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
Holy Cow! what happened?
Thank you. Please, no. Thank you all.
A video (or audio) of an Al Gore speech.
LOL! If not, try Michael Medved! :)
Maybe people sleep better at home than when monitored in a lab.
I never heard about elemental calcium in International Units. Usually you see a calcium salt with the weight expressed in milligrams.
Ambien was horrible. Knocks me out at first, but then I turned into a bizarre zombie creature half awake/half asleep.
Sonata was like a 7 hour coma and didn’t feel rested afterward. Like your psyche never resets.
You are right! I just looked, and the vitamin D part is in IUs. The calcium is in miligrams. Thank you.
Sominex knocks me stone cold for 12 hours.
beer.
specifically: Fat Tire.
If 1 doesn’t work, drink another.
Big side effects, and not enjoyable, either. I don't understand why people take this crap recreationally.
I think I did too, sort of. After taking melatonin for years I ran out and didn't replace it. It is true my sleep was iffy for the first week or so, but then started sleeping just fine again as I had been while on melatonin. So there was a minor dependency, but maybe a level of tolerance also, and I seem no worse off now not taking it.
Wanted to say also that diphenhydramine (Benadryl) works like a charm for me, but much TOO well. One tablet and I won’t wake up for minor irritations like having the covers off me and freezing to death, two tablets I wouldn’t wake up for emergencies including the smoke alarm, and three I might not wake up at all.
According to the commercials, one of the side-effects of this sleeping medicine is “it makes you drowsy!” Isn’t that the whole point?
If you have 50 mg tablets, you can break them in half, roughly, even though they are not scored. Using a sharp blade also works.
Lunesta was OK but in the beginning the dreams were awful! And I swear I could taste metal bananas. lol I can’t afford it now so am back on Ambien when I need it. I prefer not to take a sleep-aid but insomnia is brutal.
I find that melatonin works better than that, at a small fraction of the price. Some people do react to it, though, so exercise caution when starting on it.
They stock pill cutters in all pharmacies, and they are inexpensive. Work better than a razor blade.
The one I have has a compartment to keep the pills too
I never understood sleep dope.
When I’m high....I prefer to stay awake and enjoy it.
OMG!
I’ve taken Ambien and Sonata for short periods of time before, and for me they worked WONDERS! I can see why people get hooked on them. You just take a pill, and then you just go to sleep! No feeling drugged, no struggle, no tossing and turning, just sweet, sweet slumber. It’s awesome. Because I hate not being able to fall asleep. If any terrorists wanted to torture me or get me to reveal state secrets, all they’d have to do would be to keep me awake a night or two.
Consequently, my doctor won’t prescribe sleeping pills to me except only a few days’ worth at a time, and only for special occasions like a long trip. I think the grand total he’s given to me over the past 15 years is...15 sleeping pills. But they’re awesome.
ping
If they really want to sell, they need a better disclaimer. For example, “If you experience an incredible enhancement in your sexual pleasure this may be a serious side effect. Please consult your physician.” That should work, it did for Levietra.
melatonin only lasts 4 hrs and I wake up again
I’ve used melatonin when I’m jet lagged from an Asia or Europe trip. I adjust going over in a day or two, but coming back wipes me out for a week(for Asia, Europe is 2 days). Using melatonin for two or three nights cut that Asian lag down by two days and for Europe, it’s just one day.
What I’ve found it does for me is eliminate waking up every hour. I still wake up every 3 hours for a few minutes, but it eliminates the in-betweens.
I probably only use it 6 times a year so I certainly haven’t built a tolerance to it.
I was on Ambein for years, worked great at first, but built up a tolerance over time (became expensive). Begin to have some memory problems and got a little scared. Finally weaned myself off and switched to OTC Melatonin worked great. You can build up a tolerance over time, but still cheaper than prescription aids. I started on 3mg per night two years ago and have gone up to 6 mg at present. Tolerance seems to be slow and at a rate that I can accept.
Without Melatonin, it can take me hours to get to sleep. With Melatonin, about 30 min.
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