Category — Rozerem Info

A benzodiazepine is the category that most sleeping pills and tranquilizers fall into. Rozerem is not a benzodiazepine! Benzodiazapines include Valium, Ativan, Xanax, and Librium. They tend to be relatively save without too many serious side effects. They can be extremely dangerous in high doses though! You can also build up a dependence on them. Watch out for that!

The very first nonbenzodiazepine hypnotic to enter the United States market is called Ambien (zolpidem). This was brought out in 1993. Rozerem (also known as Ramelteon) is also a hypnotic sedative.

It’s important to remember that different sleeping pills are different. That may sound obvious, but it’s easy to lose track of this simple truth. As an insomniac, I prefer Rozerem personally. It gets my sleep onset going good and proper. And, for me the problem wasn’t really ever staying asleep. My trouble and curse was getting to sleep in the first place. Once I’m actually sleeping, I stay asleep.

But, about different sleeping pills being different. It’s true. Some only last for a short duration. Some will make you groggy the next day. Some are long-acting. And, different ones have different side effect. Just remember: not all sleeping pills are created equal.

We’re all familiar with over-the-counter sleep medication like Nytol, Sominex, etc. In some cases these type of sleeping pills may improve your sleep, but an often-overlooked problem is how groggy they make many people feel the next day. It’s not really a winning situation where the pill helps you sleep but harms your waking hours. That is another benefit of Rozerem: since it’s working with the body’s hormone (melatonin), it’s not going to give you the next day drowsies.

Research going all the way back to 1995 and presented to the American Sleep Association has shown that over-the-counter sleep aids do make a person groggy the next day and that grogginess can interfere with job performance, relationships, and general happiness.

Rebound insomnia is a problem that other sleeping pills (besides Rozerem) can cause. It happens when your body gets adjusted and acclimated to the sleeping pill medicine that’s being put into your body. Your human body has learned to depend on the sleeping pills for its sleep. When your sleeping pills are removed, it’s possible that your insomnia will be significantly worse. This is called rebound insomnia.

Sleeping pills, such as barbiturates, in many cases do not work after a week or two. The insomniac is right back where he started. Rozerem, on the other hand, uses Ramelteon as its mechanism. In fact, the use of sleeping pills can actually make your sleeping problems worse than they were when you started. There is also the danger of rebound insomnia.

Most people have probably by now seen the Rozerem ad campaign commercials which features a beaver (some say otter) and Abraham Lincoln. I’d say this is a pretty creative campaign! Well, I found the most interesting analysis of it here.