I was about ready to call it a night when something I was reading elsewhere on the 'net prompted me to post. I'll talk about my most hideous experiences with over-the-counter sleep aids.
For many many people melatonin is a Godsend. For some, like me, melatonin is evil. Instead of me gently falling asleep after taking a melatonin I am wired. I don't know why. No one has been able to explain it to me.
The first time I took it, I was awake all night. I tried every single sleep technique I know without success. The next morning I was zombified. I thought maybe I'd gotten a bad one or maybe not enough.
A few months later I tried again. Different brand, different season. I was up in the middle of the night scrubbing floors, just about wired for sound.
The other OTC sleep aid that I can't take is one of the PM medicines. On top of the insomnia I have restless leg syndrome. (In my case the RLS is genetic and I've had it all my life.) Since one particular OTC nighttime pain reliever/sleep aid activated the RLS I've never tried another.
You should have seen me. Walking around the house trying to get the legs to calm down. Sometimes walking, sometimes curled up in a ball. Other times stretched out as far as I could to get the RLS alleviated. And of course I had to do it twice - just to make sure.
So the moral of these stories is to be careful what you try for sleepless nights. What works for some may not work for you at all. And just might make things worse.
Hopefully I'm off to sleep.
The Insomniac
Posted by
Chucki
