What Is It Like to Overdose on Sleeping Pills
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Erica Weiman graduated from Pace University in 2014 with a master'due south in Publishing and has been writing and editing ever since. She has... read more
Medically Reviewed By Jessica Pyhtila, PharmD
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Updated on 03/06/22
Maybe one of the most significant hazards of sleeping pills is the frequency of employ. Individuals with a prescription or over-the-counter antihistamines could assume information technology is rubber to utilise these substances nightly. However, the evolution of tolerance and dependence tin can pb to unintended results.
At that place are many reasons people seek help falling asleep or staying comatose, but people may resort to misusing medications to feel their effects. Due to the likelihood of abuse, it is vital to understand the dangers that come with sleeping pills, including the risk of overdose.
Some individuals may intentionally apply sleep-assist medications to commit suicide. If you lot or someone y'all love is experiencing suicidal thoughts or tendencies, immediately call the National Suicide Prevention Hotline at 1-800-273-8255.
Article at a Glance:
- People use sleeping pills to get a skillful dark's rest and overcome indisposition.
- Overdosing on slumber medications can lead to decease.
- Concrete signs of sleeping pill overdose are farthermost lethargy, abdominal pain, breathing trouble and clumsiness.
- Overdosing on sleeping pills can occur when a person takes lx–90 times the intended dose.
- Flumazenil is often used to counter the furnishings of a sleeping pill overdose, too equally removal with a stomach pump.
Why Exercise People Use Sleeping Pills?
Between fifty and seventy one thousand thousand Americans suffer from sleeplessness, and four% of the country uses medication to aid ensure a expert night's slumber. Each year, millions of individuals use sleep aids to achieve longer, meliorate-quality sleep cycles every night. These sleeping pills and aids range from loftier-concentrated prescriptions to over-the-counter remedies.
Physicians prescribe a wide variety of drugs to gainsay insomnia . Some mutual brands include Ambien , Lunesta, and Rozerem. In addition, sure benzodiazepine sedatives and antidepressants accept been known to provide like treatment, but these drugs come up with the added worry of potential dependence.
How Long Do Sleeping Pills Accept to Kicking in?
Almost prescription sleeping pills offset working within half an hr. These medications are FDA-approved for sleep and are well-studied:
- Eszopiclone's (Lunesta) onset is inside xxx minutes and it lasts for eight hours.
- Zaleplon's (Sonata) onset is within 30 minutes and it lasts for four hours.
- Zolpidem's (Ambien, Edluar, Intermezzos) onset is inside 20 to thirty minutes and it lasts for four to eight hours.
- Suvorexant'south (Belsomra) onset is within xxx minutes and information technology lasts for at to the lowest degree seven hours.
- Ramelteon'southward (Rozerem) reaches peak levels in your body within 45 minutes.
Benzodiazepines are prescription medications that are also sometimes used for slumber, and can as well start working quickly. Common benzodiazepines for sleep include temazepam (Restoril).
Melatonin is an over-the-counter slumber help and synthetic hormone that kicks in within xxx minutes and lasts four–eight hours.
Other prescription medications are used off-label for sleep due to sedative side effects. For this reason, these drugs are less studied when information technology comes to determining the verbal timing of their sedative furnishings:
- Doxepin
- Gabapentin
- Mirtazapine
- Ramelteon
- Trazodone
Tin can You Overdose on Sleeping Pills?
It is possible to overdose on sleeping pills. This is because all sleeping pills are cardinal nervous system depressants that slow down your brain'southward activity in lodge to aid you lot rest. For this reason, it is important to take sleeping pills only equally prescribed. Taking a higher dose than prescribed or taking pills more oft than prescribed can increase your gamble of an overdose. This is particularly truthful if you lot accept other substances like opioids or alcohol along with your sleeping pills.
What Happens If You Overdose on Sleeping Pills?
Overdosing on sleeping pills can lead to many different outcomes, depending on the type of medication and dose. For example, while benzodiazepine overdose is rarely fatal on its own, it can be deadly if the benzodiazepine is mixed with other substances like opioids.
In the past, barbiturates, including sleep aids, were used as a tool to effort suicide. Researchers have made sleeping aids safer to use, and the likelihood of fatal overdoses decreased as barbiturates became less common .
Can You Overdose on Melatonin?
A melatonin overdose is highly unlikely. Scientists have extensively studied melatonin and have found that there is no show of melatonin overdose fifty-fifty at extremely high doses taken over a period of weeks.
That said, taking too much melatonin may cause some side effects. These may include :
- Headache
- Low or loftier blood force per unit area
- Drowsiness
- Airsickness
- Worsened baldness areata, an autoimmune disorder that causes pilus loss
What Are the Side Furnishings of Sleeping Pills?
The unsafe side effects of misusing sleeping pills can begin long before an overdose occurs. Sleep-induced injuries are ane such event. Some users have gotten in vehicle accidents due to impaired judgment and coordination caused past sleep medications. Crimes and self-harm have also been reported. These events occur due to unawareness of one's actions.
Several concrete signs may be nowadays if a sleeping pill overdose occurs, including:
- Excessive lethargy: People who take sleeping pills likely exercise so oftentimes, so they should be able to differentiate typical sleepiness from something more serious.
- Unanticipated behaviors or deportment: Tiredness leads to awkwardness, and clumsiness leads to mistakes. People human action differently when lethargic, but pay shut attention to excessive, drunk-like behavior.
- Breathing irregularities: Dull or dysfunctional breathing may indicate an overdose and should be closely monitored. Administer CPR and call 911 if the victim appears to be gasping for air, or if breathing ceases and consciousness is lost.
Ordinarily, an overdose victim is unable — or in the case of intentional overdose, unwilling — to contact the proper authorities. Sleeping pills accept overwhelming sedative effects; a victim may fall asleep before taking precautionary measures. The situation may crave an onlooker to get the necessary help.
Which Sleeping Pill Is Most Dangerous?
Modern sleeping agents are safer than their predecessors and death from outright sleeping pill employ is less likely to occur than in the past, just it's still possible. However, there are dangerous ranges of misuse at which life-threatening consequences are more likely.
Ambien, for example, is typically taken at a 10mg dose. At 600 mg, a user is entering overdose limitations, and serious damage is likely. Decease is reported at doses higher than 2,000 mg, but a lethal dose may still occur at lower amounts.
An overdose on Lunesta can happen at approximately 90 times an intended dose. This would require upwards of 270 mg of the drug. Fatal overdoses typically but occur when mixed with depressants like benzodiazepines or alcohol. Similarly, information technology generally takes around 200 mg of Sonata to overdose.
What Are the Strongest Sleeping Pills?
It is difficult to determine the strongest sleeping pill since most have not been directly compared and many sleep medications are used off-label without extensive research. Still, Lunesta is i of the strongest sleeping pills, while Restoril, Ambien and Sonata are weaker but about as as potent as each other.
Sleeping Pill Overdose Treatment
Sleeping pill overdoses are usually treated with supportive intendance, meaning that the dr. monitors the patient'southward breathing and cardiovascular organisation while the body works the benzodiazepine out of the arrangement. In some cases, activated charcoal, hemodialysis or whole bowel irrigation may play a office in helping to care for an overdose.
Rarely, a physician may choose to administer flumazenil . It reverses sedation caused by benzodiazepines to bring a victim back to their normal state. Even so, due to the run a risk of seizure and center rhythm disorders, the risks of flumazenil generally outweigh the benefits.
If you or a loved i is struggling with sleeping pill misuse or dependence , The Recovery Village can help. Contact united states of america today to learn more nigh treatment plans that can work for your needs.
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City and County of San Francisco. "Safer Prescribing of Sedative-Hypnotics Guideline." San Francisco Health Network, May 2018. Accessed February xv, 2022.
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Drugs.com. "Suvorexant." August 10, 2021. Accessed February fifteen, 2022.
Tordjman, S; Chokron, S; et al. "Melatonin: Pharmacology, Functions and Therapeutic Benefits." Current Neuropharmacology, April 2017. Accessed February 15, 2022.
Kang, 1000; Galuska, MA; et al. "Benzodiazepine Toxicity." StatPearls, July 26, 2021. Accessed February xv, 2022.
Suddock, JT; Cain, MD. "Barbiturate Toxicity." StatPearls, July 5, 2021. Accessed February 15, 2022.
Pacheco, D. "Melatonin Overdose: How Much Melatonin Should You Take?" Sleep Foundation, May xiii, 2021. Accessed February fifteen, 2022.
Cigna. "Allaying Hypnotic Medications." January 1, 2022. Accessed February 15, 2022.
Food and Drug Assistants. "Lunesta." May 2014. Accessed Feb xv, 2022.
Food and Drug Administration. "Sonata." Dec 12, 2007. Accessed Feb fifteen, 2022.
University of Utah. "Allaying-Hypnotic Equivalency Chart." ADM-Public, 2020. Accessed Feb 15, 2022.
Medical Disclaimer: The Recovery Village aims to improve the quality of life for people struggling with a substance use or mental health disorder with fact-based content almost the nature of behavioral wellness conditions, treatment options and their related outcomes. We publish cloth that is researched, cited, edited and reviewed by licensed medical professionals. The data we provide is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. It should non exist used in identify of the advice of your physician or other qualified healthcare provider.
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