How do sleeping pills make you feel?

Well after this day, I think I might just take one myself.
I think typical prescription pills used as sleep aids are ones like valium, xanax. I think they might have a more sleepy, dizzying effect than ambien. I use xanax occasionally to sleep and it makes me sleepy and sometimes has given me the "spins". Alcohol use would only make those symptoms more pronounced. Even if you didn't drink anything you'd still sleep like a log and wake up feeling like you drank 5 cases of beer.

I think ambien is suppose to put you to sleep naturally. You just get tired with out all the dizzy, "I'm messed up" effects. You wake up feeling fresh as a daisy.

Everyday over-the-counter diphenhydramine (Benedryl) is the ingredient in most non-prescription sleeping pills, and it actually works pretty well. The drowsiness side effect was one of the major reason that non-diphenhydramine sleeping pills were marketed so effectively. It can be given at a stronger dose than just for the antihistamine effect, although some people are sensitive enough that the regular dose does just fine. Shift workers, including ED physicians, use it all the time.

The feeling is overall heaviness, dragging eyelids, heavy hands and feet. Sometimes a little numb. Can't hold your head up without propping it on your hands. For some people, slurred speech and thick-feeling tongue. Foggy brain.

I'm super sensitive with pain killers and sleep aids. I can drink a fifth of vodka and most people wouldn't notice (so long as they didn't smell my breath!) but an Advil PM will knock me out cold in about 10 minutes - a vicodin (or "Vike Baby" as my friend calls them) about 2 minutes. Seriously, I've woken up with a mouthful of water after taking a Vike because I fell asleep before I had a chance to swallow.

So, I honestly don't know how they feel. All I know is I wake up some hours later feeling better.

I don't know if this helps. . .

When I was in labour with my first, the midwife gave me two panadol forte and a sleeping pill (I don't know what it was called). I would wake up, have a contraction, then fall straight back to sleep.

Oh Oh! I know this one!

Sleepy....


Sorry I couldn't resist.

Very drowsy, cotton headed, and heavy limbed, as if it is harder to move, or you are moving through syrup.

I take a number of meds on a regular basis.

Valium just makes one very relaxed, but if you are already tirde or stressed and laying down you will probably fall asleep. It can make you drowsy.

Many muscle relaxers are used as sleeping aids as well as a few antidepressants.

Benadryl is very, very good for most people.

Ambien works well on the majority of folks. You are supposed to LAY IN BED after you take it, not run around until you get tired. It takes effect in about 20 minutes or so. You don't wake up groggy.

Any pain killers will work , but they leave you with a fuzzy-head feeling the following day. All the above meds might not with the exception of some of the muscle relaxers and some anti-spasmodics.

Everyone reacts differently. I take lots of things for my conditions and I have never (even before I became very ill) had much of a problem with things. I'm usually able to monitor my dosage enough and manage my kids, drive, etc. while on some heavy stuff. I have also been waking up and feeding babies just fine while taking Ambien on several occasions. YES, there have still been times that things did not work taht way and I turned into a drooling catatonic! Overall I do pretty well. I just think not everyone is sensitive to stuff.

It is likely that she'd take an ambien if she took a prescription since it's fairly common for short-term sleep issues. If non-it would have benadryl (like Tylenol PM) and the effect is much the same although not as strong.

If she called her doc, they would tell her to take 60mg of Benadryl probably. I think that is the right dosage. LOL I can't take it! Check the package next time you are in the store.

amyashley said:

If she called her doc, they would tell her to take 60mg of Benadryl probably. I think that is the right dosage. LOL I can't take it! Check the package next time you are in the store.

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The dose is around 12.5mg for children 6-12 years old, and it's 25mg to 50mg for teenagers and adults, depending on weight and circumstances. Over-the-counter pills or capsules for adults are 25mg each.

Benadryl does nothing at all for me, and never put my kids to sleep worth anything. It just helps you sleep, and you'd have to take a LOT, more than is safe, for it to actually make you sleep.

Ambien has some weird side effects in many people. It doesn't actually make you sleep, either, but it does let yu sleep, if you wantto, and will help most people.

If you need a sleeping pill that actually makes someone sleep, you're going to have to use much stronger medications that these. Most likely a narcotic.

I have a rock gut and don't get sleepy from much. I'm on a bunch of pain meds, nervous system meds and muscle relaxants for a back problem. Some folks' chemistry just doesn't do the sleepy thing much.

I've never tried Ambien. My mom climbed the furniture at night on Ambien Neurontin is pretty sleep-inducing in large doses at first. It's very safe stuff. It's an epileptic's med most frequently, for the nervous sytem. There are antidepressants that will kick your butt in drowsiness.

I'm just saying that the OTC kinds may not be the most solid bet for your story. But that depends on whether the sister was trying to cover all bases or knew her sister was easy that way. Of course the girl could get sleepy from Benadryl, but not everyone does, and readers can be oddly picky about their own experiences. Ambien? I'm thinking that's kind of universally effective, yes?

I might consider a big dose of Neurontin (say the sis takes it already). When you start taking it, the drowsiness is immense. Readers will be less likely to have taken that themselves, imho. You tend to sleep for more hours if not used to it; sounds different than Ambien, so that may be a factor, too.

Mixing alcohol with things gets into other perceived character issues, I've found. Unless you are trying to show a recklessness in your characters, I'd avoid using that. Folks can have strong opinions on that sort of thing. It usually does make folks much more drowsy when combined with many meds, yes.

I have not ever used it.

How about Zanaflex (Tazanadine)? I used to take Flexeril for muscle spasms, which knocks a lot of people out and makes them loopy, but not me. It gets prescribed often for back injuries and whiplash from car accidents, so it is feasible that it or something like it would be on hand in a lot of households.

My doc switched me to the Zanaflex a few weeks ago and I had to stop taking it during the day because it really knocks me out. I could NOT keep my eyes open. They were rolling, literally, and I could not focus. I fell into bed as soon as possible and slept for 6 hours straight.

It is technically an anti-spasmodic, but most people would probably think it was a muscle relaxer. They think the same thing of Flexeril.

Senora Verde said:

It doesn't need to knock her out right away, but something that will calm her stressed mind and allow her to cry herself to sleep fairly quickly........... Anything similar to how I get sleepy after a glass of wine? Now that I think about it. How would ambien or something make her feel if combined with alcohol?

How would she feel in the morning?

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Any anti-anxiety, sleep aid or muscle relaxant combined with alcohol will increase the effects of both by a lot. Alcohol is a depressant. Ambien mixed with alcohol would probably make for an uncomfortable morning. Also, they're both addictive.

I haven't taken Xanax, but I took Valium for a while for my back at night (stopped because it's so addictive). They are in the same family, but with similar doses Xanax is stronger.

Yeah, sleepy. Relaxed. Mellow for many folks (so they are street drugs). The feeling is more pleasant than the eye-rolling sleepiness of other drugs, but a high enough dose would certainly make you sleepy.

A friend of mine's sister is addicted to Xanax and takes ungodly doses (illegally). She falls asleep in the middle of sentences.

That family of drugs has a huge interaction with alcohol. Definitely sleepy, but all the street-drug features are bigger as well.

Pyekett said:

Everyday over-the-counter diphenhydramine (Benedryl) is the ingredient in most non-prescription sleeping pills, and it actually works pretty well. .

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For everyone in the world but me... I get a paradoxical effect with Benedryl. It makes me hyper. My oncologist had to switch my chemo protocol because I couldn't tolerate the Benedryl in the pre-drip.

When I take sleeping pills (which isn't often, but sometimes I do), I just lie there and feel anxious about whether or not it's going to work, then after about 10-15 mins I start to really worry that it's not going to work and my anxiety peeks, and just as I think it's never going to work and that the next day's going to miserable after another sleepless night, I wake up after exactly eight hours of dead, dreamless sleep. A little woozy, but that goes away after about 10 mins.

For what it's worth, Xanax doesn't put me to sleep, and is not intended to, but if the person taking it has been stressed out, it might make it easier to sleep. Ambien, on the other hand, works somewhere between a sleep aid and a short-term amnesiac drug for me; I've been known to take it, sleep for a while, then wake up and plan to do things, before my partner can talk me back into bed.

* By do things, I mean wake up abruptly and start searching for my sneakers, because I have to go out and buy milk, to go with the cookies.

"Velma, we don't have any cookies, and neither of us drinks milk. And you're naked, except for one sneaker: you are NOT going out to buy milk at 2:15am wearing only one sneaker."

"Oh."

There is an atypical antidepressant called Trazadone brand name Desyrel that doctors provide as a sleep aid. It's not addictive and patients don't build up a tolerance for it. Because it's atypical, it can work with other antidepressants w/o causing side effects or negative drug interactions.

That was the antidepressant I was talking about. I have used that before, and it works okay. It did not knock me out quite as much as Ambien, but I slept better.

I take antispamodics like Flexeril or Zanaflex because of fibro. They help ensure I achieve stage 4 REM sleep.


Can you just have the sister give her "a little white pill" LOL?

amyashley said:

I take antispamodics like Flexeril or Zanaflex because of fibro. They help ensure I achieve stage 4 REM sleep.

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Did you ever have a sleep study done? I had one in 1995. I had to sleep in a lab for 2 nights with electrodes all over my body. Fortunately I'm not a man, because they also had electrodes on a particularly private part of their anatomy. Turns out I have restless leg syndrome and REM sleep disturbance, which means the percentage of times I was in each stage and REM was off, and instead of going 1-2-3-4 REM I might go 2-REM-1-3-1-REM or some other mixed up staging.

No, they have not. It would be pretty useless since I have only had Fibro (and other issues) since I started having kids five years ago. With my youngest at just past 1 I am still waking up at night occasionally to deal with him.

My sleep has been screwy with babies all on it's own! In a year I will probably do one. I had a tubal last year and hubby also got snipped. No more babies--they are exacerbating my issues!

Sorry for derail.

amyashley said:

In a year I will probably do one. I had a tubal last year and hubby also got snipped. No more babies--they are exacerbating my issues!

)

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Glad it was a year ago. A friend of mine got had the same thing about the same time as her husband. She ended up getting pregnant, but losing the baby. Her previous two pregnancies were using birth control. Fertile nelly.

I take Seroquel for bipolar-related sleep issues. About 20-30 minutes after I take it, there's a moment when I 'quel out (my own expression for it). Suddenly, everything other than sleep becomes unbearable. If my boyfriend is talking to me, trying to focus on his words is unbearable. If I'm reading a book, reading the next sentence is in intolerable burden. My arms and legs don't want to move anymore. Forty minutes after 'quelling out, I can't speak even if I vaguely want to—it all comes out as groans and murmurs.

hope this helps!