sleep aid?

[FlyingDumbo]

What do you take? Does it work?

Benadryl, tylenol PM, and melatonin have all failed me.

My Dr gave me ambien, I am afraid to try it!

 

[Miniefan]

simply sleep, have you tried that? try to set up a nice bedtime routine if possible. Also avoid eating close to bedtime, it can interfere with your sleep, try to cut off eating at 7-8pm, take a tepid shower before bedtime, if you take a screaming hot shower or bath it will get your heart rate up and then you'll end up having to calm down again. good luck. hope you get some rest.

Kim

 

[Pakey]

Ambien is my friend. I wish I could take it every night but I only take it when I fail to fall asleep after trying for 90 minutes. It's such a better sleep.

 

[katesorad]

I take Melatonin supplements! I love them. They're less than $5 for a big bottle at Wal Mart. Melatonin is something already found in your body.. it just supplements what you already have. It's all natural. I take 3mg, but I started off at 1mg, after my doctor suggested it.

 

[DizBelle]

I use two products. Snooze-In from Vitamin Shoppe. And Doxylamine Succinate. Unisom is a brand name of it but I use the generic.

 

[Hootiss]

Ambien is my friend. I wish I could take it every night but I only take it when I fail to fall asleep after trying for 90 minutes. It's such a better sleep.

Mine too

 

[KellyWasHere]

Since you already said melatonin didn't work, I would recommend generic unisom too, at least to try before you go to Ambien.

 

[LJC1861]

I use Walmart's Equate brand "Sleep Gels." They work very quickly and really well. I get a good night sleep with no 'hangover' effect the next day.

Good Luck.

Linda

 

[maelstrom]

Benadryl and Tylenol PM are the same thing: diphenhydramine. A lot of sleep aids are. Check the ingredients before you buy; if it's diphenhydramine, it's not going to help you.

Doxylamine Succinate is what is found in Unisom and some forms of Nyquil.

Melatonin is naturally occurring and I've heard many success stories with it.

I love Ambien, but it's not right for everyone. But don't be *afraid* to try it. But do make sure that you have someone in the house with you the first night or two that you take it, because people have been known to sleep drive, sleep eat, sleep internet shop, etc while on Ambien. I never had those problems, but better to be safe than sorry.

 

[MushyMushy]

I love Ambien. Just make sure when you take it, you go straight to bed. Don't wait around for it to kick in.

 

[Bilberry]

I take a couple sleep aids. I take 3mgs of time release melatonin. I've found it helpful also for lowering blood pressure.

Melatonin for high blood pressure?
http://heartscanblog.blogspot.com/2008/05/melatonin-for-high-blood-pressure.html

Additionally, I take magnesium which has been found to help with sleep. I've also read about cheese helping with snoozing. So on the rare occasion where I find myself wide awake at night, I'll eat a few slices of cheese and that seems to help.

 

[Miniefan]

Benadryl and Tylenol PM are the same thing: diphenhydramine. A lot of sleep aids are. Check the ingredients before you buy; if it's diphenhydramine, it's not going to help you.

Doxylamine Succinate is what is found in Unisom and some forms of Nyquil.

Melatonin is naturally occurring and I've heard many success stories with it.

I love Ambien, but it's not right for everyone. But don't be *afraid* to try it. But do make sure that you have someone in the house with you the first night or two that you take it, because people have been known to sleep drive, sleep eat, sleep internet shop, etc while on Ambien. I never had those problems, but better to be safe than sorry.

And you say don't be afraid to take it, lol. I don't mean to laugh but that stuff sounds scary to me, and I probably would be afraid to take it.

Kim

 

[KimR]

I typically take both melatonin and valerian every night. If that doesn't work, I'll take benadryl, unisom with some wine, or ambien.

I know many people have had issues with ambien but aside from experiencing rather odd visual effects, I've not had any problems. I don't go to bed immediately after taking it, though, mainly because I never know how long it's going to take to start working. Sometimes it takes up to an hour to be effective and I'm not going to lay in bed that long - that kind of defeats the purpose. I'll take a pill around 11:00 and when things start looking strange to me, I go to bed. Well, sometimes I'll stay up a bit just because it's interesting to watch inanimate objects come to life.

 

[AKL_Megs]

Unisom, holy crap. It KNOCKS you out.

I was taking it as recommended by my OB for morning sickness, but it was a little too much.

It DOES make you sleep, but be prepared to be groggy the next day.

 

[ilovejack02]

Don't drink and take Ambien that is where some people's issues lie .

I only take a half of the smallest dosage . Works like a charm.

 

[Laura24]

on the Simply Sleep. by Tylenol. I take one and it gently puts me to sleep. Best part is I wake up without that hangover feeling that other products had given me. I suffer chronic pain from arthritis and this definitely takes the edge off.

 

[Nette]

Unisom, holy crap. It KNOCKS you out.

I was taking it as recommended by my OB for morning sickness, but it was a little too much.

It DOES make you sleep, but be prepared to be groggy the next day.

Not me... it made me wide awake.

I took ambien when I was at the end of my pregnancy and I couldn't sleep for ANYTHING. Only took 1/2 the lowest prescribable dose though. Start small... don't be afraid.

Does anyone know what the statistics are on the sleep activities that Ambien supposedly can cause?

 

[bicker]

I use one of two approaches:

This stuff is L-Theanine, 5HTP & Melatonin. So basically it gets you sleepy and makes up for some imbalance that might make it hard to sleep. (I'm not sure I'm going to be using this much anymore, since the 5HTP seems to be animal-derived. Grrr. But if you're not a vegetarian, you shouldn't care.)

This stuff is diphenhydramine (Benadryl). It is a more brute-force approach, causing drowsiness as a side-effect of its innocuous therapeutic action.

 

[bellebud]

What do you take? Does it work?

Benadryl, tylenol PM, and melatonin have all failed me.

My Dr gave me ambien, I am afraid to try it!

I want to ask WHY you think you're not sleeping... are you not able to fall asleep? are you falling asleep and then waking up and not able to go back to sleep? is your mind racing? are you not tired enough?

I'd be afraid of ambien too, with all the stories you hear.

so what's up w/ your not sleeping?

 

[bicker]

That seems reasonable, given that the standard, relatively benign approaches have not worked.

By the same token, you'd expect a good doctor to have asked that to the extent it was appropriate.