Posted on 10/26/2007 3:08:20 PM PDT by neverdem
Your dreams miss you.
Or so says a television commercial for Rozerem, the sleeping pill. In the commercial, the dreams involve Abraham Lincoln, a beaver and a deep-sea diver.
Not the stuff most dreams are made of. But if the unusual pitch makes you want to try Rozerem, consider that it costs about $3.50 a pill; gets you to sleep 7 to 16 minutes faster than a placebo, or fake pill; and increases total sleep time 11 to 19 minutes, according to an analysis last year.
If those numbers send you out to buy another brand, consider this, as well: Sleeping pills in general do not greatly improve sleep for the average person.
American consumers spend $4.5 billion a year for sleep medications. Their popularity may lie in a mystery that confounds researchers. Many people who take them think they work far better than laboratory measurements show they do.
An analysis of sleeping pill studies found that when people were monitored in the lab, newer drugs like Ambien, Lunesta and Sonata worked better than fake pills. But the results were not overwhelming, said the analysis, which was published this year and financed by the National Institutes of Health.
The analysis said that viewed as a group, the pills reduced the average time to go to sleep 12.8 minutes compared with fake pills, and increased total sleep time 11.4 minutes. The drug makers point to individual studies with better results.
Subjects who took older drugs like Halcion and Restoril fell asleep 10 minutes faster and slept 32 minutes longer than the placebo group. Paradoxically, when subjects were asked how well they slept, they reported better results, 52 extra minutes of sleep with the older drugs and 32 minutes with the newer drugs.
“People seem to be getting a lot of relief...?”
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
2400 IUs of calcium several hours before retiring helps me. Have some camomile tea but haven’t tried it yet. Tylenol PM is said not to be addictive, but it leaves me groggy in the AM. For younger women, 1200 IUs of calcium may be adequate.
With all that is going on in this country these days, is it any wonder Americans are having trouble sleeping?
I sometimes lay awake at night and can not sleep.
If I take just 1/2 of a walmart generic version
of over-the-counter “unisom” I will sleep like
a baby with no ill effects in the morning.
I only do it every now and then
when I just really need to get some sleep.
Because I have always had a fear of all drugs
and becoming dependent on them.
melatonin is about the best sleep inducer I’ve ever had.
Heck, I get better results with a shot of Vodka. :-p
A nice glass of red wine works wonders.
“But if the unusual pitch makes you want to try Rozerem...”
I have no need of the product...
but I LOVE the Rozerem commercials.
The reparte between the Abraham Lincoln character and the beaver
(woodchuck?) is sometimes just priceless.
Beat me too it.
FYI: Be careful with camomile tea if you’re allergic to ragweed.
Defect Suspected in Fabric of Space-Time
FReepmail me if you want on or off my health and science ping list.
Long-term use of Tylenol PM interferes with your memory. It prevents your brain from getting to the sleep stage where "memory compilation" happens, and that's why you feel scattered after being on it after a long time.
I take Trazadone when I get desperate (sleep-disturbed perimenopause), but the dreams on that stuff tend to be just nuts.
I just put Dr Laura on the radio.....works in 3 or 4 minutes and it’s free.
>Be careful with camomile tea if you’re allergic to ragweed.<
Thank you, Kim. I don’t think I am, but I’ll be careful.
You can build up an immunity to melatonin. At least I did.
You’re welcome! I am allergic to ragweed, I was lucky it wasn’t ragweed season when my “mother-n-law” unknowingly (LOL) gave it to me. :) I suffered minimal reactions.
They sure about that? Ambien inhibits short term memory from becoming long term. Maybe they just don't remember getting to sleep faster.
melatonin works for me
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