This past couple of months I’ve been having a terrible time staying asleep. I fall asleep OK, but wake up after 3-4 hours and really don’t sleep properly (and sometimes not at all) after that. I’m normally a morning person, up between 5 and 6 am and normally sleep 7-8 hours. But it’s been weeks, I think, since I slept more than 3-4 hours at a stretch and I’m just tired.
Possible reasons:
I’ve been somewhat stressed about things lately.
Also, my back/sciatica bothers me - than again, that’s been going on for years and other than the sleep thing, doesn’t seem any worse than usual.
I haven’t been, for one reason or another, been getting as much physical exercise as I usually do.
What I do:
Try reading myself back to sleep.
Get up and go online, let the dogs out, do housework, whatever.
Melatonin, even in fairly large doses, does not seem to work one bit.
Pretty much the only thing I drink is water during the day or evening.
I’ve read up on “sleep hygiene” and have been trying to be good: nicely-made bed, no large meals before bed time, hot bath, that sort of thing. But I am still not sleeping, dammit.
So, anyway, I’m not a pill-taker. I can’t recall the last time I even bought or took aspirin. I still have most of the bottle of 14 Flexerils prescribed for my back in June. A friend mentioned today that Nyquil now makes a formula specifically for sleeplessness and rattled off a bunch of other OTC products. I may actually take Flexeril tonight, but IIRC, they made me feel groggy in the morning. (Come to think of it, that’s how I feel every morning these days so…)
Any OTC sleep aid suggestions? I’m starting to look haggard these days and I’m tired of being tired! I want to take a pill, go to bed and stay asleep for at least seven hours.
I think you diagnosed it yourself: if you dont get adequate physical activity during the day, you just WONT be tired enough to sleep or stay asleep. Try it, but not right before bedtime.
That might be part of it, but not all…I do pretty physical work (painting contractor) and try to walk/bike my dogs once a day, work schedule/weather permitting. I’ve done this work for decades and it’s seasonal where I live; I don’t recall slow times giving me insomnia ever before. Even if I’m not working, I am fairly physically active; probably more than average for someone my age.
More exercise certainly won’t hurt, though. And I am resolving to do better; even join a gym again. Something I quit doing several years ago.
I actually think the primary reason is some stressful stuff going on in my life these days: I wake up fretting and obsessing and can’t make my brain shut up. Really, what I want is a pill to make me sleep, just for a few nights.
I was given some lavender-vanilla pillow spray. My first, second, and third thoughts were “aromatherapy woo: waste of money,” but in fact it seems to make a great deal of difference. I’m at a loss to explain why. Not what you were asking for, but can’t hurt.
ETA: My main sleeping difficulties are stress and too much ambient light. I don’t have the pain issue.
There are only two approved OTC sleep aids in the US Doxylamine and Diphenhydramine - anything else isn’t an approved sleep aid (Melatonin/Valerian and others are supplements) - or is a brand name slapped on top of one of the approved ones. ZzzQuil is diphenhydramine (Benadryl).
I have tried virtually every prescription and non prescription sleep aid approved in the US. IMHO - for someone who has never taken it before - diphenhydramine works pretty well. The first few times I took it I remember thinking this was great - I would never have trouble sleeping again.
I built up a tolerance, but remarkably - for me anyway - it is one of the few drugs that the tolerance seems to go away if I don’t use it as often.
Unfortunately - it has side effects and makes me feel hung over the next day and makes my legs almost unbearably cold upon wakening. It also makes exercie seem harder the next day.
None of the sleeping pills (for me anyway) acted like I’d hope. You see movies where people break up a sleeping pill and put it in someones drink and it makes them fall asleep. Some make you a little drowsy, but none will make me fall asleep unless I put effort into it.
I think the diphenhydramine will work for you - but try and lower your expectations. To me it “seems” more “powerful” than many of the prescription ones I have tried. Based on the side effects I have noticed - I am surprised it is over OTC while other ones are not (I suppose that is due to its low abuse potential vs actual side effects).
I have taken temazepam - which druggies in the UK have actually been known to inject in their eyes as well as Chloral Hydrate (which was in part responsible for the death of Anna Nicole Smith - and also used by James Bond as a “Mickey”). These are supposed to be two of the more powerful drugs on the market. Neither one of these did much for me. There is no magic pill to make you fall asleep.
I like to just take some tylenol (acetaminophen) or advil (ibuprofen) when I wake up at night and can’t get back to sleep. It isn’t sleep-inducing but I find that just reducing achey hips and shoulders and being able to feel comfortable helps induce sleep for me. Might be something for you to try instead of an actual sleep aid.
The other thing I do is listen to podcasts. I choose my subject carefully so that they are interesting to focus on (to fend off racing thoughts) but boring and quiet enough that I can fall asleep (no foley and no musical intros/outros).
DataX - DPH is probably the main active ingredient in Nyquil, the OTC drug I mentioned? Haven’t checked that yet.
Looks like TX/Restoril is a prescription drug here in the US. But you know what, it looks pretty good on paper!
I am totally not looking for anything habit-forming or narcotic. I guess I should just try the Nyquil? It occurs to me that, probably, the active ingredients in OTC sleepy-meds are pretty limited and something like Theraflu PM will do the trick.
Huh. Well the reason I don’t have aspirin/acetaminophen/ibuprofen around is because, well, a: I don’t tend to consider pills as an option and b: it’s been my experience that, as far as back pain/sciatica goes they don’t work so why bother. :dubious:
I have my radio set to NPR. Perhaps I ought to consider streaming the farm report podcast or something.
But, dammit, I don’t actually want to DO anything. Just for once, I want to take a pill for just a couple of days and get a few nights sleep…
Benadryl leaves behind a “drowsiness hangover.” I don’t care for it, but I’ll use it if I NEEEED to sleep and just can’t. However, Melatonin works well and there’s no residual hangover. One caveat, conventional melatonin dosing is waaaay too high. I highly recommend liquid melatonin drops (the kind I got from Amazon tastes good). You just put about 5 drops under your tongue (as opposed to the teaspoon/tablespoon they recommend). Let it sit there as long as you can, then swallow and lay down. Should be out within a half hour-45 minutes. If you’re not, then ok… take the bigger dose. You still should not end up with a hangover, as long as you don’t drink the bottle.
Also, search youtube for meditation/relaxation videos. Meditation has helped me through some extraordinarily stressful periods of time, without needing to resort to sleeping pills so often. Plus, I’m a much calmer/more “zen” person than I used to be.
The boyfriend just had a long chat with his doc about sleeping issues; he has a lot of pain-related problems plus low-level PTSD from deployment. He wasn’t getting the relief from melatonin that’s he’d experienced previously, but also didn’t want to rely on prescription meds. Her first recommendation was Benadryl, 1 or 2 depending on how well it was working for him. The benefits: not habit forming, and is out of your system in 8 hours. Her second recommendation was Unisom, for nights when he doesn’t have 8 hours to sleep, since it’s out of the system in 6 hours. Also not habit forming.
He’s been taking 2 Benadryl a night as an experiment for the past week, and has slept more/better than he has in years. No daytime drowsiness, no side effects, and he’s actually started to remember dreaming ( he’d always insisted he doesn’t dream ). So win-win-win.
I get the good doc upstairs saying that promethazine ain’t approved, however I bet you can buy it over the counter in the US as a general anti-histamine (although I do not know that). Personally I have found it much more sedating than diphenhydramine. Ignore wussy lower recommended doses and just go for 50mg (of promethazine).
Having said that you can only take either once in a blue moon, your body very quickly builds up resistance to the sedative bit.
(p.s. OP doesn’t actually say that she is in the US; if she is in the UK she can buy promethazine under the brand name Sominex (which in the US is diphenhydramine))
Diphen never worked for me, it just made feel alert and “antsy” like my skin was dry and crawling and I had to move, which sucks for a sleep aid.
There is a supplement called phenibut, they sell it pure online and in stores in a mix called Relax-all. It works but you do still feel relaxed the next day, it never bothered me too much. I’d classify it more as a drug than a supplement though.
Another vote for Benadryl or whatever Diphenhydramine vehicle you want to use. 2 pills (50mg) does the trick for me, though on occasion, if there’s a specific reason that I know I’m going to have a hard time falling asleep, I’ll just start with three of them. For example, if I take Vicodin or Tramadol I know I’ll be too wired to fall asleep until 2 or 3 in the morning and I’ll have a bad nights sleep. Even two Benadryls won’t help. 3…I’m out like a light.
Acetaminophen puts me to sleep. I’m not joking. I take Tylenol or Midol (except for the formula with caffeine), and I’m taking a nap, whether I want to or not.
I’ve found that if I take too high a dose of melatonin (which for me would be 3mg or more), I have nightmares. It’s a consistent reaction, too. Bit of a problem when it’s pretty hard to find 1mg tablets around. I may have to look into the liquid.
Then I thought: “So two doses will work even better.” and they did.
Then I thought: “So three doses will work even betterer.” and I threw up.
So yeah, Nyquil (or a store brand equivalent) with 1 or 2 doses. The pills worked better for me even though they’re slower acting because the syrup is disgusting.
I’ve also found melatonin to effect my dreams. I think usually more negative, but also more vivid. Some stuff I have read suggests smaller doses (as you seem to suggest) than the 1mg amounts that you often see. I also seem to recall some studies suggesting taking this HOURS before bedtime for best effect, but I can’t seem to find that now.
i use melatonin. there’s an OTC sleep aid that has melatonin in it…and it costs about $15 for 24 doses. I bought a 240 count bottle of melatonin online (the same dosage the previous sleep aid) for $7.50 plus shipping.
one 3mg melatonin and i’m usually ready to pass out within the hour.
other than that i haven’t really found any effective sleep aids.
i hope you find your solution, insomnia sucks
