Sleeping Pills

[Samzi]

Sorry if this is completely stupid, I'm sure it is. I went through this period a few months back where I was put on Lexapro, and one of the many side effects I had was that I could not sleep.

I started taking cold medicine to make me sleep, and then Tylonal PM, and then straight OTC sleeping pills. They all say non-addictive on them, but I'm not so sure anymore.

Even after switching my medicine to something where not sleeping is not a side effect, most nights I find I need to take something to sleep. Often if I don't I wake up a lot through the night and feel groggy in the morning. But when I do take them I sleep like a baby, need less sleep, and am full of energy in the morning. I've also often ended up having to take more just to fall asleep. Some nights I'm desperate to sleep and take double or triple the recommended dose.

I know its pathetic and all but I tried talking to my friend and she blew me off. I just want to know if this is a real problem, or am I wasting space and peoples time by posting this?

[~invisible~girl~]

Whatever it says on the package, anything that helps you get to sleep has some potential to cause sleep dependence (what you described). You're not wasting space at all. My suggestion would be if there's a time when it wouldn't be critical to get enough sleep (like if you're a student, then during a school break), and don't take them even if you have trouble sleeping - eventually you'll be tired enough to sleep without them - and see if your body is able to go back to its natural sleep patterns. If that doesn't help or isn't possible, then the only other thing I can recommend is to talk to your doctor about it, since he/she probably knows more about it than I do, although other people on here might also have more suggestions than that.

On a side note, I've always found that OTC sleeping pills actually kept me up rather than helping me sleep. Although, I also couldn't sleep after I ODed on something that contained both antihistamines and opiates, so maybe I'm just weird.

[blondiebear]

The active ingredient in otc sleeping pills and tylenol pm is the same thing I think.
I don't think I'd take the time to experiment with not taking them. Just talk to your doctor about what is happening.
Any thing can be addictive. I'm very careful about what I take and how I take it.
Pardon the joke but right now I'm detoxing from chocolate ice cream. I was that addicted to it.

Hope this helps.