According to studies, approximately 75 million Americans suffer from insomnia. There are many ways insomnia can manifest. Each patient may need a different medication. The patient may experience difficulty falling asleep but stay asleep once they are asleep. A second symptom is difficulty falling asleep but an easy time getting to sleep.
Insomnia is usually temporary, lasting no more than a week. Chronic insomnia is when the problem with sleeping persists for longer than six months. Chronic insomnia can be a problem because it can impact your work, your health, as well as your social relationships.
Treatment for insomnia should start with “sleep hygiene”. This is a collection of ten principles:
1. Maintain a regular sleeping schedule
2. Exercise regularly, but don’t do it before bed
3. Go to bed when you are tired
Before you go to bed, do some relaxing and fun activities
5. Keep the bedroom calm and comfortable
6. Don’t eat large meals at night
7. If you don’t fall asleep within 20 minutes, get up immediately and go back to bed when you feel sleepy.
8. If you have to take a nap, keep it under 30 minutes
Avoid alcohol, caffeine, or nicotine
10. Have your pharmacist review your medication for stimulants
If you still have problems with your sleep hygiene, you may be able to try over-the-counter remedies.
You can find many types of sleeping pills at your local pharmacy. This is what I recommend.
Find the lowest price generic diphenhydramine 25 mgs
You can find it in either the allergy or sleeping pill sections. I will tell you why. Benadryl contains diphenhydramine as the active ingredient. It is able to relieve your allergy symptoms and also causes some drowsiness. It is also the active ingredient in all of these expensive brands of sleeping aids.
Simply Sleep
Sleeping Beauty
Sominex
Tylenol PM
Unisom
Alka-Seltzer PM
Excedrin PM
Goody’s PM
Nytol
Bayer NightTime Remedy
Doan’s PM
GoodNight’s Sleep
Legatrin PM
These are all more expensive, but they have the same active ingredient as the cheaper store brands. You don’t have to pay twice as much for the same product.
Next, you can try melatonin. Many people feel that melatonin is the best natural alternative. Like all medications, melatonin is made in a laboratory. Natural melatonin can be obtained from animals’ pineal glands, but this is not recommended due to the risk of viral contamination.
Melatonin is a hormone that the brain releases to tell our bodies to go to sleep. Scientists are still arguing about the dosage and duration of melatonin therapy. The one-milligram dose is the best until they have an answer. If that is not working, increase the dose to two milligrams. If you still have trouble getting to sleep, try the three-milligram dose.
Let me share my personal experience with Melatonin. It was years ago that I first tried it for my sleep problems. It helped me fall asleep the first night. The next morning, I woke up wide awake at 3AM and couldn’t go back to sleep. The next night, I was exhausted so I tried it again. I fell asleep, but by 3:00 AM I was awake again and couldn’t go back to sleep. I didn’t take the pill again the next night and slept through the morning. I took the fourth time and woke up wide awake at 3am the next morning. Since then, I have not taken the pill. I have no idea why I woke up at 3 AM. Although it was odd, that’s what happened to me.
If you aren’t satisfied with the results of sleep hygiene, diphenhydramine and melatonin, then the doctor will recommend the next step. Do not be afraid to try expensive, designer sleeping pills. Start cheap.
The first thing you should do is take trazodone. It is an antidepressant, which causes side effects similar to diphenhydramine. A reason to use an antidepressant such as trazodone, is that many people suffering from insomnia are also depressed.
Trazodone has been safe and reliable for many years. 50 mg is the most common dosage for a good night of sleep. Because trazodone is a reliable drug and very affordable, you won’t see it advertised.
Next, you should take temazepam. Another reliable, old-fashioned medication that has been around for many years. Temazepam belongs to the same family as Valium and Xanax. It gives you the right amount of sedation and lasts for about eight hours. It is classified as Schedule IV, which means it has some addictive properties. Temazepam is not a drug that gets people “hooked”, so I wouldn’t worry about it.
If you still have problems after you’ve tried these medications, your doctor might recommend that you try another medication in the same family, such as temazepam. These medications are known as benzodiazepines. They all work in the same way and can cause drowsiness. They vary in the speed at which they work and the duration of their effects.
The next step will be costly. Your next step will be to look into brand-name drugs. Ambien is a good choice. Ambien is very popular and will soon become generic. Ambien CR is the new formulation. Ambien CR is not being promoted by the manufacturer as the patent expires soon. Ambien CR is a controlled release version of the drug. Ambiencr.com offers a coupon for a free trial.
You have many options, but they are all expensive. Lunesta or Sonata are two options. Sonata offers a four-day free trial, while Lunesta offers a four-day free trial.
Rozarem is a new drug that aids in sleep. It tricks the body into believing it has lots of melatonin. This is a brand new type of medication. These medications are very expensive, at approximately $7.00 per unit.
Because they aren’t seen on television or heard about them on radio, most people don’t realize the effectiveness of cheap generics. These drugs have worked for years so there’s no reason to start your therapy with costly prescription drugs.
My recommendations for sleeping pills are the same as my other suggestions. Start cheap and over-the-counter. Start with inexpensive, simple and proven remedies. Then, gradually increase in price. The more recent, brand-name drugs are well-known and heavily promoted. These drugs are very expensive due to their brand recognition and advertising.
Do not be tempted to go the costly route immediately. Your doctor will likely want to prescribe you the most expensive drug. Many people don’t know that their doctor is being paid by drug companies to prescribe these costly medications to them.
Good sleep is essential. It only costs a few dollars per night to get a good night’s sleep. Why pay hundreds of dollars for it?
