Sleeping Pills

A word about sleeping and sleeping pills.

Ambien was a hot new drug for sleep back in the early 1990's, and went generic as zolipedem in the last year or so. If you watch TV or read magazines you would have noticed because you have been blitzed with ads for the competion: Ambien CR, Lunesta, Sonata and Rozerem all sound like the greatest thing since sliced bread. At least, they do on TV.

Granted, older sedatives often taken for sleep (such as Valium, Ativan, Restoril, Serax, etc.) create problems because they render you unconscious, not asleep. This is crucially different, since you are losing up to half of the really deep, restorative sleep and dream sleep when you take these. When this happens for over three nights in a row, daytime problems will follow; such as forgetfulness, irritability, tiredness, depression, moodiness or difficulty concentrating.

When Ambien first came out, it seemed to be the best of both worlds: helping people to sleep, but without the loss of deep sleep and dream sleep.

Unfortunately, it may be that Ambien and the other newer sleeping pills may not help you sleep any better, they may just keep you from remembering your sleep. This may be why some people who take it have been seen to cook, eat or even drive at night without remembering doing so.

Basically, people get needed sleep. Insomnia is often a symptom of another problem such as stress, depression, sleep apnea, pain,urinary problems, drinking or long-established bad sleep habits. The treatment then is to treat the underlying problem, not to be drugged into unconsciousness every night.

To make it easier to sleep well,

• Go to bed and get up at the same time every day, including weekends, vacations and holidays.
• Don't eat or have alcohol or exercise within two hours of bedtime.
• Don't watch TV in your bedroom.
• If you can't sleep, go to another room and read or listen to some music. Do not watch TV or use your computer! The light from the screens stimulates your brain and wakes you up.
• Try taking 2-3 mg of over-the-counter melatonin about 1-2 hours before your bedtime.
• Tylenol PM is OK to use for sleep, unless you find that it causes side-effects or makes you feel groggy in the morning.