Monday 10 January 2011

Sominex Nights

I had 9 hours of uninterrupted sleep last night and I could not feel any worse. Why? Last night was the end of 2 weeks of pure holiday bliss where I naturally acquired a really bad sleeping pattern. How bad? I would naturally go to bed around 4.30am and would never see the day before 2pm. Every year, it's the same. After 2 days of holidays, I just naturally morph into an owl and spend most of the night awake. Being a 9 to 5 girl, I was dreading going to back to work and not looking forward to it, purely because of my sleeping pattern being totally out of synch or attached to a different timezone almost! This year, I thought I would take action and have a sleeping tablet to help going back to bed at a more normal time. On recommendation of @jaynee_t, I went to Boots and bought a little box of Sominex (£3.59 for a box of 8) and wanted to share my experience with you.






What it says on the packet:

Sominex is a night time sleep aid to relieve occasional sleeplessness. Sominex is for those occasions when you cannot get to sleep because your natural routine is disturbed. For temporary (short-term) relief only. Sominex contains Promethazine Hydrochloride. This is an antihistamine which also has a sedative effect, making it a useful sleep aid.


This was a first for me and I've never taken any sleeping tablets before. I was extremely dubious about its effects, and was curious to see whether it would knock me out as my friend @jaynee_t reported. I took 2 tablets (recommended dose was 1) and I am happy to report it that it worked, it worked very well indeed.


But it wasn't without a conscious effort for me. I was hoping it would knock me out, it didn't. I had to make the effort to leave my phone aside, stop playing with it, tweeting etc otherwise, I am not sure I would have fallen asleep ever. When I woke up this morning, I felt like I was hungover, I felt like I had been sleeping for 2 hours. I was happy I managed to go to bed early (10pm is an absolute record for me) but I felt dreadful when I woke up, absolutely dreadful. Was it the result of taking 2 tablets instead of 1? I don't know, maybe. But what I know is that I could have slept for a whole 6 more hours. Overall, I am beyond happy about sominex. I can't believe how powerful it was but there is only so much a sleeping aid can do and it will take more than 1 early night to fix the damages I've done for the past 2 weeks to my sleeping pattern.

3 comments:

ElenaKat said...

don't get used to pills honey...
i have trouble sleeping well too, but just make someone wake you up two days in a row early.. the third night you will fall alseep (i did it on new year's eve).. try doing this many days, avoid sleeping pills..

♥ Jaynee ♥ said...

I agree, don't rely on the pills. I take 1 - and I mean one you silly bean, if you'd have told me you got them I'd have given you some tips!! - as I go to sleep and close my eyes. I find that I don't drop off, it isn't a knock out, or else you'd need a prescription. It just helps your mind to calm which is the problem I have going to bed early on my day shifts. I do 5 of these shifts in 5 wks, and will only take A pill on the first or second night and let my body do the rest as I've adjusted to sleeping early - also because I'm too knackered to stay up after getting up at 5am!!

The hardest thing is turning your phone off/locked, you have to be strong my chicky!!!

Oh and ref you feeling rough, I've never had that before, from the pills, but have as a result in dramtic sleep pattern change - like when I come off nights. So it ain't the pills, but just take one in future ;)

x x x x

The Postcolonial Rabbit said...

My boyfriend suffers from insomnia and he hates the chemical sleeping tablets because of the after effects you've described.

Sominex Herbal results in a much more refreshing night's sleep (a bit of a revelation apparently), and he also uses Rescue Remedy Night in conjunction. It's not advisable to use tablets continually but the Rescue Remedy is fine. Hope your sleep is sorted soon because insomnia is absolute hell x

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