The majority of patients with insomnia take drugs with a sedative effect to fall asleep faster, less frequently wake up at night and improve the quality of their sleep.
In prolonged use at high doses, many sleeping drafts may induce a variety of adverse events. The most common of these are daytime sleepiness and fatigue. Before you buy sleeping pills, find out about their potential side effects, contraindications and benefits.
You may ask the pharmacist about the drawbacks and positive effects of sleeping pills before you buy them at your local drugstore. You also may read about the sleeping pills side effects in a variety of online reviews or feedbacks from other patients.
At present, sleeping pills allocation in a separate group is conditional. This is due to the fact that the sedating effect is characteristic of many drugs of different pharmacological classes:
- antihistamines, including Diphenhydramine (Benadryl);
- non-benzodiazepines, the most popular of which today are Zopiclone (Zimovane), Zaleplon (Sonata) and Zolpidem (Ambien);
- benzodiazepines, such as Loprazolam (Sonin) or Flurazepam (Dalmane);
- barbiturates – Diazepam (Valium) or Chlordiazepoxide (Librium);
- sedating antidepressants, for example, Trazodone (Oleptro) or Doxepin (Silenor).
These sleeping pills from different pharmacological groups differ by their action mechanism, intensity and duration of the sedative effect, and other clinical characteristics. Their possible side effects also differ:
antihistamines may induce constipation, dry mouth, confusion, urinary retention;
frequent side effects of sleeping pills from the benzodiazepines class are changes in sleep patterns and insomnia relapse;
sedating antidepressants may cause cardiac arrhythmia, orthostatic hypotension, priapism, or weight gain;
side effects of non-benzodiazepine sleeping pills include cognitive disorders, as well as memory or attention impairment, and the so-called “rebound insomnia”;
barbiturates may cause withdrawal symptoms, tolerance or physical dependence more frequently, than other sedatives.
Because of such a wide range of undesirable effects of different medications, it may be quite difficult to choose the most safe and effective one. So, before you buy sleeping pills, a more thorough reading about different drugs classes and their side effects on online reviews might help you come to a decision.
Sleeping pills side effects, such as lethargy or nausea, may manifest on the next day after the pills intake. The frequency and intensity of adverse events depend on the tablet half-life, which may be:
- short – less than 5 hours,
- medium – 5 to 15 hours,
- long – more than 15 hours.
There are several popular today sleeping pills, which are removed very quickly from the body (three to eight hours) and have minimal risk of side effects. These drugs include Triazolam (Halcion), Zolpidem (Ambien) and Zaleplon (Sonata).
Due to such a short half-life, they have a lower risk of side effects, than other sleeping pills. However, most of these drugs are excreted much longer (up to four days), and may accumulate in prolonged use.
Furthermore, hypnotics may induce addiction in prolonged use, which makes them less effective. This sleeping pills side effect is the reason, why therapists do not recommend taking them regularly, over a long period.
If you have been taking high doses of sleeping pills for a long time, and they caused undesirable effects, discuss it with your doctor. Before you buy sleeping pills online, read the information about their half-life and possible side effects.
This knowledge will help you choose the correct therapeutic dose of sleeping pills, and avoid its adverse events. Possible side effects with frequent use of high sleeping pills doses include:
- sleepwalking,
- hallucinations,
- dizziness,
- irritability
At single use, sleeping pills may cause side effects of mild or moderate intensity that pass quickly. Do not take high doses of sleeping drafts to reduce the risk of overdose and such undesirable effects, as hypertension or respiratory depression.
If you have been taking sleeping pills for a long time, you should lower its dose gradually. Abrupt withdrawal from drug therapy for insomnia may be accompanied by withdrawal syndrome, which is expressed through such sleeping pills side effects, as:
- lethargy,
- nervousness,
- anxiety,
- hyperreflexia,
- hyperactivity
Each drug with a sedative effect goes through multiple trials before the release on the international market. These includes tests for possible side effects. Sleeping pills in your local pharmacy are, therefore, 100% safe, so it is ok to buy them there.
As an alternative to prescription sleeping pills, you may buy sleeping pills without side effects with valerian root or melatonin. These supplements have a weak sedative effect and are less effective than medicines, but have a more favorable safety profile.
Melatonin has a minimal risk of adverse events, so they are often prescribed to patients older than 55 years with prolonged or constant insomnia. Order sleeping pills without side effects online right now to fall sleep faster and improve the quality of your night’s rest today.