Sleeping pills and alcohol: types of drugs that can be interfered with, the consequences

The combination of drugs with alcohol is truly an eternal topic. Well, Russian people do not like to deny themselves pleasure, despite the orders of doctors. Sometimes doctors are simply reinsured and forbid even a few grams of alcohol when using any medicine. But sometimes this measure can save a person not only health, but also life. It is about the union of alcohol and sleeping pills.

Sleeping pills and alcohol

A person who is in his right mind is unlikely to think of drinking a lethal cocktail of sleeping pills and alcohol.

Nevertheless, this topic is often discussed on the net, and this is why:

1. Often people who experience strong negative emotions - fear, horror, grief, severe anxiety - can not sleep properly for several weeks. Insomnia, as a result of prolonged overexcitation of the nervous system, is very exhausting and can lead to serious mental disorders. A man, exhausted by the absence of physiological sleep, grabs at any straw, just to curl, albeit for a bit. In the head comes a saving thought to drink a pill of sleeping pills and drink it with alcohol for greater effect.
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2. The second reason for interest in such a combination is alcoholism. With the help of hypnotic alcoholics trying to get out of the binge, the drugs are also resorted to by their exhausted relatives, to whom a violent drunk already exhausted all the nerves with their freaks. None of them thinks that the presence of ethanol in the body is a clear contraindication to the use of sleeping pills.

The effect of sleeping pills on the body

Why do people take sleeping pills? It's no secret that a number of drugs cause a feeling of frustration and fatigue instead of the expected vigor after waking up. In addition, people who often indulge in such medicines fall into a serious dependence on them, and independent falling asleep becomes a serious problem for them.

This rainbow pattern fades before the real action of sleeping pills.

In fact, a significant part of the drugs that speed up falling asleep, reduces the duration of the stage of short sleep. Than it threatens:

• the person ceases to see dreams;
• sleep is similar to a narcotic state - it is unnaturally deep, it is impossible to awaken a sick person in this state;
• after waking up the patient feels lethargic, overworked, he may have mental disorders. Deprivation of the sick phase of fast sleep, and this is observed with the use of sleeping pills, leads to inferior rest and does not provide an opportunity to replenish the energy necessary for the implementation of normal life.

Such an abnormal dream, more like an operational anesthesia, is somewhat similar to an alcoholic sleep, in which an intoxicated person does not rest, but is in a state of forgetfulness.

Types of drugs

There are many medicines that promote sleep normalization.

Experts classify all sleeping pills into several large groups:

1. Barbiturates. An extensive group of medicines, used to date mainly in nosocomial conditions. Barbiturates are considered to be the most powerful drugs and contribute to falling asleep even with serious sleep disorders. All funds related to barbiturates are narcotic and are given strictly on prescription. In outpatient conditions, phenobarbital is very rarely used, and then under the strictest control of a doctor. All barbiturates cause the most addictive.
2. Benzodiazepines. These include the widely known - phenazepam, tazepam, diazepam, Relanium. These remedies are safer than the previous group, but also cause dependence for long-term use and have a number of side effects: inhibition, bad mood, daytime sleepiness. Benzodiazepines are also sold by prescription only, but they are rarely used because of the availability of safer drugs on the market.
3. Z-preparations. Benzodiazepine-like drugs, which include zaleplon, zopiclone, zolpidem. This is the latest development of "sleep pills", they do not have a narcotic effect. Drugs differ in the speed and duration of action, prescribed by the attending physician, depending on the severity of insomnia. The toxicity of Z-preparations is less pronounced than that of their analogues of previous generations, accordingly, side effects are less pronounced.
4. Melatonin receptor agonists. The most popular in this group is melatonin, the trade name of which is Melaxen. Melatonin has an action similar to the natural sleep hormone, due to the action of tablets, the patient regains a natural biological rhythm. The drug is sold without a prescription, does not cause obvious negative reactions from the body. Melaxen is recommended for mild sleep disorders and frequent awakenings.
5. Histaminoblockers. The safest drugs that do not cause any dependence. The most harmless among this series is doxylamine.not causing almost no side effects and recommended for use even in pregnant women. Doxylamine is available on the drugstore shelves under the trade names Sonmil and Donormil. These tablets do not disturb normal sleep, provide a quick sleep and good health in the daytime, while not getting addictive.

Types of hypnotics

Compatibility with alcohol

Inability to sleep properly leads a person to severe irritation, he feels broken and constantly drowsy. But it does not get to sleep. In the head comes the saving thought of drinking wine, and if you do not get to sleep, then take a pill of sleeping pills. But, is it possible to combine these substances?

In severe form of insomnia, the doctor will recommend taking drugs with prolonged sleeping pills - barbiturates or benzodiazepines. It should be noted that combining these drugs with alcoholic beverages is absolutely impossible! Alcohol and strong tranquilizers mutually reinforce each other, which can lead to completely unpredictable consequences. One of these outcomes can be traumatic extremities called positional squeezing syndrome. A person who sleeps with a sound sleep does not feel the pain or numbness of the limbs, which results in severe compression of the vessels and gangrene. And this is even the smallest that threatens to mix such a cocktail. Alcohol in itself inhibits the activity of the respiratory center, and barbiturates under its intensifying action complete the process of inhibition of the nervous system.

Benzodiazepines also pose a serious danger to life and health if they interfere with alcoholic beverages. Mixing of phenazepam and vodka can lead to severe poisoning and death.

Despite this, both barbiturates and benzodiazepines are used in narcology in the treatment of acute alcoholic psychoses and withdrawal of withdrawal symptoms. This treatment takes place under the strict supervision of a doctor-narcologist and is strictly prohibited in outpatient settings.

Photo of the drug Phenazepam benzodiazepine group

As for a drug such as melaxen( a strong hypnotic, sold without a prescription), it is less compatible with alcohol - in combination with small doses of alcoholic melaxen it may not have a hypnotic effect at all. Nevertheless, drinking a cocktail from a hormonal drug in a mixture with alcohol is still not recommended due to the occurrence of a variety of side effects.

Alcohol in combination with blockers of histamine receptors causes a persistent dependence on hypnotics. Despite the increased safety and low toxicity of a remedy such as Donormil, it should also not be mixed with alcohol. What will be if mixed? Ethanol reduces the susceptibility of the body to sleeping pills, as a result of which the patient drinks a large dose of sleeping pills, than necessary. This leads to an overdose of the drug and severe poisoning.

Unfortunately, there is no such hypnotic drug that could safely be consumed with alcohol.

Any dabbling drug to combine with alcohol is deadly because of the onset of such consequences:

• Stopping breathing during sleep.
• Appearance of persistent severe drowsiness.
• Development of coma.
• Violation of coordination, complete lack of control over the body.
• Severe vomiting.
• Development of pain and aching muscles.
• No further normal sleep, the appearance of nightmarish dreams.

There is hardly any person who can predict the onset of this or that effect from the combined action of tranquilizers and alcohol. Therefore, it is better not to take risks and try all your best to avoid this dangerous combination.

What kind of sleeping pills is possible?

Is there a sleeping pill compatible with alcohol? If a person has drunk and does not manage to fall asleep, or after a long flight, the traveler needs to normalize the daily rhythm, and he took it on the chest, then there will be only one advice - never using sleeping pills. It is better to drink some more alcohol, in order to strengthen its oppressive effect and still fall asleep. True, sleep is a drunken forgetfulness is difficult to call, however, this behavior is safer for life and health than an alliance with sleeping pills.

You can drink a sleeping pill only after all the vapors of ethanol have evaporated from the body. How much time should be tolerated depends on the dose and strength of the drink. After complete sobering, sleep can be adjusted without any medication.