A great number of people face various sleep problems every day. Insomnia can occur due to constant nerve tension and stressful situations. Physical and mental fatigue can also cause insomnia.
Today we may find on the pharmacy shelves a huge selection of various medical slip aids. There are sleep aids among them, that are only available by doctor’s prescription, but there are also over the counter slip aids.
Over the counter sleep aids can be divided into two groups – over the counter sleeping pills and herbal sleep aids. Sometimes, people try to cope with their sleep problems on their own, without medical help. Well, there is nothing wrong with that.
Actually, people can safely use some tinctures and herbal teas as herbal sleep aids. Herbal sleep aids in tablets, based on valerian, motherwort and chamomile provide good sedative effects on the central nervous system of people.
Such natural sleep aids help to cope with irritability, anxiety and insomnia. However, a therapeutic effect of herbal sleep aids depends on the individual sensitivity of every patient.
It should be said that herbal sleep aids are one of the most common over the counter sleep aids. They are almost harmless and cause side effects rarely. In high nervous irritability and periodic sleep disorders, people do not always need to take sleeping pills.
An effective calming effect is provided by over the counter sleeping pills, containing natural plant ingredients. Well, of course, such medications cannot cure a chronic insomnia. However, they will help people to calm the nervous system and fall asleep faster.
Over-the-counter sleeping pills are the medications that contain melatonin. Melatonin is a hormone, helping to regulate the sleep-wake cycles. It is available in a synthetic form and causes a mild sedative effect on the human body.
Melatonin can relax the body and reduce the response reactions to external stimuli, resulting in a smooth falling asleep. Moreover, the clinical trials data show that over the counter sleep aids with melatonin can be used for treatment of insomnia in children with ADHD.
During clinical trials, scientists have found that large doses of melatonin might cause the worsening of memory and mental working capacity, severe headaches and nightmares.
Over the counter sleep pills, containing melatonin are quickly metabolized and excreted from the body. Such over the counter sleep drugs are not accumulated in the body tissues and never provoke adverse reactions.
Due to safety and effectiveness, people can buy this kind of over the counter sleep medications at pharmacies and even at the airport kiosks. A great number of over the counter sleep aids contain antihistamine drugs.
The problem is that sedative effect of this kind of over the counter sleep aids may last much longer than people have expected. Even when a person wakes up, the drug keep working in the body system for a long time.
That is why, over the counter sleep aids that contain antihistamines are used for the treatment of severe sleep disorders and insomnia. It often happens that the falling asleep problem is caused by mild pain.
In this case, analgesic drugs can become exactly the sleep aids, which helps to solve the sleep disorder problem. Analgesic medications, containing acetaminophen or ibuprofen do not cause sleepiness the next day.
Despite the fact that you can buy over the counter sleep aids at virtually all pharmacies and kiosks, before you begin using over the counter sleep aids, you need to consult an insomnia therapist.