Sleep medications and bedside guns

[Ibasiuyac]

I work kind of a weird schedule. The start time is consistently around noon but my end time can be highly variable depending on work demands. I can get home at 8pm or I can get home after midnight. Couple my erratic schedule with the fact that I am a natural night owl and my sleep patterns are as messed up as Tiger's marriage. It's not uncommon for me to go to bed at 2am and have trouble falling asleep until 4am. I have tried antihistamine meds like Benadryl because they used to make me drowsy but I guess I am developing a tolerance so I am thinking about asking my physician for some type of occassional use prescription sleep aid. However, I have heard of people doing weird things like sleep walking and even sleep driving. What I am concerned about is I keep my pistol next to me in my dresser drawer. Common sense says that until I know how I am going to react that gun needs to get locked up in my gun safe. Anybody have any experience with prescription sleep meds and doing weird things??

[Slingen]

I was on Ambien for a while and loved it...mostly because it worked..and sleep was good...but you have to be able to get at least 8 hours of sleep while on it.....as far as the sleep walking and what not......didn't happen to me...but, if I were you I would take your own suggestion and lock it up until you see how you react to.....

[KingArthur]

Ambien is notorious for people doing crazy things and having absoluely no memory of it. I would avoid that one altogether.

[Defender28]

My girl takes Ambien and she sleep walks every night. She goes to the kitchen and gets food and then eats it in the bathroom. I wake up every morning at O-dark-thirty and find crumbs all over the bathroom floor and a mess in the kitchen. Maybe you should look into getting a small pistol safe with a combo. Its what I use to make sure she doesnt accidentally run into one of my firearms but still keeps it handy.

[carhartt]

Try getting some melatonin. You can get it off the shelf at wal mart. Its not addicting and I am told that its what your body produces naturally to go to sleep. Its supposed to be good for changing your sleep cycle.

[Torquejunky]

Before resorting to perscription medication ther are other things you can try. Waking up and getting out of bed every day at the same time helps me deal with my sleep problems. Couple that with a good daily excercise routine and you may find that you need no medication at all. There are also some herbal treatments you can look into that do help some, although for me nothing helped better than my current excercise routine.

[merc545]

+1 on the melatonin. I've been using it for years. All natural, you find it in the vitamin/supplement section. Never done anything weird while on it. Just really sleepy!

[Gunner69]

I'm a night shift worker 7pm to 730 am... My sleep schedule sucks... I really wanted to avoid going the prescription route and asked my doc what he would recommend.. He told me to go to Walgreens and give SleepMD a shot. I can tell you that I don't take them all the time but 1 tablet ensures a rapid fall into a deep sleep and as long as I get 6 hours no grogginess afterwards. No sleep walking etc... Even on the days when stupid people can't read the sign and ring the doorbell I usually fall back asleep within minutes and have no ill effects.

[Budman76]

I work 12 hour swing shifts and I know your pain. You can get over the counter sleep aid at drug store they work pretty good. Also Valerian root would put you down its all natural, just like Melatonin. I switch back and forth between the two so I dont build a tolerance to either one.

[bowl443]

Originally Posted by KingArthur

Ambien is notorious for people doing crazy things and having absoluely no memory of it. I would avoid that one altogether.

Tiger Woods disagrees