestly, though Melatonin is pretty safe. I'd still recommend consulting with a doctor before/while doing this.

In my case, I saw a reduction in RBD incidents after 2 full weeks of only 3mg. I increased to 6mg and my incidents reduced to almost zero. Now, I have only a few incidents per year and their intensity is greatly reduced (from punching and kicking to just gentle vocalizations and twitches). If this ever changes for the worse, I'll increase to 9mg.

I always write down/record my RBD episodes, otherwise it's difficult to have an objective idea of how frequent/bad they are.