A Look at the Options in Insomnia Medication

By Keira Adams

Now that you've been diagnosed with insomnia, you're trying to figure out which medications would be best to use. There are several choices out there, but you'll need to take your existing health into consideration before you select the right medications for insomnia. Here is some information about your options that will help.

There are a number of prescription medications that can be used as insomnia remedies. Some insomnia is either caused by or accompanies depression, so in certain cases you might manage to kill two birds with one stone. A few antidepressant drugs have an extra sedative effect. So it might be possible for your doctor to prescribe something like Mirtazapine (known as Remeron), or Doxepin (Adapin or Sinequan). Even tranquilizers like Valium also help people fall asleep more easily, but those can actually worsen conditions like sleep apnea. They can also create side effects such as impaired memory and loss of coordination, so they need to be used with great caution.

Sonata is a commonly prescribed medication for insomnia. This drug stays in the body for a very short amount of time - about two hours in most cases. This makes it much less likely that users will wake up groggy after taking the medication. Sonata is also helpful for insomniacs since it can be taken at 2 or 3 in the morning without harming your body or negatively affecting your sleep patterns. However, this medication may not be best for people that wake up several times during the night, since the medication doesn't stay in the system for long.

There are also a few new medications for insomnia that you may want to ask your doctor about. Rozerem, which is one of the insomnia remedies that may work to treat medium or chronic insomnia, will target your sleep wake cycle. This is an ideal medication for people that have a hard time falling asleep, but are able to sleep through the night once they fall asleep. Studies have shown that this medication is good for long term use, and doesn't create addiction of dependence. Drysel is another one of the new medications for insomnia that may interest you. If you are struggling with insomnia that is caused by depression, this anti-depressant may help. However, you should talk to your doctor about getting a medication that will fight depression first before you start treating your insomnia.

Doctors usually don't recommend using any kind of sleep medication for very long, both for reasons of developing possible dependency and because of potential side effects. But sometimes you simply have to have something to break a long cycle of insomnia if you're going to function. Drugs can be used as insomnia remedies, but their use should always be monitored by the watchful eye of your doctor. - 29945

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