Is the sleep you get after sleep medication qualitatively different to the sleep you get without?

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Dragonfly
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I read somewhere that the quailty of sleep you get through sleeping pills is dramatically different from normal. How so?


MagnusMoss
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Joined: 02/20/2010

Sleeping pills reduce the amount of time you spend in Rem sleep (dreaming). We're not certain what dreams do exactly, but apparently they do something important.

"Q"
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Natural sleep without a sleep aide is better, I can only speak from experience when I use to take Ambien (a prescribed sleeping pill) it would work but I would sometimes wake up with a pill hangover be fairly groggy until I had my coffee.

Meth❂❂zelah
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Joined: 05/05/2010

Try some relaxation techniques that involve mediation... if you suffer severe insomnia then you might have to resort to medication... but otherwise give meditation a go! Whether you practice it regularly then over a few weeks you will make big improvements (this is more of a long term solution to your sleep issues which could also be emphasise related)

DiggerRama
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It very often is. Also, besides side effects like sleepwalking (ambien) or morning hangover-drowsiness (trazodone), they monitored and measured people's sleep on various meds. On average, subjects only fell asleep about ten minutes sooner than without medication. But what the medication actually seems to do, is to turn off the brain's short-term reminiscence, so that even if you are still awake, you aren't aware of being awake. Unconscious maybe, but not asleep.

TerryBanto
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Joined: 05/05/2010

Have you tried walking as a sleep aid? If you walk 3 or 4 miles, approximately 2 or 3 hours before you normally go to sleep, you are very likely going to be less anxious, stressed, and endorphin-starved. Sleeping adequately should be a very important health priority, and whether it is, committing an hour or so to walking should not be much of a burden. It works! Also helpful: valerian root, Gaba, yoga stretching, yoga breathing, and watching films of equestrian events from the 1930s--very boring and sleep inducing.

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