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To be safe, when we are recommended sleeping pills by their names, we need to know the danger associated with each one. Having said that, there’s no shortage in the number of health problems that have been tied to a lack of sleep and if we are not sleeping well, we need to take action.
Lack of sleep has been implicated in many mental health issues, heart disease, diabetes, metabolic disorders, and even industrial accidents that happened because someone hadn’t gotten adequate rest.
Lack of Sleep - As Bad as Being Drunk?
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Creditable research has demonstrated that someone who isn’t getting enough sleep can easily become as impaired behind the wheel as someone who’s drunk. So we need to know the safest sleep remedies and for the good of our health we also need to know the side effects and reputation of sleeping pills names and their ingredients - they aren’t always what they seem to be.
Key Sleep Med Products and their Ingredients
We will look at a few of the key products that cause problems and also at a much more natural sleep solution based on the natural substances which are already in your body. Of course, once you definitely know that you you have a clinical problem with sleep, you need to take action.
Most people who are exhausted and short of sleep on a regular basis aren’t in that condition simply because they just don’t like sleeping, but because they have suffered from severe insomnia over a long period of time.
Some of them have even resorted to powerful sleeping pills in an effort to get some rest, with a variety of results. These people would often be better off with a much more natural solution based on Melatonin such as Melatrol.
Diphenhydramine
Diphenhydramine is better known under the brand name Benadryl, and it’s widely used by those who have trouble sleeping at night. It’s used as an antihistamine as well, for problems with allergies.
In addition, Diphenhydramine appears in medications like Nyquil and Tylenol PM, which advertise themselves as solutions that can help you to get some rest when you have symptoms of illness that are keeping you awake.
Hystamine Receptors
These medications do tend to make you very relaxed and sleepy, which they achieve by acting on the histamine receptors in the brain. They don’t do a very good job of going away when it’s time to be awake, however.
Many people who use them feel sleepy and confused the following day, even if they supposedly got plenty of sleep during the night. They also have the potential to cause anxiety in a small number of people, and can bring on bouts of hyperactivity in children.
Selective GABA Medicines
GABA medicines (A GABA receptor agonist is a drug which acts to stimulate one or more of the GABA receptors, producing typically sedative effects, acting as a suppressor in the nervous system.), and many sleeping pills fall into this category.
People generally don’t know the technical or brand names of most sleeping pills, but if you asked them to name one, there’s a good chance they would come up with Ambien. While it’s just one of the medications in its class, it’s almost certainly the best known.
Ambien
Ambien became famous partly because its makers put together heavy advertising campaigns promoting the idea that they had finally discovered a medically proven solution for people who can’t sleep. Even more of its fame, however, arose out of the fact that it quickly became controversial.
While there are a lot of people depending on it to get their nightly rest, there have also been some very serious incidents that were blamed on it. Some people have argued that it doesn’t so much put you to sleep as keep you from remembering the fact that you spent the night not sleeping!
Ambien Side Effects
To make matters even worse, Ambien has some of the most strange and extreme side effects of all of the types of sleeping pills out there. People have been known to get into their car and drive while they’re technically still asleep.
There have even been cases of murder that made it to trial, where the defense argued that the murderer was not fully responsible for his own actions because he was under the influence of Ambien and not under his own control at the time. The FDA ultimately cut the recommended dose to try to limit future problems.
At this time, I do not know the status of Ambien and these problems may have been overcome, so please check things out with your doctor.
Lunesta
No list of sleeping pills would be complete without Lunesta, which is another beneficiary of an extensive advertising campaign. It’s considered to be safe to use for a longer period of time than some of the other options, but isn’t recommended for anyone with a history of drug abuse, depression, or any health conditions related to metabolism.
Also, people who attempt to stop using it have been known to go into withdrawal, suffering symptoms like anxiety, nausea, vomiting, and unusual dreams.
A More Natural Option
While some people are still going back to the doctor and trying to get a pill that will take away their sleep problems, the research for prescription drugs isn’t promising. When carefully monitored in a lab, it seems as if people on the best prescription drugs out there often only get 10 or 15 extra minutes of sleep a night compared to what they could manage on their own. Relative to the health and personal risks, that’s not a very good deal.
Melatonin
This is leading many people to gravitate toward the more natural option of taking supplemental melatonin. This isn’t something that’s designed to force your body to go to sleep. It’s actually a pill form of the hormone that your body already uses to track what time of day or night it is, so that it can properly go to sleep at night.
People who take melatonin usually find themselves getting drowsy within about 30 minutes. Though a typical dose is between 1 and 3 mg, people have taken far more without experiencing side effects. Even when someone does get strange effects from it, it’s generally limited to odd dreams. Meanwhile, it’s been used in people of all ages, including children, and has an excellent record for safety and efficacy.
The Deceptive Nature of Sleeping Pills Names
Sleeping pills names are chosen by pharmaceutical marketing companies to sound as benign and peaceful as possible. The reality behind those names, however, is powerful drugs that sometimes endanger the people who are taking them, and sometimes don’t even offer significant benefits.
Everyone who’s having trouble sleeping should try more natural methods before resorting to something so extreme. But ALWAYS TAKE YOUR DOCTOR’S ADVICE.
Should I Try Melatonin?
If you are not suffering from any current medical condition, then I would say you have nothing to lose by trying. But get a product of guaranteed quality, preferably US manufactured.
