Insomnia, Sleep Aids, and You

Insomnia. It’s been a battle for me since 6th grade, and probably has some sort of physiological/chemical tie to my anxiety.

My dad has had issues with it as well, and we both frequently compare notes on various sleep aids, from lavender oil sachets, to Unisom, to the benefits of Benadryl, and so on.

Insomnia can be a huge pain in the ass, from throwing off your ability to focus at work to making you miss a morning workout or coffee date. As someone who really, really needs 7 to 8 hours of sleep a night, I know all too well how sleep issues can ruin your day. So with that in mind, I’ve put together a list of types of sleep aids, both OTC and vitamin-based, to try to give you some options.

I’m going to start us out with Dad’s poison of choice: OTC. He doesn’t like the vivid dreams that also comes with melatonin sometimes.

All the below options (other than Benadryl) can be found by clicking here. Disclaimer: that’s my Amazon Affiliate page :)

OTC Options: Tempest Insomniacs™ Approved

Unisom

Unisom is effective, but I recommend you give yourself MORE than 8 hours. So if you’re getting up at 8a, I would take Unisom no later than 11:30p. Also note that it sometimes makes my legs crawl.

ZZZquil

Zzzquil is my favorite OTC option, and works just like Nyquil. The nice thing is, if you get the liquid you can better control your dose!

Benadryl

Unconventional but non-addictive/habit forming and it knocks out allergies while you’re at it! I’ll use half a Benadryl to help me sleep if I wake up and toss and turn a lot.

Melatonin Options: Tempest Insomniacs™ Approved

Beauty Zzzz by HUM Nutrition

Beauty Zzzz by HUM is a go-to of mine. It’s a little pill and contains B6, which differentiates it from competitors. I sleep well with this and wake up from it only a hair groggy, but I have insanely vivid dreams with it. I recommend taking this 9 full hours before you want to wake up.

Olly Radiant Sleep/Beauty Sleep

There are only two Melatonin’s I recommend. This one is nice for the same reason Zzzquil is: since one dose is two gummies, you can better control your dosing to reflect what you need. I wake up feeling refreshed after it and my dreams haven’t been as crazy at all. These don’t need as much of a buffer—8 hours is fine! I do notice some minor leg crawling with it.

Quick, easy, and not a single photo. And here to think I call myself a blogger.