What’s the chemical way of pills like Lexotan, Rohypnol and Valium to knock your lights out? And are they dangerous in longterm?
Lexotan (bromazepam), Rohypnol (flunitrazepam), and Valium (diazepam) all belong to a family of drugs called benzodiazepines that enhance the actions of a sleep inducing neurotransmitter in your brain. The specific neurotransmitter involved is called GABA, named for the chemical that it reacts with (gamma aminobutyric acid). For a bit more information on GABA and sleep in general, you can visit the Sleep Syllabus; GABA can be found in half way down in section F. Some extra info on benzodiazepines can be found here.
I am not a doctor in any sense; I was just curious as well so I looked that all up on the web…
And in doing so, you helped me a lot. Thank you, fella!
I forgot to add this, but benzodiazepines can be addictive and harmful in the long term, and they lose potency quickly. They can cause severe problems with alcohol and other medications, and some people are just plain allergic to them. I believe they all require a doctor’s prescription…
Now we’ve settled that, how to over-the-counter sleeping pills work? The active ingredient is diphenhydramine HCl. That sounds like an antihistamine. Are they related?
~~Baloo
Yup. The active ingredient in Sominex, Nytol et al is nothing other than plain ol’ benedryl. Diphenhydramine hydrochloride. Of course, they don’t really wanna tell everybody that, so they can continue to charge upwards of 5X as much for the same exact dosage.
I had a paranoid schizophrenic friend who could not sleep without sleeping pills. He took one called (and I am spelling this phonetically) ‘millareal’ or something like that. I tried one once and it made me sleep harder than any sleeping pill I had ever tried, and when I woke up I had a horrible headache and an extremely dry mouth. How does that one work?
No no Badtz, that was when you drank that large bottle of colourless liquid that said ‘VODKA’ on the front, remember?
I had a paranoid schizophrenic friend who could not sleep without sleeping pills. He took one called (and I am spelling this phonetically) ‘millareal’ or something like that. I tried one once and it made me sleep harder than any sleeping pill I had ever tried, and when I woke up I had a horrible headache and an extremely dry mouth. How does that one work?
Mellaril.
It’s a pheneothaizine, one notch up from benzodiazipines.
You should never have taken that, and the dry mouth and the headache were a side effect partly from being out for so long, and respirating at a slightly higher rate, resulting in slight dehydration.
About equivalent to drinking a half a fifth, with no alcohol tolerance, with the resulting hangover.
Don’t take other peoples meds.
It’s really bad for you, and stupid besides.
You can easily exceed the ld50 of a person who has reached tolerance of the drug.
Many downer drugs have a real small tolerance range.
Benzodiazipines were designed to have a wide tolerance range, ie. bring 'em down, but bring 'em down slow and gentle, and it takes a relatively high dose to kill.
Made 'em gentle and tolerable, but highly addictive.
Tolerance is easily achieved in a few days, and after five, you are hooked. Ten days and you will really miss it.
Benzo’s though, were designed to drop an elephant.
You wanna feel like that everyday?
Don’t take other peoples meds.
Ugh, my reply to Baloo was eaten by the board reset. Here goes again…
Yes, diphenhydramine belongs in the antihistamine family. You can find a short description of how they work in the Sleep Syllabus as well (section F again).
Not that helpful, but still…
Oh, and the HCl that comes with diphenhydramine is there to help your body absorb it…
They don’t! they always oversleep!
Thank you! You’re a great audience!