sleeping pills don't work

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Anyone else feel like they grow tolerant to sleep medication quickly?

Yes. I got completely tolerant double the usual max dose of Ambien in 2 weeks. I've also taken huge amounts of Xanax with no tolerance with very little effect. Also seem to get tolerant to alcohol really fast. I don't take any of those anymore, since it gets so pointless so fast.

I have yet to find anything that will "turn off my mind" and let me get restful sleep. Any thoughts? It seems the older I get, the more tired I feel all the time. Even when I go to bed early and fall asleep fast, I dream so much or just think about things, analyzing them over and over trying to figure things out, I wake frequently and feel tired instead of rested the next day. I wonder if some of it isn't job changes and lifestyle changes having to deal with so many people each day stressing me out. Does anyone else here experience this much?

There's a natural way to enforce sleep, and if you grow 'tollerance' to it you'll render me surprised for life, unfortunately I don't know if I can tell you without getting the post deleted for posting adult content... But must say, that of all the things, it really works.

I sam aware of this one thing, and yes, sex does give me plenty of rest. However, my wife is not willing nor interested on a daily basis. next solution?

I've had good luck with an antipsychotic called pericyazine. It stops my mind from racing so that I can sleep.

Not really, I have a pack of sleep pills in my medicine cabinet but I don't even use them enough to develop a resistance, everytime that I need to take one I fall sound asleep. The most I ever used them was 3 times in one week, I had bad insomnia but I had a stressful time that week.

Today I MIGHT need one once a month... if that. Most of the time once every two months. A pack of pills last forever.

I use ambien from time to time, and latetly ive noticed something really illogical.

It was a few months since i last took one, so the tolerance should be gone. But the first pill was almost without effect. The next one too. I was giving a thougt of complaining to the pharmacist.

But nr 7 was the strongest of them all! NOW it worked as it should!

No. Not seven the same night. One pill, one night.

I'd never touch any pharmaceutical sleeping pills even if you paid me!!


There are plenty of natural alternatives that I find work really well if I ever need them:

Valerian - either in tablet form or as a tea. It's a strong herbal sedative.

Hops, scullcap, wild lettuce, passion-flower... all will send you off to sleep. Find teas with them, or take them in pill/tablet form - the more in combination, with valerian too, the more potent it'll be.

They all work wonders.


Otherwise, self-hypnosis is a fabulous way of sending yourself into a good night's sleep. Try it yourself (lots of online tutorials around and books) or else download an mp3 from a hypnotist instead and listen to that with earphones on.

Sleep meds can cause tolerence and can be addictive. I take benedril (diphenhydramine) every night to sleep. I used to take 2 pills every night but now i often need 3. If i don't take it, i don't sleep right. I used to take trazodone and got the same result.

I have noticed a rapid tolerance buildup from benzodiazapines (Ambien, Restoril, Valium, Xanax, etc.), but they work just fine when taken less often, especially in combination with melatonin. I can also recommend sexual release, and testify that while it is not a univesal solvent, it does not have a tolerance issue, either. As for herbal supplements like skullcap and valerian, I haven't noticed a difference from placebo; dietary supplements like melatonin and 5-HTP (tryptophan) work, both are processed in a chemical lab.

Sleep, for me, has not much to do with tiredness, and physical sedation is the result of sleeping pills. So when I take sleeping pills, I just feel lousy. The only exception so far has been melatonin, which doesn't truly make me feel like I'm sleepy--it's more like I feel it's late.