One of the most common remedies for insomnia is sleeping pills, but when overused, addiction is inevitable. Use these preventive tips to help you stay healthy.
Noted below are a few ways in which you can make sure you combat insomnia safely;
- Seek Advice
If you have insomnia, make an appointment with your doctor to get a precise diagnosis. Having a sleep issue or medical concern, such as depression, may be identified by your doctor or a sleep specialist. Insomnia might disguise itself as an underlying problem that demands attention if treated without a comprehensive examination.
Always speak to your healthcare professional or doctor about any health issues and medications, including prescription, over-the-counter, and complementary treatments. If your doctor recommends sleeping tablets, they must ensure that they will not interfere with other drugs or exacerbate existing medical conditions.
Read all instructions and package inserts carefully before using any sleep aids or medicines to ensure safe use and learn about potential adverse effects.
- Create a Schedule
Make sure you’ve allotted enough time for a whole night’s sleep, which is seven to eight hours for most individuals. You may still feel foggy if you use a sleep aid and wake up after only a few hours.
If you have a sleep onset condition, these medications should be taken 20-30 minutes before bedtime. It’s crucial to go into bed as quickly as possible after taking a sleeping pill, usually within 15 minutes for best effects.
Most prescription sleep drugs reach their maximum levels 1 to 12 hours after being used.
- Go Straight to Bed
Preventing complicated sleep-related behaviors can be as simple as going to bed within a few minutes of taking a prescribed sleeping tablet. People on sleep medicines have eaten, made phone calls, had sex, and even driven while not fully awake, according to the FDA, and they have no memory of doing so.
Rather than entering from a sleeping state, people enter a “sleep-walking” phase while still awake. Sleepwalking can have inevitable unfavorable consequences, such as eating disorders or strange conduct.
- Report Side Effects
Ask your doctor if you need to lower your dosage or go off sleep medication if you feel tired, groggy, or dizzy throughout the day. Tell your doctor about any other issues you’re having. Dizziness, extended drowsiness, headache, bloating, nausea, abdominal pain, constipation, and, in rare cases, severe allergic responses or face swelling are all possible adverse effects of prescription sleeping drugs.
Side effects are also possible with over-the-counter sleep medications. Diphenhydramine, for example, a common antihistamine found in drugstore sleep aids, can produce dizziness, cognitive issues, and extended tiredness that lasts all day.
Who is most susceptible to adverse effects? Patients older than 65 and those with medical issues or on other medications are at a higher risk. Before attempting any insomnia products, these people should speak with their pharmacist or doctor.
- Make Some Changes
Doctors can help short-term insomnia caused by stress, jet lag, illness, or other transient issues with sleep medicines.
On the other hand, some patients take medications for long-term sleeplessness that can last months or even years. Cognitive-behavioral treatment may help these patients. A professional sleep therapist employs various strategies, including those that aid in controlling negative thoughts and fears that keep patients awake.
People with insomnia may benefit from a change in their lifestyle. They should establish a regular sleep schedule, avoiding daytime naps, and avoiding coffee, alcohol, or nicotine for at least 4-6 hours before bed are some examples of suggested methods.
- Never Mix With Alcohol/Nervous System Depressants
Bad reactions may occur if you mix alcohol and sleeping aids. When you combine sleep aids or sleep medicines with alcohol, even a tiny amount, you’ll feel more sedated, and you may get disoriented, dizzy, or faint.
- Avoid Driving After Taking a Sleeping Tablet
You won’t be alert, so that means these activities can become dangerous.
- Stick to the Recommended Dosage
Doctors will stress the importance of avoiding increasing your dosage on your terms as you may become more tolerant, which might lead to physical addiction with older benzodiazepine based medicine.
There is little doubt that using large amounts of benzodiazepines over a long time, then increasing the dosage and stopping the medicine, can lead to severe withdrawal symptoms. Those people are dependent, and benzodiazepine withdrawal can be dangerous; it can even be fatal.
With the newer GABA prescription medicines, this is considerably less of an issue. They’ve shown that they’re less likely to be abused.
Individuals with persistent primary insomnia appear to be able to use these drugs safely and effectively, with no indication of dosage escalation or significant withdrawal symptoms when interrupted.
Taking a more significant dose than recommended, on the other hand, increases the likelihood of complicated sleep-related behavior.
- Be Upfront About Other Medication
Patients frequently use prescription and over-the-counter sleep aids. The main issue is that their doctors have no idea what they’re taking, which increases the risk of different ‘drug-drug combinations.’
It’s also a red flag if you’re using many sleep aids. It usually denotes a last-ditch effort to discover the correct prescription (or combination of treatments) to solve the condition. It’s virtually always a waste of time and money.
Instead, consumers must work closely with their doctors to determine the best drug for them. People who are suffering from pain or sadness, for example, maybe losing sleep. Before individuals can sleep better, they may need to address these difficulties.
- Always Consult Your Doctor When Considering A Change
If you’ve been taking prescription sleep medications for a long time, don’t quit suddenly to avoid withdrawal symptoms, including anxiety, nausea, and muscular cramps.
Not everyone suffers withdrawal symptoms; it varies in part on the sort of medication, how often, and for how long you’ve been using it. Ask your doctor if you need to taper off the drug and how to do so instead of attempting to do it yourself.
Withdrawing from sleeping tablets can be accomplished in two ways. You might start by progressively reducing the frequency. If you take the medication every night, you can skip one night a week. After you’ve gotten used to it, you can miss two nights and gradually wean off.
If you struggle with insomnia and are looking for a solution, OTC sleeping aids may be the answer but make sure you do plenty of research before going down this route. There are various other natural remedies and possible solutions for your sleeping trouble that won’t risk your health and cause a dangerous addiction.