Over the counter sleeping pills

Over the counter sleeping pills

Are over the counter sleeping pills any good?

Many of the over the counter sleeping pills which you can buy without prescription were originally used to treat other allergies. Then once they were found to cause drowsiness – the drug companies re-developed them and re-packaged them as insomnia cures and medications.

Antihistamines
The most common over the counter sleep remedies are probably the antihistamanes. The two most common forms of this being dipenhydramine and promethazine. They tend not to be as strong as some prescription medications and in some cases have a positive
effect on curing sleep disorders.

They can be useful with helping short term insomnia by kick starting the sufferer back into that sleep routine.

Research has shown that many of the over the counter remedies are no better than herbal remedies – so many people prefer to take something which is more natural than synthesized.

Considerations
There are a few things to consider if you are planning on taking over the counter medication. I’ll list the key ones down:

1. They shouldn’t be taken with alcohol

2. They can cause grogginess the next day if taken too late at night

3. Some are known to give the taker a very dry mouth

4. Other side effects include blurred vision or upset stomachs

Important Note:
Over the counter sleeping pills should not be taken by anyone with angina, glaucoma, prostrate or urinary infections. They should also not be taken with any anti nausea or travel sickness medication.

Tolerance
As with prescription based sleeping pills and insomnia drugs – there is the risk of building up a tolerance. This means you need to keep on increasing the dose to get the same benefits.

Nytol
Probably the best known brand of over the counter sleep remedy is Nytol. This contains the antihistamine Dipenhydramine and is often promoted as a cure for jet lag or temporary sleep disorders caused by stress. But you should not take this medication for longer than 2 weeks without seeing a GP. The other well known product similar to Nytol is Dreemon where the same advice applies.

The other antihistamine mentioned earlier is promethazine and this is the base for the other 2 well known over the counter sleep remedies – Phenergan (which is sometimes given in small doses to help babies sleep through the night and Sominex.

Hope that gives you a bit more insight into the over the counter sleep remedies –and allows you to make the decision on whether this route is right for you in your search for a good nights sleep.

Dan Kennedy has written a free ebook on how to Cure Your Insomnia. To download it visit www.cure-your-insomnia.com

Are sleeping pills a long term solution?

Are sleeping pills a long term solution?

Not so long ago sleeping pills were commonly prescribed by doctors for insomnia. But there is a move away from this by the medical profession – as doctors and sleep experts become more aware of their limitations and side effects.

That is not to say sleeping pills both prescribed and over the counter don’t have some use in certain circumstances but it certainly is not a one size fits all cure. The effects may be limited and should not always be seen as a long term cure.

Temporary Reprieve
If you suffer from chronic insomnia or particularly acute sleeping problems – you may need some temporary reprieve. This where sleeping pills can be the biggest help, by helping alleviate the problem for a short period. This can help the sufferer sometimes break the cycle of sleep depravation and get back into a sleep routine.
Doctors now believe that they see far more effective results with curing insomnia by people implementing lifestyle changes. By following various psychological and behavioural approaches noticeable benefits are often found to be greater than sleeping pills and far more long term.

But sleeping pills and over the counter remedies can often give some respite till these lifestyle changes kick in. They can be a useful crutch but they don’t offer a long term solution because they don’t treat the actual cause of the insomnia.

Masking the problem
Sleeping pills mask the problem of insomnia – they do not make it go away. The other problem sleep experts have found is that sleeping pills tend to increase stage 2 Light Sleep, whilst reducing stages 4 and 5 of the sleep process – Deep Sleep and

REM sleep.
Professor Jim Horne stated that “After a few weeks of taking sleeping tablets, most users will gain no more than 20 minutes sleep and will have only fallen asleep 15 minutes earlier” Backing up the fact that sleeping pills are not the be all and end all – they definitely are not the Holy Grail when it comes to curing insomnia.
On that basis the National Health Service in the UK, recommend that GP’s only prescribed short courses of sleeping pills to avoid the insomniac developing a dependency.

So in summary – sleeping pills should only be seen as a short term solution to sleep problems, just to help try and re-establish lost sleep patterns.

There are many behavioural and psychological cures for insomnia depending on the cause and type of insomnia that are far more effective than prescription medication or over the counter supposed cures. Hopefully you can find out more about these in some of my other blogs.

Dan Kennedy has written a free ebook on how to Cure Your Insomnia. To download it visit www.cure-your-insomnia.com