When to use insomnia medications

 
When starting a treatment for insomnia with any sort of medication (whether it is natural or not), you should bare in mind a couple of things. First, remember that every medication that needs oral administration can cause gastrointestinal side effects. Other tip is to avoid self medication. Consulting a doctor once is almost self medication. Many patients believe once a medication is prescribed, they do not need to o back to the doctor. This is wrong because nothing assures you the response you may have to that medication for insomnia.

 Is there any way to predict the response to insomnia medication? Actually, besides allergical reactions, we won't be able to predict how the drug works. All insomnia medications present side effects, from the most aggresive to the most natural agent. If the patient has tried a medication of a group of remedies, one can be quite sure he will share the response with similar drugs. For example, if the patient had a paradoxical effect with a benzodiazepine like diazepam, it is quite often to have the same with clonazepam or others within that group of insomnia medications. And if someone responds to a sedative antidepressant as an hypnotic agent, we can expect to happen the same thing with another antidepressant within the group (for example citalopram and escitalopram, Celexa and Lexapro. However, when starting the insomnia treatment with pills it is recommended to attend the physician more often, until the correct medication and the fine doses are found.

The truth about sleeping pills

Any medication used for sleeping is considered an hypnotic agent. Many drugs are hypnotic at one dose but not on lower ones -or higher, i.e. mirtazapine. Hypnotic pills can be used for the purpose of sleeping when the problem is a bare insomnia. However, there is another group of psychoactive medications called "sedatives".

The difference must be made, because sedative agents may be hypnotic, but the theraeutical use is quite another. These sleeping pills are "stronger", and therefore used for psychiatric treatments of severe syndromes. The abuse of sedatives is always a problem in medicine. The most common sedative pills are:

1. -barbitures such as fenobarbital, pentobarbital or secobarbital
2. -benzodiazepines, like the first one ever discovered, in 1954, the chlordiazepoxide
3. -solvent agents used for anaesthesia, like chloral (one of the first medications used in psychiatry ever)
4. -antipsychotic drugs such as levomepromazine, chlorpromazine, prometazine

As you can see from this list, the sedative agents are used in other therapeutical contexts, not only for getting asleep. And this is why so much people are afraid of sleeping pills, just because they assocate "popularly" psychiatric stronger treatments with simple use of a sleeping pill. Besides no treatment in medicine nor in psychiatric should frighten anybody, this symbolic association makes people give up medical prescrpitions.
 

Melatonin and insomnia

 

Melatonin is a substance secreted by the pineal gland which is necessary for dream stages regulation and cycles of awakening and sleeping. Many studies have been carried out in patients with alterations of this cycle, from jet lag to darkness habits. One of the most important things to preserve melatonin functions is light and darkness cycles along the days. People living in countries with northern lights phenomenon may have an alteration of this hormone and trigger a pathologic response.

The relation between melatonin and insomnia makes clear the role of the Central Nervous System in regulating sleep, and the importance of dreaming for human health. Our body needs to rest as much as our minds. So watch out with insomnia.
Some other natural sleeping pills may be valerian, ginseng, passionaria, catnip, withania somnifera (Ashwagandha) and medieval mandragora plants.