You could get headaches, one of the known sort of side effects from melatonin. It’s not really regulated, so non-melatonin substances can be mixed in the pill or tablet. Some people have reported taking 30 or even 60 milligrams of melatonin and that could be dangerous we just don’t know yet. The best alarm clocks of 2021 (Courtesy CNN Underscored) And there’s always a potential of misuse or overuse because they think, “Oh, it’s over-the-counter so it’s safe.” There’s potential for interaction with prescription sedatives, which patients may also be on. They can have unpredicted side effects, such as making you hyper instead of drowsy. One of the strongest pieces of counseling I always do with patients is to tell them to really try to avoid over-the-counter sleep aids. Wang: Any medication is a double-edged sword: It has its uses but always has side effects. After waking, people can be susceptible to drowsiness and confusion, like a hangover effect.ĬNN: Let’s talk about over-the-counter medications. People have driven cars, cooked food, sleepwalked and made phone calls, all without any recollection when they woke. Sedative sleep aids have been associated with hallucinations and dissociative behaviors. Some cause daytime sleepiness and can interfere with driving and other motor activities. They can be dangerous if mixed with alcohol or certain pain medications. Some of these sleep aids can become addictive, so the person feels they cannot sleep without it. Wang: It depends, as people have different responses and may be susceptible in different ways. It’s all about the associations that our brain makes with our sleep environment and how our behaviors or activities affect that.Ĭheck with a doctor before taking any type of sleeping aid. It educates patients about healthy sleep behavior, such as regular bedtime and wake schedules, keeping screens and blue lights out of the bedroom, doing relaxing things before bed, and so on. Wang: Our first-line approach is to introduce patients to a form of cognitive behavioral therapy called CBTI, which is specifically for insomnia. Occasionally, you’ll get people saying I get up and work out, which is definitely not what you want to do! Both of these expose you to blue light, which sends a signal to the brain to wake up. People get very creative in ways that may not be helpful: They get on the phone scrolling, checking emails or answering work messages, or sleep with the TV on. Then we home in on how that person gets ready for bed: “Do you have routines? Do you have a regular bedtime?” Frequently, insomnia is perpetuated by what we do in response to not being able to sleep. Is this person on a screen all the time at work and home? I will ask them, “What’s your daytime schedule? What do you do in the evenings?” to try and find their physical and emotional stressors. Sleeping with even a small amount of light may harm your health, study says Too much light may disrupt your sleep and raise risk of heart disease and diabetes, study said. Is it behavioral, or is it medication or medical illness-related? It’s very important that the person shares personal details so we can identify what the source of the insomnia could be. When someone comes in with insomnia, we take a really thorough medical and sleep history. We really try very, very hard not to do that. This conversation has been lightly edited for clarity.ĬNN: When someone comes to you with insomnia or another sleep disorder, begging for help to go to sleep, do you give them a sleeping pill first thing for immediate relief?ĭr. Jing Wang, an assistant professor of pulmonary, critical care and sleep medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City. If you are using, or thinking of using a prescription or over-the-counter sleep aid, what do you need to know to do so safely? We asked Dr. Even people who took fewer than two sleeping pills a month were three times more likely to die than those who didn’t. People with prescriptions for those sleep aids, which include zolpidem and temazepam, were over four times as likely to die from accidents and health conditions stemming from use compared with those who did not use such drugs, the study said. Up to a half a million “excess deaths” in the United States were due to use of sleep medications called sedative-hypnotics, a 2010 study found. The use of sleeping pills can also be deadly. Sleeping pills and planes: Embarrassing tales from 35,000 feet
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