“My 88 year old husband was prescribed Ambien for insomnia. After the first dose, he fell while getting up to go the bathroom, gashed his head and had to go to the emergency room for stitches. A year later, I gave him a half-dose (again prescribed) and within minutes, his legs collapsed on him. I had the hardest time getting him into bed.” Ambien? Never again.

Your experience reminds us that sleeping pills may pose a serious risk for older people who have to get up at night to go to the bathroom. This is a dilemma, because many seniors suffer from insomnia.

Even over-the-counter sleep aids sleep aids that contain the sedating antihistamine diphenhydramine ( advil PM, Nytol, Sominex, Tylenol PM etc.) may contribute to unsteadiness and urinary retention. Older people should be careful with sleeping pills like Ambien. Other side effects may include reflux, next-day memory impairment, dry mouth and dizziness.”

For those among us who experience occasional insomnia, you may have already tried a plethora of sleeping aids. The story above illustrates some of the dangers of the prescription on the market. Drugs such as the benzodiazepines approved as sleep aids, estazolam (ProSom), flurazepam (Dalmane), and temazepam (Restoril) have serious side effects. As with all these medications daytime sleepiness, cognitive impairment, dizziness, unsteadiness, sleep-walking, sleep-driving, memory lapses, and hallucinations have also been reported as a result of sleeping pills.

If you have only mild insomnia, relying to heavily on sleeping pills can cause dependency and if abused may worsen your sleeping problems. There are several non-prescription drugs sold over the counter for sleeplessness which contain the antihistamine diphenhydramine. Brands such as Benadryl, Nytol, Tylenol PM, and Sominex, which block the action of acetylcholine (anticholinergic effect) and are used as a sedative because they causes drowsiness. However, they may contribute to unsteadiness and urinary retention. There’s also a fairly new drug out called zolpide, a sedative, it’s a inexpensive generic version of the drug Ambien. Generally it’s not prescribed for more than 10 days and is usually taken intermittently as needed to avoid problems with addiction or habituation, loss of effectiveness, and rebound phenomena.

“The most common side effects of zolpidem are drowsiness, dizzyness and a “drugged” feeling, which probably reflect the action of the drug. Other side effects include confusion, insomnia, euphoria, ataxia (balance problems), and visual changes.

The difference between drugs and taking an herbal medicinal are the side effects. No addiction with natural medicinals and a great nights sleep. Plants used in Chinese herbal medicine have been clinically tested and studies throughout Asia for the past 50 plus years. Their usage goes back to 2nd and 3rd centuries One such medicinal known to have a soothing and calming effect on the body and promote sleep is Spiny jujube or (zizyrus spinosae semen). Spiny jujube has been well documented for use when occasional insomnia is an issue. One study on rats showed spinosae significantly increased the rate of sleep onset and exhibited a synergistic effect with 5-HTP. “These results suggest that spiny jujube potentiated pentobarbital-induced sleep via a serotonergic mechanism.” Translation, you sleep without being put into a drug induced state. This herb and others are the answer to a peaceful nights sleep, without all the side effects of the prescription or over the counter pills.

If you have been diagnosed as being prone to suffering from the condition known as sleep apnea, in which you stop breathing at intermittent intervals for varying periods of time during the night, then there are a number of things which you can do to stop sleep apnea.

Here are 6 simple ways you can stop sleep apnea naturally (without any medical intervention in the form of medical procedures, medication, or using any synthetic sleeping aids):

1. Lose weight - Does this solution sound too overly simplistic? Well, you had better not take it lightly, because studies have shown that even a ten percent reduction in weight can improve the quality of your sleep and reduce, if not completely eliminate your propensity for sleep apnea.
2. Cease using sedatives and alcoholic beverages - The consumption of alcoholic beverages and sedatives can relax the muscles of the throat and, as a consequence, can act as a catalyst to bring about snoring. Snoring can lead to apnea.
3. Avoid sleeping flat on your back - Try sleeping on your sides instead. Sleeping on your back causes gravity to pull your tongue and your soft palate (the roof of your mouth) downward, creating an obstruction in the free flow of air. This leads to snoring as well as to apnea. Many sleep positioners, such as specially designed pillows, or wedges to prevent you from rolling over onto your back, are available to help you achieve this.
4. Keep your head slightly elevated - If you can elevate your head by at least 4 to 6 inches, this can greatly reduce the risk of snoring and apnea. It also can help you breath better as well.
5. Stick to a regular sleeping routing - Try to sleep at the same time every night and get up at the same time every day.
6. Exercise your otolaryngological muscles (the muscles in your mouth, nose, and throat) that collectively contribute to snoring - By strengthening these muscles, you can condition them to resist their tendency to move into the path of your normal airflow and cause snoring or apnea.

The above 6 techniques are an example of some of the natural, self-help, do-it-yourself solutions that exist that can help you stop sleep apnea permanently, once and for all.

Nowadays stress is one of the problems that has caused a lot of peoples cannot sleep well at night. Those peoples who are having sleeplessness may have sleeping disorder, sleep deprivation or insomnia. One of the most usual sleep aids for them to take is to swallow a few sleeping pills that they have bought it from pharmacy or got it prescribed from doctor.?

However, insomniac who use sleeping pills as sleep aid for them to sleep well at night may get nasty side effect plus it is only for short term insomnia remedy instead of permanently cure your insomnia problem. Chemicals in the sleeping pills can make you to have difficulty to sleep and break down your body natural sleep cycle by interfering with your normal brain wave patterns are some of the side effects of taking sleeping pills. Therefore, it will affect and reduce the amount of deep sleep that you get during the night.

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Then, what are the effective and drug free ways to improve your sleep? Of course, a lot of alternative ways to improve your sleep plus its ways do not have any nasty side effects to you. Those are drug free and natural insomnia remedies, which most of the doctors do not know it and even they know it, they will not tell you because they can make a lot of money by this easy way of just prescribing sleep pills to you. So, by using the herbal to cure your sleeplessness or improve your sleep is one of the natural sleep remedies. Drink chamomile tea, use standardised Valerian, lemon balm and Hops, etc are some of the typical herbal insomnia remedies in natural. Those natural and drug free sleeping aids are very helpful and effectively to improve your sleep into deeper stage. For examples, the standardised Valerian can ease your nerves, and by drinking chamomile tea with lemon balm and Hops can calm and relax your mind and body, which it can help you to fall asleep easily and quickly.

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Besides using the natural sleep remedies as your sleep aids to help you improve your sleep, you are also need to focus your sleep habits and sleep hygiene. By having a good and healthy daily diet, right emotional levels, good habits and correct sleep routine can play an important part to improve your sleep at night. In fact, by using the drug free and natural remedies to improve your sleep may rarely cause side effects too. Therefore, when you found out some sides effects by using the natural sleep aids to help you improve your sleep, you have to consult medical doctor and stop using it. Of course, if you can, then better not to take any sleep aids medicines to improve your sleep.

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Expose yourself to natural sun light during the day especially early in the morning after sun just rise or late evening before sunset for at least 30 minutes to 1 hour can improve your sleep too. You can walk, stroll or do some exercises outside your house in the garden to make yourself tire, perspire during the day time when exposing to natural sun light in the morning or evening. The more tiring you are, the easier and quicker that you can fall asleep at night plus you will attain a deep sleep quickly and easily too, which can really improve your sleep effectively. How do you know that you have effectively improved your sleep? It is you can easily and quickly fall asleep, and when you wake up on the next day in the morning, you will feel refresh and energised.

Feeling cranky? Stressing out more? It’s possible you’re feeling that because you don’t find sleeping easy. On second thought, perhaps that is a major understatement. Your problem may not be that you don’t find sleeping easy. It could be much worse - you barely get to sleep at all!

There are many factors behind sleeplessness. It could be financial concerns, relationship problems, or work issues. While it’s possible whatever has been keeping you up is beyond your control, creating a conducive environment for sleeping is not. Try the following tips to make it easy on yourself to get 40 winks and a snore.

1. Don’t eat too much before bedtime. Tempted to snack on tortillas two hours before you turn the lights out? Don’t. The same goes for the liquids you may be tempted to drink just before you go to bed. Aside from potentially causing you heartburn, going to bed on a full stomach will only make you restless.

2. Avoid smoking or drinking coffee at night. This one is easy, yet it’s tough for many people to do. Smokers say it’s not possible for them not to smoke at night; they’re sure to come down with withdrawal symptoms. Coffee nuts claim they will go mad without their java. Does that sound like you? Then it’s time to exercise some tough love on yourself. Coffee and nicotine can cause sleeplessness, so make it a point to avoid them, especially in the evenings.

3. Make sleeping pills your last resort. There are many sleeping aids that you can try. They make sleeping easy and are completely safe to boot. But try changing your lifestyle first before you try sleeping pills. You never know. It could just be that cup of coffee you usually drink before bedtime that’s keeping you awake.