Insomnia Medications  

One problem with insomnia medications is that they can be addictive.  This is one reason why most doctors recommend them for only a short-term basis.  Unfortunately, quickly stopping insomnia medications can cause some unwanted side effects including slipping into depression, developing anxiety, or having withdrawal symptoms.  So essentially with any insomnia treatment the best action will always be to focus on the cause behind the insomnia.  By addressing the likely causes, you are far more likely to be able to alleviate insomnia symptoms in the long term. 

While taking insomnia medications, some of the common side effects you can expect to find will blurred vision, dizzy spells, sluggishness, constipation, spells of memory loss and several others.  These side effects can be tolerated in the short term; however, they are part of the reason insomnia meds are not good for long term use.   

With this said, probably the most common insomnia medications include Sonata, Lunesta and Ambien.  Ambien can be a very effective drug for shor time periods.  Although it is not normally good for longer periods of sleep like 8 hours.  However, newer versions of this drug are being created to allow for longer periods of sleep.  Lunesta main advantage over Ambien is that it allows you to sleep for longer periods of time.  Sonata has also helped some people although a common side effect appears to be grogginess. 

Generally, you will find that different insomnia medications work better for a certain person than others.  For this reason, it may take some experimentation before you find the one that is right for you.  If you start to experience any side effects while on these medications be sure to discuss them with your doctor.