Insomnia Medications

Insomnia medications or sedative-hypnotics, also called hypnotics, are a term for medications used to cure insomnia. When someone has insomnia, they could have difficulties getting asleep, staying asleep, or waking up feeling rested. Anxiety, anxiety, and everyday stress are often the root causes of insomnia.   

• Sleeping disorders might arise due to physical pain, discomfort, or disease. Alcohol, stimulants, coffee, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), antidepressants, and illegal narcotics, such as opioids, are among the drugs and therapies that can lead to insomnia, disrupt sleep cycles, and impair the quality of sleep. Some people may have excessive daytime drowsiness and nighttime wakefulness due to a main sleep issue that disrupts their sleep.

For instance, a patient with sleep apnea has breathing-related sleep conditions when they stop breathing throughout the respiratory cycle and then abruptly snort and take in air the next minute. 

The person is unable to obtain a good night’s sleep because of their stop-start breathing pattern. Another possible indication of an underlying mental illness is insomnia.

•  One of the most prevalent signs of bipolar illness, schizophrenia, anxiety disorders, and depression is insomnia.

 For example, the usual sleep patterns of depressed people might shift significantly. They may have trouble sleeping, sleep excessively, wake up early, or sleep fitfully after falling asleep. People typically use OTC drugs and nonprescription sleep medications to address their insomnia in the early stages before visiting a doctor when the condition becomes unbearable.

The main hypnotic components of over-the-counter sleep aids like doxylamine and diphenhydramine are antihistamines, and many of these medicines also include acetaminophen, a moderate painkiller, to relieve minor aches and pains.

When people seek medical attention for their insomnia, the doctor assesses the patient’s source of the problematic sleeplessness to ascertain if it is associated with a physical or mental ailment. It is not enough to just give the patient a prescription for a sleep aid; instead, the underlying issue causing the insomnia has to be identified and treated.

What drugs are mostly used for Insomnia

It is not enough to just give the patient a prescription for a sleep aid; instead, the underlying issue causing the insomnia has to be identified and treated. There are two general groups of sedative-hypnotic drugs that doctors often prescribe: benzodiazepines and nonbenzodiazepines. 

The term “benzodiazepines” refers to a group of drugs that share a similar pharmacological effect and chemical structure. Medications other than benzodiazepines used for sleep are included in the category of nonbenzodiazepine hypnotics.

Medical professionals often prescribe drugs that are not officially licensed for use as hypnotics and take advantage of a drug’s sedative properties when it has been demonstrated to be safe for treating insomnia.

Antihistamines, such as diphenhydramine and hydroxyzine, are also frequently used as sedative-hypnotics. at one time, barbiturates were frequently prescribed for sleep, but they have a number of serious side effects. For example, they can be fatal when taken in excess or when combined with other depressants, like alcohol.

•  Patients who use barbiturates frequently may develop a tolerance to the drug and need higher doses to get to sleep, which mostly results in dependence. Moreover, doctors rarely prescribe barbiturates for sleep these days due to the introduction of safer benzodiazepines and other hypnotics.

What are benzodiazepines used for?

All benzodiazepine can be used to treat anxiety or sleep disorders, depending on the dosage; therefore, classifying a benzodiazepine as either a hypnotic (a drug that enhances sleep) or an anxiolytic (a drug that reduces anxiety) is fairly arbitrary. 

• For instance, diazepam is frequently used to treat anxiety, but it may also be used to cure sleeplessness. Benzodiazepines that are administered mainly to treat anxiety are covered in several handouts under the heading “Anti Anxiety Medications.”

Benzodiazepines, such as triazolam and flurazepam, are mainly used for insomnia, while others, like diazepam, are frequently used as antianxiety drugs.

• The inhibitory reaction of benzodiazepines to GABA receptors produces their anxiolytic, sedative, and anticonvulsant actions.

What are the nonbenzodiazepines hypnotics?

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has officially approved zolpidem, eszopiclone, ramelteon, and zaleplon as nonbenzodiazepine hypnotics for the treatment of insomnia. With the exception of eszopiclone, which has a maximum 6-month efficacy, the other hypnotics are only meant to be used temporarily; more than two to three weeks is usually not advised.

• Buspirone is a nonbenzodiazepine anxiolytic drug that functions similarly to SSRIs by binding to a particular serotonin receptor. It may also affect GABA receptors, but unlike benzodiazepines, it doesn’t have anti seizure activity. Buspirone’s advantage is that it doesn’t cause dependence or withdrawal symptoms with chronic use, unlike benzodiazepines.  

What are antidepressants used for?

• SSRIs, SNRIs, and tricyclic antidepressants are effective in treating anxiety disorders.   

In order to promote sleep, sedative antidepressants are commonly administered right before bed. In addition to trazodone, which was previously covered, tricyclic antidepressants (TCAs) like doxepin and amitriptyline are frequently recommended to treat insomnia, particularly when depression is the underlying reason. Mirtazapine can be used to treat insomnia and is a sedative at low doses.

Clomipramine, a tricyclic antidepressant, can be used to treat OCD, whereas SSRIs and other tricyclic antidepressants can help with panic episodes.  

What are antipsychotics used for?

The administration of a sedating antipsychotic at bedtime, in conjunction with routine psychotropic medications, may offer the dual benefits of antipsychotic and hypnotic effects to manage the patient’s mental disorder when treating patients with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder whose insomnia is caused by agitation.

•  Because of its well-known sedative properties, chlorpromazine is frequently used to help anxious patients fall asleep. Patients with schizophrenia can effectively cure their sleeplessness with modest doses of quetiapine.