Prescription sleeping medication like Rozerem appears promising with out the issues of dependence and rebound insomnia. Nonetheless, people today carry on to appear to OTC sleep aids as options. These may perhaps not boast precisely the same effectiveness as prescription sleeping medication and their hangover unwanted side effects are infamous.
Here would be the five actual factors observed why
Over The Counter Sleeping Aids
are still very well known.
1. It's handy. That is obvious. The most well-liked ones are the antihistamines that have FDA's approval for use as OTC sleep aids so you don't need to get a doctors' prescription. It's a recognized fact right now that having the occasional or transcient insomnia on account of perform or lifestyle situations is frequent. OTC sleep aids are recognized to be beneficial in such circumstances. The only issue is the fact that a lot of people could start to rely on them out of habit and take them long-term instead.
2. There are less surprises. These antihistamines have been around for a extended time, much longer than the well known prescription sleeping medications like Ambien and Lunesta. Antihistamines are decades old while non-benzodiazepines like Ambien emerged in the 1990s. Hence, the probability of unknown dangerous unwanted effects is much lower for antihistamine OTC sleep aids. As it is, doctors are usually wary of new sleeping medications which have not stood the test of time. This is one of the 2 major objections from prescribers that any drug company faces when marketing a new medication. Painful lessons were learnt with the withdrawal of drugs like Vioxx, the painkiller and Avandia for diabetes. It must be noted however that supplement OTC sleep aids differ from antihistamines. Supplements do not require FDA approval as over the counter sleep aids and hence, long term safety have not been documented all along.
3. The lesser evil. The side effects of OTC sleep aids are deemed the lesser evil. Most individuals put up with the infamous hangover side effect or have simply adapted how they take the OTC sleep aids e.g. smaller doses or just sleep earlier and longer. Granted these hangovers and other related negative effects can be extreme for a lot of people. Even so, next day drowsiness seems less bizarre than unconsciously sleepwalking on prescription sleeping medications. FDA has recently required that stronger warnings were added to sleeping medications' labels about these unwanted effects that can be life threatening.
4. Cheaper than a can of coke. An OTC sleep help costs only 30-40 cents compared to Lunesta at $3-$4 a tab. People today are happy to resolve their sleeplessness at lower cost and lower risks. Cost is always a major deciding factor if the additional benefits of prescription sleeping medication don't measure up to the price difference.
5. Instant life style. Change is constant and fast for this sleepless 24/7 generation. We want both instant gratification and instant solutions for our stress filled lives. Over The Counter Sleeping Aids are readily pocketed along with our Blackberrys and iPods.
