Sleeping aids are used when a person has difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep. With their busy schedules, many people are not getting the required eight hours sleep. To get adequate rest, people can take medications before going to bed that will help them to doze off quickly and stay asleep throughout the night.
What to Look for
There has many drugs that can help you to sleep better. Among the most popular are the extended release tablets that typically get you to sleep within 15 to 30 minutes. A person should not get up before the full eight hours are up, otherwise they will feel drowsy. Previously, Benzodiazepies were the main sleep aids used, and they are still used for cases in which the medication needs to remain in your system longer, such as for sleepwalking and night terrors. When people can't sleep, they may be suffering from stress, anxiety, depression, pain or an inappropriate sleep environment. Insomnia is a common cause of depression and antidepressants may offer some relief.
Common Pitfalls
There are two pitfalls to using sleeping aids that could have serious repercussions. These drugs normally cause drowsiness, so you must not drive or operate machinery while the aid is in your system. Sleeping aids can also become addictive. In March 2007, the Food and Drug Admission (FDA) issued a warning for prescription sleep drugs, alerting patients that they can sometimes cause rare allergic reactions and complex sleep-related behaviors, including sleep horrors.
Some medications can cause insomnia. These include medications to treat cold and allergy symptoms (including decongestants and antihistamines), high blood pressure (antihypertensives), asthma and pain (if they contain caffeine), heart disease (betablockers) and thyroid disease. Birth control medication may cause insomnia. Sleep disorders also can make a person sleep poorly. The most common sleep disorders are restless legs syndrome, a condition in which you experience a crawling feeling in your legs. This feeling can only be relieved by moving. A bed partner's sleep apnea, a breathing disorder which causes the partner to snore loudly while sleeping, can also keep you awake.
There are several natural ways to make a person get to sleep. These include having a hot bath, getting more light during the day, not lying down on the bed and worrying about problems, listening to relaxing music and exercising more. By using some of these methods, a person can expect to feel more restful in the morning and less stressed.
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