Most sleeping pills are “sedative hypnotics.” This refers to a specific class of drugs used to induce and/or maintain sleep. Sedative hypnotics include benzodiazepines, barbiturates, and various hypnotics.


Barbiturates, another drug in this sedative-hypnotic class, depress the central nervous system and can cause sedation. Short- or long-acting barbiturates are prescribed as sedatives or sleeping pills. But more commonly, most hypnotic drugs are limited to use as anesthesia.

What Doses are Too Much?

There is no absolute dose or number of pills per day that indicates a person is dependent on depressants. People with drug dependence eventually develop physical tolerance (the gradual need for greater amounts of the drug to feel the same effects). But addiction implies that the person is also relying on the drug emotionally and often physically.
Are There More Complex Sedative Pill Side Effects?
Some sleeping pills have potentially harmful side effects, including parasomnias. Parasomnias are behaviors and actions over which you have no control, like sleepwalking. During a parasomnia, you are asleep and unaware of what is happening.

Sleeping Pills + Alcohol?

Mixing alcohol and sleeping pills can be extremely dangerous. The combination increases the sedative effect of sleeping pills, and that can be fatal. Most sleeping pill labels warn against using alcohol while taking the drug.
You should also avoid grapefruits or drinking grapefruit juice while taking some sleeping pills. Grapefruit increases the amount of the drug absorbed into your bloodstream and how long it stays in the body. That can cause over-sedation.
Sleeping Pill Dependence:

Regular use of these drugs often leads to “drug tolerance.” That is, the body adjusts to them and it takes a higher and higher dose to achieve the desired effect. Dependence also can develop, meaning withdrawal symptoms will occur if the drug is suddenly stopped.
For short-term insomnia, your doctor may prescribe sleeping pills for several weeks. Yet after regular use for a longer period, your sleeping pill may stop working as you build a tolerance to the medication. You may also become psychologically dependent on the medicine. Then the idea of going to sleep without it will make you anxious.

The first goal of treatment is detoxification (withdrawal from the drug). Detoxification usually involves gradually reducing the dose of the drug or temporarily substituting a medication that has less serious withdrawal symptoms. The substitute medication, if used, also will be reduced gradually. Depending on the severity of the drug dependence and other factors (significant heart or lung disease, liver failure, high blood pressure, age older than 65). All addictions are complex and have multiple causes. Drug abuse is usually not an isolated problem. Commonly, people with depressant addictions are also struggling with other mental disorders, such as anxiety or depression.
Please, try to avoid overdosing and over using these sedatives and other forms of hallucinatory medications. Effects of addiction and subsequent dependence far outweighs whatever euphoria you might feel at the moment. Stick to doctors prescriptions!
Tags : Definition of SedativesHealth Effect of Sedative and AlcoholHealth Effects of Sedatives and HypnoticReverse ToleranceSedativesSigns and Symptoms of Sedative AddictionWithdrawal from Opiates.

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