Anybody else hate taking something to help you sleep?

[Wetzelbill]

I was getting out of schedule, staying up too late, getting up too late etc, so I asked my brother if he had anything to help me sleep. I figured I'd get to bed at a decent time and plus be out enought hours sleep off any sluggishness that the pill might cause. Wrong! I got nearly 10 hours of sleep, plus I had slept 8 hours before that, so I basically slept almost 18 hours out of 24. Anyway, all of that sleeping has just made me sluggish. And, that damn sleeping pill hasn't help out either. I just feel like I'm moving in slow motion. I'm more tired than I was before I went to bed. Synthetic sleep like that just doesn't do it for me. It makes me too sluggish, I hate that!

[crispini]

1. Yeah, the fake stuff can stay in your system longer.

I'm a chronic insomniac so I find I have to consciously cultivate good sleep habits in order to not resort to the stuff. Don't read or work or do anything else in bed other than trying to go to sleep. Try moving bedtime up no more than an hour a day, if you want to go to bed earlier and get upe earlier. No strenous exercise late in the afternoon, no caffiene after 5. Plus, herbal teas like "sleepytime." It's all a bit ritualistic but it pays off.

[LaurenG]

2. I have never taken a sleeping pill

but after my mom had a couple of heart attacks she did and she did some really weird things in her sleep.

[WeRQ4U]

3. I hate them.

Whenever I take one, it takes until later the next day to shake off that hangover. It's not worth it.

[billyskank]

4. I think the real trick to it is:

get up at the same time each day. Weekends included.

Easier said than done, of course, if you are having to make do on 3 hours sleep while you're trying to adjust.

[FuzzySlippers]

5. What did you take?