# Sleeping Pill question/recomendation?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sleeping-pill-question-recomendation/60155
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [March 30, 2001, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sleeping-pill-question-recomendation/60155 "2001-03-30T19:14:43Z")
**Posts on this page:** 15
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@bernse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bernse)
#### Post date: [March 30, 2001, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sleeping-pill-question-recomendation/60155/1 "2001-03-30T19:14:43Z")
Can anyone recomend me a good, sleeping pill? Something non-precription or natural please.
I normally have good sleeps during the week, but for some reason on weekends (don’t ask me why only weekends) I get up at the slightest bit of a noise, or if my wife rolls over… I would like something that may help me have a sounder sleep. Preferebly something that would make me sleep through a foghorn.
Thanks!
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### Author:  [@capybara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/capybara)
#### Post date: [March 30, 2001, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sleeping-pill-question-recomendation/60155/2 "2001-03-30T20:21:13Z")
I take valerian extract-- available at your local hippie store. It’s not really a powerful sedative per se, but it mellows me out and makes me tired so that I sleep like the deas and if I wake up I’m feeling so groovy that I don’t worry about it and fall asleep again soon. There are extracts with hibiscus added, I think, or chamomile or some other gentle relaxant. It also gives me interesting dreams. This stuff usually works for me and has saved me afer years of insomniac torture.
If you do decide to go prescription, Ambien is nice–a fairly new one with no side effects and non-addictive-- this is my worst case scenario resort.
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### Author:  [@capybara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/capybara)
#### Post date: [March 30, 2001, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sleeping-pill-question-recomendation/60155/3 "2001-03-30T20:24:06Z")
“deas”? Sorry, that should be “dead.” Sounds like the feds are after me or something.
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### Author:  [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)
#### Post date: [March 30, 2001, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sleeping-pill-question-recomendation/60155/4 "2001-03-30T20:47:26Z")
melatonan, 5-htp are a good place to start. Also Dr. Atkins makes a sleep ‘vitanutruent’.
Try several and try to vary them so you don’t become dependant on them
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### Author:  [@Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duck_Duck_Goose)
#### Post date: [March 31, 2001, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sleeping-pill-question-recomendation/60155/5 "2001-03-31T03:33:11Z")
Well, Benadryl always knocks _me_ right out. I get the Osco brand generic diphenhydramine; it’s cheaper, and it’s what’s in a lot of the OTC sleeping pills anyway.
If you can find OTC sleeping pills that have doxylamine succinate in it, that works even better. It’s what they put in some kinds of Nyquil-type nighttime cold medicine. 20 minutes later, boom, I’m out.
Note: definitely do not try to operate heavy machinery while under the influence of Benadryl. It won’t make you sleep through a foghorn, though, it just makes you drowsy so you can _get_ to sleep in the first place, and then once you’re asleep you tend to _stay_ asleep better.
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### Author:  [@Tequila\_Mockingbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tequila_Mockingbird)
#### Post date: [March 31, 2001, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sleeping-pill-question-recomendation/60155/6 "2001-03-31T03:40:18Z")
I use the cheapo Kmart brand Acetaminaphen and Diphenhydramine… “American Fare” Pain Reliever PM. Knocks my butt OUT! Really good stuff. Turbo took some by mistake one morning before work and had to take No-Doze to counter them. Can’t beat them for 2 bucks a bottle.
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### Author:  [@JillGat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JillGat)
#### Post date: [March 31, 2001, 5:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sleeping-pill-question-recomendation/60155/7 "2001-03-31T05:16:03Z")
Just wanted to mention that there are some really great prescription sleeping pills with little to no side-effects. Look into those if the herbs and/or over the counter ones don’t work for you. I take them occasionally and am out like a light quickly and wake up feeling fine.
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### Author:  [@techchick68](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/techchick68)
#### Post date: [March 31, 2001, 7:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sleeping-pill-question-recomendation/60155/8 "2001-03-31T07:11:25Z")
I tried valerian root/hops, worked at first but later faltered…not sure why, could be my chemistry.
I switched back to Unisom, not the caplets or whatever, the real pills because I only take half. Unless I am able to get my “full” night’s sleep, I will wake up feeling a little off. I am a nine hour a night sleeper.
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### Author:  [@Bob\_Scene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bob_Scene)
#### Post date: [March 31, 2001, 7:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sleeping-pill-question-recomendation/60155/9 "2001-03-31T07:42:44Z")
Do you stay up later than usual on weekends? If you’re like me, that can cause insomnia. I can usually fall right asleep, but if I’m not in bed by midnight, I am the most energetic person you’ve ever seen until about 6 a.m. (Hence my presence on the SDMB at 1:30 a.m. on a Saturday, when I have to work in a few hours.)
Anyway, if you **really** need sleep, and it’s not just a weekend habit thing, I would recommend Ambien. I once took it almost every night for two months straight when I was having a problem with insomnia, and then decided I better cut it out before I got hooked, and I had no trouble at all falling asleep after I quit, even on my first night without it. That was about two years ago and I haven’t wanted it since.
I think it’s understandable to not want to take “sleeping pills” because the “sleeping pills” of years past could have terrible consequences, but I think occasional use of Ambien, combined with an effort to solve the underlying problem, would be better than chronic insomnia.
If you still don’t want to try Ambien, do you get the Home Shopping Network?
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### Author:  [@mojo\_filter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mojo_filter)
#### Post date: [March 31, 2001, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sleeping-pill-question-recomendation/60155/10 "2001-03-31T14:33:37Z")
Which would be better? All of these manmade chemical pills that manufacturers charge an arm and a leg for or a resin extracted from an herb you could grow at home for free?
Yet another argument for my freedom of choice in regard to the legalizing of marijuana.
Smoke a joint, relax and go beddy bye.
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### Author:  [@mojo\_filter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mojo_filter)
#### Post date: [March 31, 2001, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sleeping-pill-question-recomendation/60155/11 "2001-03-31T14:38:41Z")
…or, for the people that prefer to have others do their thinking for them, try a nightcap or a hot toddy(sp?)
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### Author:  [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [March 31, 2001, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sleeping-pill-question-recomendation/60155/12 "2001-03-31T19:31:09Z")
[Moderator watch ON]
**mojo filter** , may I remind you that this is not a thread about the legalization of marijuana, and that such a thread would probably not even belong in this forum in the first place, but in Great Debates? If you want to discuss legalization, head on over to GD and have a blast, but leave it out of General Questions.
I might also point out that language like “people that prefer to have others do their thinking for them” is rather close to being over the line, for any of our fora. _Ad Hominem_ attacks never further the progress of a debate.
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### Author:  [@Rysdad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rysdad)
#### Post date: [March 31, 2001, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sleeping-pill-question-recomendation/60155/13 "2001-03-31T19:45:03Z")
During my divorce battle, I really had a hard time sleeping. Then a doctor prescribed Halcion. Amazing stuff. A little while after taking one of those tiny, white pills, I went from “I don’t feel tired,” to “Is it morning already?” No kidding. It was, like, _immediate._.
Then a bunch of anecdotal stories surfaced about people taking Halcion and doing really psychotic things. The doc said to ignore them, but I quit taking it anyway.
So, to echo **DDG** , Benadryl works pretty good for me…both for sleeping and my cat allergies.
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### Author:  [@OxyMoron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OxyMoron)
#### Post date: [April 2, 2001, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sleeping-pill-question-recomendation/60155/14 "2001-04-02T04:37:14Z")
I _highly_ recommend Ambien. The main danger isn’t physical addiction (that’s apparently pretty rare) but psychological dependence if it becomes part of your sleep routine over a long time. Short of that, it’s terrific, especial when you’re under stress (I’ve gotta sleep, but I can’t sleep, now I’m too stressed to sleep) or dealing with jet lag. When I go to Europe (ha! I love to make it sound like I do that often…snicker), I schedule an evening flight and pop an ambien shortly after takeoff. By landing, I’m awake having slept the whole way.
Because it’s mostly out of your system in six hours, Ambien doesn’t leave you with the groggy feeling like diphenhydramine (the active ingredient in Benadryl and I think the “PM” in Tylenol PM).
As for “natural” versus “artificial” (a distinction I’m not convinced makes a difference, but that’s GD territory), my feeling is that I’d rather take _one_ chemical that’s been subject to intensive empirical testing, rather than several hundred that haven’t - which is what you’re doing with “herbal” medication. Also, there’s a lot more research done on adverse interactions with single chemicals - we’re only just discovering what kind of havoc St. John’s Wort can play on a whole panoply of drugs, whereas we’ve got a much better profile of the problems with, say, Welbutrin or Paxil, as they’ll appear by Phase III of the FDA approval process (no part of which do herbs have to go through).
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### Author:  [@JillGat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JillGat)
#### Post date: [April 2, 2001, 5:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sleeping-pill-question-recomendation/60155/15 "2001-04-02T05:38:58Z")
I dunno. Lots of good advice and some borderline, but the OP should probably talk to their doctor at this point, doncha all think? It’s making me a teensy bit uncomfortable (all the medical advice) so rather than move this to IMHO where it probably belongs, I’m gonna close it.