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  • BDD Moderators: Keif’ Richards | negrogesic

Sleep inducing drugs suggestions

Amadeus-

Amadeus-

Greenlighter
Joined
Oct 21, 2015
Messages
14
I hope this type of question is OK for these forums. If not, I do apologize.

My situation is such that my natural sleep cycle is from about 4 a.m. to 11 a.m. or noon. It's been that way since as long as I can remember. Even when I worked as a high school teacher for 3 years, my body never adjusted and the last day was just as miserable as the first. Fortunately, my schedule is now such that I very rarely have to wake up early in the morning, so for 90% of my life, I'm actually able to sleep the hours that work best for my body.

However, for those days that I do have to wake up early, I end up being very anxious about it beforehand, and am pretty miserable. Therefore, I was wondering if is a drug out there that can reliably put you to sleep after imbibing and then still allow you to wake up 7-8 hours later without being "too" groggy. In other words, when I have an early morning appointment, I'd love to be able to take a pill at 9 p.m., be assured of being asleep by 10 p.m. and easily wake up 7-8 hours later.

I plan to talk to my doctor about this next time I go in; however, she is just a primary care physician (not a sleep specialist) ..so, I would love to have some suggestions, especially if folks have experiences to share.

Thanks!

(It probably doesn't matter for my question; however, I'm about 40, 6'1", around 220 pounds.)
 
There are actually good OTC sleep aids available, the first-generation antihistamines like doxylamine or diphenhydramine. Possibly you don't even need a full dose, doxylamine is quite strong & for me, 12.5mg are really enough.

Hydroxyzine can be good too, but I think it's Rx-only. This one is actually anxiolytic too.

No need for these neuroleptics like Seroquel etc. that get thrown around like candy these days... (the way by which they act as sedatives is actually H1 histamine antagonism!) and the GABAergics not either, if you respond to the antihistamines. They are by far less addictive afaik.

If your sleep problems are due to shift working or jet lag etc. you might consider giving melatonin a try. It's available dirt cheap off eBay etc. and is much safer than the new money generating prescription-analogue agomelatine which can cause liver damage(!!)

:)
 
dopamimetic said:
There are actually good OTC sleep aids available, the first-generation antihistamines like doxylamine or diphenhydramine. Possibly you don't even need a full dose, doxylamine is quite strong & for me, 12.5mg are really enough.

Hydroxyzine can be good too, but I think it's Rx-only. This one is actually anxiolytic too.

No need for these neuroleptics like Seroquel etc. that get thrown around like candy these days... (the way by which they act as sedatives is actually H1 histamine antagonism!) and the GABAergics not either, if you respond to the antihistamines. They are by far less addictive afaik.

:)
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Thanks for the feedback -- I really appreciate you taking the time to write!

I haven't really tried anything, so I can certainly try the OTC stuff if you really think it's good. I'm just worried because if I try to go to sleep without any aid, then I'll lay there for HOURS because my body simply won't shut down until it's ready to sleep.

The good news though is that I don't have problems sleeping at all. In fact, I can easily sleep 8-9 hours, even at 40. (It's just the timing of the sleep that is a problem.) So, I'm not too worried about the addiction issue because I would only need to take them on the rare times that I need to sleep for an early morning appointment or flight.

Thanks again!
 
Really try out doxylamine then, and/or the melatonin. There is conflicting evidence for melatonin though, it does not seem to work for everyone and possibly needs to be either time-released and/or taken over several days, at the right dose with sometimes less being more.

If the hangover from doxylamine is too strong, then things become more complicated. There are very few short-acting drugs available that only help you to fall asleep, the only one I know of is zolpidem - it's abusable so they don't like to prescribe it really any more, but I think as you're not an adolescent any more ;) you'll be able to get it. It's acting quick and gets inactivated by your body in just 2-3 hours.

Happy if I can help you :) there's too much going wrong currently all over the world and especially with medicine / Big Pharma..
 
dopamimetic said:
Happy if I can help you :) there's too much going wrong currently all over the world and especially with medicine / Big Pharma..
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Absolutely! And, yes, your replies are very helpful -- thanks again.

It's interesting that, as you said, there are very few short-acting drugs available that only help you fall asleep. You'd think that creating such drugs would be good business for pharmaceutical companies...but, perhaps it's just a hard nut to crack.

And, completely off-topic, I've always thought that if someone could develop a drug that could SAFELY put toddlers to sleep, it'd be amazing (and a huge cash cow.) But, then again, you'd think that by 2015 we'd have a REAL medical solution for regrowing hair *sigh*
 
I think there is actually a hair-loss preventing or even reversing solution available since quite some time: Minoxidil. And we have things like Finasteride too. :)

Somewhat the pharmaceutical industry is notorious in not being creative. I'm no professional at all, but I fully agree with you that these days it would be so easy for educated professionals to design any drug you'd like (okay, more or less). But the approval process is such a mess, with unreliable animal tests (due to metabolic / genetic differences, and when it comes to psychopharms, there's the thing that these animal models are skewed because they are living in small lab cages... this truly amazing study is more than 30 years old and they are still doing the same faults!!) being an absolute must etc ...
 
In chronological order, I would first advise an antihistamine (doxylamine then benadryl aka. Diph) otc in pharmacies.
Then Theralene / alimenazine next in line its Rx but safer than a lot of sleep aid, and has far stronger sedative properties.
Next the Z-drugs , great to get to sleep but useless if you wake up during the night, due to very short duration and half life (zopiclone, Zolpidem and Eszopiclone I think)

If that doesn't work then there are strong hypnotic Rx benzos from Flunitrazepam / rohypnol to the far safer Lormetazepam / Noctamide and everything in between.

Depends also on the root causes of your insomnia. For many a good cuppa of St John Wort's before bed does the job.

Hope this is comprehensive and will help

:-) good luck!;-)

PA

♥
 
I have suffered from insomnia for years I would recommend going into a chemist and asking for phenergan chemical name promethazine it's a anti histamine but works well for sleep they come in 10mg and 25mg tablets, just buy the 25mg tablets try half if that doesn't work then try a full one , if 2 tablets (50mg) doesn't work make a doctors appointment and ask for mirtazapine (avanza) that will most defiantly work the doctor will prescribe you 15mg before bed its a anti depressant but only if you take 30mg or higher , I woudlnt recommend taking seroquel because im prescribed that and even at the lowest dose prescribed for sleep 25mg , it knocks me out for 18 hours and you don't want that so try phenergan first if that doesn't work try mirtazapine
 
phatass said:
^^quick side note. I put on 30kg taking mirtazepine way back.

Promethazine is worth mentioning all though it wouldn't be the first antihistamine I would try.

Not knockin u Drdreams... just saying.

One love

PA
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Totally fine phatass you just mentioned something I forgot to mention :)
 
Mirtazapine is notorious for making people obese, I'm a really lean guy with more tendency to underweight than anything but even I got so hungry on carbohydrates with mirtazapine. I think water retention is also relevant. Also, while it is different from the neuroleptics in its mode of action & side effects, I really think that it's nothing to take lightly just for sleep. The common practice to prescribe powerful psychopharms just because of their side effects, here also H1 antagonism, is really odd in my eyes. I'm just an interested layman, and doctors should really know the facts.

I don't know the current state of science, it's possible that the histamine antagonism plays a role in the weight gaining adverse effects of medications, but then it will be related to the potency (mirtazapine being a very, very potent antihistaminergic) as well as the half life of the compound. Mirtazapine is definitely way too long acting just for sleep, even more if it's about falling asleep. It will literally keep you in your bedroom the first week or so ...

--

Promethazine I don't know personally. It's probably not the worst thing to take, but it is also a (weak) neuroleptic, and they tend to be dysphoric. Why take something that has more side effects than really needed when there are dirt cheap OTC doxylamine pills available? :) Hydroxyzine would be the best candidate because it doesn't share the anticholinergic effects of doxylamine, but it's unfortunately Rx-only, and if you take a low dose, the doxylamine isn't that bad.
 
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I've always struggled with insomnia, and took melatonin, an OTC drug, for a long time and there was absolutely zero "groggy hangover". It is a very subtle sleeping pill, as it doesn't knock you out as so many other pills do. But insomnia can be beat partly with your mind (or so i've come to realize), and meditation can be a great tool for sleeping (i.e. focusing on NOTHING but your breathing, and blocking your mind from any other thoughts, taking deep breaths until the sandman takes over). With combining the melatonin and meditation I have found success with being able to sleep without the groggy hangover. Best of luck to you!
 
I just wanted to make sure I clarified that I do not have insomnia. My problem is that I sleep on a very specific schedule, which happens to be unusual compared to everyone else. So, I was looking for a solution that would force me to sleep when I want to sleep, rather than when I naturally sleep :)
 
"meditation and more exercise" he or she is asking for a drug to induce sleep. if you can get it prescribed you can't go wrong with restoril or halcion good luck as a fellow insomniac i feel for ya.
 
edit- sorry i thought you were an insomniac but the meds i suggested can and will help you get back on a regular sleep schedule if used properly.
 
I'll just chime in with my two cents. I used to have really shifted up sleep-wake cycles, to the point of rarely seeing the sun. The thing that fixed me up was lamotrigine (200 mg). My cycles are still shifted, but not nearly as much. It's a long shot, but it shouldn't cost much to try. Aside from the rare incidence of SJS, it has practically no side-effects or drug interactions, totally non-addictive and there's a generic. The catch, though, is that it takes a month to get on, as the dose is steadily increased due to the possibility of SJS.
 
Amadeus- said:
So, I'm not too worried about the addiction issue because I would only need to take them on the rare times that I need to sleep for an early morning appointment or flight.
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I can't give out brand names, but the best bet would be the tablet that contains "50 mg brallobarbital, 150 mg secobarbital and 50 mg hydroxyzine".
It's "old school" so i doubt you will be able to find it, but if you try hard enough you will probably never find it, however after the search you will be so tired you should fall asleep naturally.

ummmmmmm.. ok, that advice is useless for you, and was posted purely as a direct answer to the best medication for your situation. The fact it doesn't exist anymore is irrelevant, so moving forward, temazepam or zopiclone would be the most effective hypnotic that is available today for short term use.

No need to explain the risks involved as your query was purely scientific and therefore temazepam or zopiclone would be the most effective.
The OTC antihistamines will make you feel groggy when waking up.

Good luck and sweet dreams.

SL
 
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