Hi, these day I have some problems for sleep the whole night :eek:, I would buy some sleeping pills many friends of my work advised me to try the nightquil because it’s not dangerous or addictive, I have read a lot articles and finally find this one http://www.wealthformyhealth.com/zzzquil-reviews/, nothing new but at the end of the post there is table which display 5 other brand of sleeping pills, and the first called “sleep support” look very great to me because it have an high dosage in active ingredients compared to other.
Someone know these kind of products ? the famous nightquil remain the best choice ?
Doxylamine is the strongest otc sedative you can buy, and it is usually in nyquil. For me it will put me to sleep but I will be groggy the next day, and it isn’t worth it. I have more luck with benadryl as I get no next day grogginess.
Going by my own definition of “best,” I’d vote for: lay off the caffeine, eat well throughout the day, and go to a yoga class after dinner. Some people consider me a bit of a Luddite at times.
Don’t take Nyquil. If you want to take Doxylamine (which Nyquil contains), then find a sleep product that uses it (I think there is a product called Unisom). Zzzquil uses benedryl. As stated above, Doxylamine, will likely leave you groggy the next day. I’m surprised that it is still used at all.
For me, benedryl works fine, but I quickly develop a tolerance for it. I suspect the same is true of Doxylamine, but I haven’t taken it long enough.
If you do take Nyquil, just be aware that it also contains a large dose of acetaminophen (Tylenol). Taking any additional acetaminophen can result in an overdose which you do not want. Nyquil is a great drug when you need it (bad cold or flu), but don’t take it just to go to sleep.
Just take diphenhydramine, that’s the generic drug name for Benedryl. It’s an antihistamine. Try one tablet (25mg) to start, in order to make sure you’re not the subset of people who get hyper from it instead of drowsy. Me, I take 50mg when I have trouble sleeping. But that’s not very often, maybe once a month or so.
What dont you want to take with alcohol? Acetaminophen. Mind you, in the does in Nyquil it’s likely not a problem, but it’s really easy to pop another couple of extra strength Tylenol and a shot of booze along with your cold medicine- then- whammo- liver failure.
Do not combine Doxylamine with other Antihistamines.
I love melatonin. I fall asleep easy without feeling drugged and best of all, no grogginess in the morning. 3 mgs works best. If I take 5 I will wake up in the middle of the night and have trouble falling back to sleep.
I vote with Rushgeekgirl, melatonin’s the trick. The less the better though. I cut a 3mg. tab in half and that gives me 7 hours or so. More than that seems to be too much.
Valerian can help as well. Don’t take valerian if you are on an SSRI.
Also, if you are waking up in the middle of the night, rather than having a hard time sleeping, you need to be cautious since a lot of these will leave you really groggy if you are looking at just getting another three or four hours. And some won’t work terribly well for middle of the night sleep (there is no reason that melatonin should work middle of the night - it might due to some placebo effect, but by the middle of the night, your own bodies melatonin levels should be sufficient.
For me, the best thing that works for middle of the night is switching rooms. I move from my bed to the couch. I don’t know why this works, but it does. Maybe its the lack of my husband next to me or the change in temperature from a warm bed or the support of the couch or just the change in space.
Another vote for Benadryl. My plane rides are typically 12-13 hours and I have tried most of the OTC and prescription solutions. With Benadryl I can get 10 hours of restful slumber.
One thing you might want to be aware of if your problem is waking later in night is the theory of segmented sleep. It used to be accepted that people slept in two phases, separated by a hour of wakefulness. In medieval England this was referred to as “first sleep” and “second sleep”. This is the way I sleep and once I realized it, my sleep got better simply because I did not panic about waking up. I simply lie quietly in bed until I fall asleep again (According to the historian who came up with this, some folks would use this time to visit neighbors or commit crimes, but lying in bed quietly was likely the most common thing).
I find that the two phases are different in character. The first sleep is a deep sleep, while the second is a dreamy sleep (as in the dreams you often have in the morning).
Doxylamine is available under the Unisom label for only one of their products at the stores here. The rest contain (overpriced) diphenhydramine. Search the labels for the one that contains doxylamine and buy the store brand sitting right next to it. (“Compare to …” on the box is somewhat helpful.)
Another item in that category is chlorpheniramine maleate. Sold like diphenhydramine as an anti-histamine. But also can produce drowsiness. Look in the allergy aisle for products with “Chlor” in the name.
Which one of these works for you, especially on a regular basis*, is only something that you can decide. Few, if any, are likely to work if used very often. But having choices can avoid overuse of one type.
zzzquil is cheap compared to those other sleeping pills. I was hooked on it long ago. But then I started having all these body aches. I even got hallucinations from it. I was not being productive and was acting like a bum. It took me almost 2 months to kinda leave this addiction. https://drugsdetails.com/zzzquil-high/
