Posted by Bob in Mtn View on June 25, 2008 at 14:40:15:In Reply to: Re: Kava? posted by Cairo on June 24, 2008 at 03:25:58:
I do not share your enthusiasm for sleep medicine. I think you are one of the rare exceptions who is able to handle the medicine. And your dose is so low that it is very possible that you would sleep as well with or without medicine. I know you tried to stop but I wonder what would happen if you stopped now that you have built up some good experience sleeping?
With most people I have seen on this board, the sleep medicines stop working and they cause fairly severe side effects. For most medicines, the manufacturers only recommend "short term" use. And even those like Lunesta that claim "long term use OK" were only tested for six weeks!
I do agree with you that, natural or not, it's still medicine. And there are real problems with the purity and dosages of supplements.
I freely admit that my attitude towards sleep medicine is affected by my bad experiences with them. But I think my experience is more common than yours and people should be aware that it is hard to stop taking them once you start because of rebound insomnia and anxiety.