How to Choose Your Over the Counter Sleep Pills
There are dozens of different over the counter sleep pills available today. How do you even begin to choose between the different types of OTC medications? I had no idea where to start when I was plagued with insomnia. I didn’t know if herbal was best, or if it didn’t matter if there were non-herbal ingredients. I also wondered if I should just see a doctor and buy expensive, prescription sleep aids.
It turns out that a lot depends on the type of insomnia you have. And I didn’t even know there were different types. I thought that if you couldn’t sleep well for more than a few days, you had insomnia, period. This isn’t all there is to it.
The insomnia that many people have at some point or another is called transient insomnia. Transient fits, I suppose, because it comes and goes. It can last one night or several, but is usually related to a current stressor. And once the stress goes away, so does the insomnia. Haven’t we all been bothered by this at least now and then?
Acute insomnia lasts longer, usually for at least three weeks. This is a longer-term problem that can rob you of sleep for up to six months. There will be nights that you do sleep with this type of insomnia, but the majority of nights will find sleep elusive.
Chronic insomnia can go on for months or years. Chronic fatigue, depression, distractibility, lack of concentration and general fuzzy-headedness occur with this type of problem. Chronic insomnia is something you should talk about with your doctor, instead of looking at over the counter sleep pills. Usually with chronic insomnia, there’s a medical problem that’s the reason for the lack of sleep, and it should be dealt with.
For transient and acute insomnia, over the counter sleep pills are a valuable option. Some opt for prescription pills, but this carries some risks you might not be aware of. In today’s world where some people talk sleeping pills to sleep, wake-up pills to get up in the morning and a variety of mood-altering pills throughout the day, people look at sleeping pills as something pretty harmless. But prescription sleep aids are highly addictive. It’s not difficult to become dependent on them, and unable to fall asleep with the pill.
Over the counter sleep pills, on the other hand, don’t have the heavily addictive ingredients you find in sleep aids that are prescription only. OTC pills are usually less expensive, as well. And because the herbal over the counter pills have natural ingredients, there’s a bit less chance that you’ll have any kind of problem with the pills.
There are over the counter pills to help you sleep that aren’t herbal, as well. These can work just as well as herbal remedies, but still skip the tendency to addict users and make them unable to sleep without a pill. If you just need help sleeping occasionally, then these over the counter pills can help you finally get some rest.
Over the Counter Sleeping Aids: Your Best Options
There are lots of different reasons that a person might want to purchase over the counter sleeping aids. Some people are just chronic insomniacs, who lay in bed for hours every night because they just can’t seem to get to sleep. Others are frequent travelers, and need a way to reorient their sleep schedules after suffering from jet lag. Others might be suffering from some sort of pain that prevents them from sleeping normally.
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Whatever the reason is for needing sleep aids, it can be a hassle to have to get a prescription from a doctor for them. Maybe you don’t have a chronic sleeping problem, but just really need to get to some sleep before a big day tomorrow. The only real option then is something that you can get over the counter. There are many different brand-name and store-brand versions of sleeping pills available at drug stores and department store pharmacies.
Which to choose?
There are basically just two options when it comes to over the counter sleeping aids. You have your antihistamines, and you have your herbal-based aids. Antihistamines work by affecting your central nervous system, making it slow down and thus causing you to feel drowsy. It is the same sort of medication used for many anti-allergy medications, which is why some of those cause drowsiness.
For herbal remedies, few people really understand how or why they work, but many people swear by them. Some of the herbs used in herbal sleep aids include passionflower, chamomile, and valerian root.
The big concerns for most people when it comes to sleep aids are a) does it actually work, and b) does it leave you overly drowsy the next day? A lot of antihistamines have this problem – they seem to dwell in the system for a very long time. It is as if they work too well, leaving people struggling to get out of bed when they do wake up.
Most people will tell you that the antihistamine-based over the counter sleeping aids work well, but they aren’t without their problems. They are the biggest culprits when it comes to people feeling drowsy the next day. Another problem that can crop up with these sleeping aids is that people eventually can become dependent on them, and unable to sleep without them. That problem is then made worse because the body grows used to the pills and so it takes more and more of them to get the same effect.
As far as herbal sleeping aids are concerned, the results are often mixed. For the same product, you may find one person saying it works wonders, and another saying it doesn’t work at all. It’s hard to tell if some of these claims might be based on the placebo effect.
For isolated uses, sleeping aids with antihistamines are probably the best bet. You can at least be sure they’ll work most of the time. Try to take them early so you aren’t drowsy late into the next day. Also, if you have long-term problems sleeping, you should contact a doctor for a more permanent solution.
Best OTC Sleeping Pills to Help You Sleep
Sometimes, it seems that insomnia just strikes completely randomly. One night, you just find that you’re unable to get the rest that you need. Or, maybe there’s an external cause, such as a stressful day at work or a noisy party next door. Whatever the reason, over the counter sleeping pills can really come to your rescue in these situations. A lot of convenience stores and late-night pharmacies carry sleep aids, so they’re easy to get a hold of.
Before you decide to use sleeping aids, you should know what the best OTC sleeping pills are. Which ones will give you the best nights sleep without any nasty side effects? Unfortunately, the situation is not that cut-and-dried. The truth is that most over the counter sleeping pills you’ll find will do pretty much the exact same thing, whether they’re the store brand or a well-known name brand.
Most common sleep aids work because of the antihistamines in them. Antihistamines work by suppressing the body’s central nervous system slightly, which causes you to feel drowsy. The main problem that occurs is that it takes awhile for your body to process the antihistamines, which often leads to prolonged drowsiness the next day. Sometimes, once a person finally gets to sleep with the help of sleep aids, they find they have trouble waking up and end up sleeping in later than they’d like.
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For the most part, the majority of the over the counter sleep aids you’ll find have a similar or the same exact makeup. That means that any one that you use will likely give you the same results. There’s really no way around the excessive drowsiness. Some people just aren’t affected by it, but others should try to plan around it. It’s a good idea to take a sleep aid as early as possible so it’s out of your system by early the next day.
While the pharmaceutical sleep aids are mostly very similar, there is always the natural option. Some people swear by natural sleep aids and claim that they are the best type of OTC sleeping pills that you can find. They are a little trickier to find, however, and you may need to visit a nutrition or health supplement store to find what you’re looking for.
Two of the most popular natural sleeping aids are the hormone melatonin and the herb valerian. Melatonin naturally exists in the human body, and it’s thought that it helps to regulate our internal sense of time. Boosting the melatonin in your system may help your body “sync up” it’s internal clock and get you back on track for a good night’s sleep.
Valerian is an herb that is believed that help people fall asleep faster and remain asleep for longer. However, there doesn’t seem to be a lot of scientific research to back up this claim, and no one seems to know why it has this effect. A natural solution may or may not be the best type of OTC sleeping pills for you. You may just have to test it out and find your own results.
