What medicine would help a teenager sleep that I might just have in my medicine cabinet?
I don’t have special medicine for sleeping in my medicine cabinet now, but what can I take that would help me fall asleep? I have the regular – Advil, Tylenol pm, Motrin, etc.. What medicine would you recommend that you would usually have laying around your house? I know, it sounds stupid, and I’m sorry.
July 20th, 2010 at 11:29 pm
Tylenol Pm is just tylenol and diphenhydramine or benedryl and it helps alot of people to sleep.
July 21st, 2010 at 12:20 am
Tylenol PM works really good.
I use it when I stop taking xanax for a few days
July 21st, 2010 at 1:07 am
Tylenol PM, Excedrin PM, benedryl, unisom, sominex, etc. all have the same ingredient for sleeping—diphenhydramine HCl. 25 mg is generally the recommended dosage for teens and adults. Occasionally, 50 mg is taken but that is usually just for adults. If you have any doubts, ask a pharmacist or doctor. You can usually get a generic form of diphenhydramine HCl sold by most drug stores and save a few bucks.
When you see PM after a name, it means it contains the sleeping ingredient diphenhydramine. So Tylenol PM would likely put you to sleep, whereas regular Tylenol (or Advil, Motrin) would not help with sleep.
Below is a long list I once wrote about ways to fall asleep. This is based on problems I used to have in this area. The list is so long that reading it might put you to sleep 🙂 Try out a few of the suggestions below, and find out what works best for you.
What helped me a lot to fall asleep, especially when my mind was racing, was to lie in bed and listen to relaxation CDs, especially those that contain someone speaking with relaxing music in the background. The combination of voice and music is very soothing. Many of these CDs are available on eBay for very low prices.
A warm bath is a great way to help you to sleep (depending on the season). If you can’t take a bath, you can give yourself a foot massage with slightly warm massage oil from a health food store.
A helpful technique is to relax your body one part at a time. So you could relax your feet, your lower legs, upper legs, moving up from your lower belly up to your chest, etc., until your whole body is relaxed.
Of course, guided relaxation methods can help. As vividly as possible, imagine yourself at the beach, in the mountains or country, or whatever is most soothing to you.
If you have annoying thoughts that run through your mind when you are trying to sleep, you might have to talk to a counselor or therapist about that. I suggest avoiding prescription sleeping pills unless nothing else helps.
There are herbs that might help you to sleep, eg, valerian root, chamomile, hops, passion flower, skullcap. However, what most people don’t realize is that it can take at least a few weeks for some herbs to build up in your system before they start to work.
The minerals calcium and magnesium might be helpful for sleep. You can also try 5-HTP, L-theanine or melatonin. I would not take melatonin for over a month unless your doctor says it is ok.