Can sleeping pills cause you any harm? i take em every night bc i cant sleep since my dads passing.

Question

Can sleeping pills cause you any harm? i take em every night bc i cant sleep since my dads passing.
i can take naps without them. but if i dont take them i have werid dreams. or ill sit up all night. im just scared there gonna hurt me

Answer

You didnt say how long youve been taking them or if they are an Rx from a doctor who is treating you. All sleeping aids can be addictive, even something as simple as Tylenol PM. It is not good to take ANYTHING like that on an ongoing basis. If, however, your doctor prescribed something for you to take for a short period of time, Id follow his advice.brbrI tried melatonin when someone suggested it to me after my Mom passed away and it didnt do anything for me. Someone told me that after they took it for weeks, it worked for them. Yes, I guess quotitquot worked OR, it was just because after weeks of relatively no sleep, her body was just so exhausted that she conked out with or without the melatonin. I dont really feel that works when your sleep problem is related to something so tragic as the passing of a loved one. Melatonin might work for occassional insomnia or something.brbrIf you have self prescribed these sleeping pills for yourself, try to not take them sometimes, at least. Instead, maybe watch TV and leave the TV on with a sleep timer and fall asleep with the TV on? I know that when my Mom passed away, I felt like you. I just felt terrified to go to sleep at night. I found that I needed to keep the TV on and that helped. I often didnt turn it off all night, just kept the volume all the way down so there was no sound. Just the light from it seemed to help me so, if I did wake up afraid and in a panic, it wasnt so bad when I could see the room and the things around me and I wasnt in pitch black.brbrI dont even remember how it was that I finally stopped doing that but I guess when I was ready, that was it. When I was ready to just go to sleep like normal, thats what I did, slowly, one day at a time.brbrThe fact that you said you can take naps without sleeping pills indicates that it is the night and the darkness that scares you right now, since naps are taken during the day. You must feel less frightened then and less vulnerable. I think the TV light could help.brbrSo sorry about your Dad.