How dangerous is it really to mix alcohol and sleeping pills? Discover the potential risks and consequences of this dangerous combination. Get the facts and make an informed decision.

Exploring the Risks of Combining Alcohol and Sleeping Pills

Alcohol and sleeping pills, such as Unisom SleepTabs (doxylamine) and Unisom SleepGels (diphenhydramine), are commonly used substances that can have profound effects on the body and mind. However, the combination of these two can be extremely dangerous and should be avoided. Let’s dive into the potential risks and consequences of mixing alcohol and sleeping pills.

The Synergistic Effects of Alcohol and Sleeping Pills

When alcohol and sleeping pills are consumed together, they can have a synergistic effect, meaning that the combined impact is greater than the sum of their individual effects. This can lead to a significant increase in the severity of side effects, such as dizziness, drowsiness, and impaired cognitive function.

Alcohol is a central nervous system depressant, which means it slows down the brain’s activity. Sleeping pills, such as doxylamine and diphenhydramine, also have a depressive effect on the nervous system. The combination of these two substances can amplify this effect, leading to an even greater level of sedation and impairment.

The Dangers of Mixing Alcohol and Sleeping Pills

The dangers of mixing alcohol and sleeping pills are numerous and can be life-threatening. Some of the most serious risks include:

Respiratory Depression

The combination of alcohol and sleeping pills can depress the respiratory system, leading to a dangerous and potentially fatal condition called respiratory depression. This can cause the individual to stop breathing, resulting in brain damage or even death.

Overdose

When alcohol and sleeping pills are used together, the risk of overdose increases significantly. This can happen when the individual takes too much of one or both substances, leading to a toxic buildup in the body and potentially fatal consequences.

Impaired Judgment and Coordination

The combination of alcohol and sleeping pills can severely impair an individual’s judgment, coordination, and decision-making abilities. This can increase the risk of accidents, falls, and other dangerous situations.

The Importance of Avoiding Alcohol and Sleeping Pill Combinations

Given the serious risks associated with mixing alcohol and sleeping pills, it is essential to avoid this combination altogether. If you are taking a sleeping pill, it is crucial to abstain from alcohol consumption. Similarly, if you have been drinking, you should not take any sleeping medications.

It is important to follow the instructions on the medication label and to talk to your healthcare provider about any potential interactions or concerns. They can provide guidance on the safe use of sleeping pills and help you find alternative solutions for managing sleep issues.

Safer Alternatives for Sleep and Relaxation

If you are struggling with sleep or anxiety, there are safer alternatives to consider instead of mixing alcohol and sleeping pills. Some options include:

• Practicing good sleep hygiene, such as maintaining a consistent sleep schedule and creating a relaxing bedtime routine
• Engaging in relaxation techniques, such as meditation, deep breathing, or yoga
• Exploring over-the-counter sleep aids that do not contain alcohol or other potentially dangerous ingredients
• Consulting with a healthcare provider to explore prescription sleep medications or other treatments that are safe and effective

Conclusion

The combination of alcohol and sleeping pills can be extremely dangerous and should be avoided at all costs. The synergistic effects of these substances can lead to respiratory depression, overdose, and severe impairment of judgment and coordination, putting individuals at risk of serious harm or even death.

If you are struggling with sleep or anxiety, it is crucial to seek safe and effective alternatives that do not involve the dangerous combination of alcohol and sleeping pills. By making informed choices and prioritizing your health and safety, you can achieve better sleep and overall well-being.

Unisom SleepTabs and Alcohol/Food Interactions

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There is 1 alcohol/food/lifestyle interaction with Unisom SleepTabs (doxylamine).

Alcohol can increase the nervous system side effects of doxylamine such as dizziness, drowsiness, and difficulty concentrating. Some people may also experience impairment in thinking and judgment. You should avoid or limit the use of alcohol while being treated with doxylamine. Do not use more than the recommended dose of doxylamine, and avoid activities requiring mental alertness such as driving or operating hazardous machinery until you know how the medication affects you. Talk to your doctor or pharmacist if you have any questions or concerns.

Switch to professional interaction data

Unisom SleepTabs drug interactions

There are 306 drug interactions with Unisom SleepTabs (doxylamine).

Unisom SleepTabs disease interactions

There are 8 disease interactions with Unisom SleepTabs (doxylamine) which include:

• depression
• anticholinergic effects
• asthma/COPD
• cardiovascular
• renal/liver disease
• glaucoma
• liver disease
• resp depression

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More about Unisom SleepTabs (doxylamine)

• Unisom SleepTabs consumer information
• Check interactions
• Compare alternatives
• Reviews (79)
• Drug images
• Side effects
• Dosage information
• During pregnancy
• Support group
• Drug class: miscellaneous anxiolytics, sedatives and hypnotics
• Breastfeeding
• En español

Related treatment guides

• Insomnia

Drug Interaction Classification

These classifications are only a guideline. The relevance of a particular drug interaction to a specific individual is difficult to determine. Always consult your healthcare provider before starting or stopping any medication.

Major	Highly clinically significant. Avoid combinations; the risk of the interaction outweighs the benefit.
Moderate	Moderately clinically significant. Usually avoid combinations; use it only under special circumstances.
Minor	Minimally clinically significant. Minimize risk; assess risk and consider an alternative drug, take steps to circumvent the interaction risk and/or institute a monitoring plan.
Unknown	No interaction information available.

Further information

Always consult your healthcare provider to ensure the information displayed on this page applies to your personal circumstances.

Medical Disclaimer

Unisom SleepGels and Alcohol/Food Interactions

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There is 1 alcohol/food/lifestyle interaction with Unisom SleepGels (diphenhydramine).

Ask your doctor before using diphenhydrAMINE together with ethanol. Use alcohol cautiously. Alcohol may increase drowsiness and dizziness while you are taking diphenhydrAMINE. You should be warned not to exceed recommended dosages and to avoid activities requiring mental alertness. If your doctor prescribes these medications together, you may need a dose adjustment to safely take this combination. It is important to tell your doctor about all other medications you use, including vitamins and herbs. Do not stop using any medications without first talking to your doctor.

Switch to professional interaction data

Unisom SleepGels drug interactions

There are 433 drug interactions with Unisom SleepGels (diphenhydramine).

Unisom SleepGels disease interactions

There are 8 disease interactions with Unisom SleepGels (diphenhydramine) which include:

• depression
• anticholinergic effects
• asthma/COPD
• cardiovascular
• renal/liver disease
• glaucoma
• liver disease
• resp depression

Report options

Loading…

QR code containing a link to this page

More about Unisom SleepGels (diphenhydramine)

• Unisom SleepGels consumer information
• Check interactions
• Compare alternatives
• Reviews (21)
• Drug images
• Latest FDA alerts (2)
• Side effects
• Dosage information
• During pregnancy
• Drug class: anticholinergic antiparkinson agents
• Breastfeeding
• En español

Related treatment guides

• Insomnia

Drug Interaction Classification

These classifications are only a guideline. The relevance of a particular drug interaction to a specific individual is difficult to determine. Always consult your healthcare provider before starting or stopping any medication.

Major	Highly clinically significant. Avoid combinations; the risk of the interaction outweighs the benefit.
Moderate	Moderately clinically significant. Usually avoid combinations; use it only under special circumstances.
Minor	Minimally clinically significant. Minimize risk; assess risk and consider an alternative drug, take steps to circumvent the interaction risk and/or institute a monitoring plan.
Unknown	No interaction information available.

Further information

Always consult your healthcare provider to ensure the information displayed on this page applies to your personal circumstances.

Medical Disclaimer

is it possible to combine them, what are the consequences

There are contraindications, it is necessary to consult a specialist. 18+

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When do people start taking sleeping pills with alcohol?

A person with a healthy psyche should never start taking sleeping pills with alcohol, even if he has trouble sleeping. You don’t need to understand pharmacology to understand that such a combination can have terrible consequences. If a person is not suicidal, then this mixture is used in the following cases:

1. Complete lack of sleep. Most often, a person loses sleep with a severe nervous breakdown. In this case, insignificant experiences of a healthy person become a difficult problem for a sick person. Suspicious people often wake up from the thoughts swarming in their head, and can no longer close their eyes. If such a state lasts more than a week, then it goes into chronic . The patient has an acute desire to fall asleep and sleep well. Therefore, the right decision for them is to drink sleeping pills after alcohol, which later develops into addiction.
2. Hangover syndrome causes symptoms of poisoning in the human body, which are expressed by nausea, vomiting, acute pain in the head and trembling of the limbs. To alleviate his condition, a person tries to fall asleep, but under the influence of ethyl alcohol, the nervous system is overexcited . The patient uses sleeping pills with vodka. Such a mixture has a strong effect on important organs, which find it difficult to cope with their functions, which is why the body is filled with toxic substances.
3. If sleeping pills are taken with alcohol for a long time, then the active substances are concentrated in the body, and if used repeatedly, the drugs can cause an overdose.

Under no circumstances should the relatives of an alcoholic put sleeping pills in their food or water. The effect of the drug may be unpredictable :

• instead of falling asleep, the person behaves more aggressively;
• The heart of a drunk person cannot withstand the load, which causes death.

Sleeping pills in the hospital are prescribed to a drunk person in case of delirium tremens.

Symptoms and consequences of poisoning

In medicine, there is not a single drug that is compatible with ethyl alcohol. Such combinations cause a nervous breakdown and even a strong toxicosis . Symptoms depend on the type of food that was taken the day before, the amount of alcohol, the drug. And also you need to take into account the state of health of the alcoholic. As a result, a person manifests:

• nausea, vomiting, diarrhea;
• the work of the muscular system is disrupted;
• dizziness begins, coordination of movements decreases;
• appears apathy and weakness;
• lowers blood pressure.

In a similar state, a person falls, as a result of which he may receive a craniocerebral injury, break his limbs. After falling asleep, people forget about the included appliances, which can cause a fire.

When symptoms of poisoning occur, actions must be precise and quick:

1. Rinse the patient’s stomach.
2. Turn the person on their side so they don’t choke on their vomit.
3. Prepare strong tea with sugar and give it to the patient in large quantities.

Doctors provide professional medical assistance in this situation only in the conditions of hospital . First of all, the patient is connected to a ventilator. The patient must undergo long-term treatment in a drug treatment clinic.

“What happens if you still drink sleeping pills with alcohol, despite the warning in the instructions?” — Yandex Q

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NarkoDoc clinic provides treatment for alcoholism, drug addiction mania, tobacco addiction -… 4 Jan 2021 shansclinic.ru

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Bobkova Ksenia Mikhailovna

Sleeping pills can belong to different chemical groups. And in each case, certain symptoms will be observed. Common will be the effect of mutual reinforcement of their action. Intoxication will come faster and will be stronger than from the accepted dose of alcohol. The effect of sleeping pills will also increase. A person will quickly fall into a heavy and prolonged sleep. Dangerous for life and health can be: paralysis of the respiratory center and respiratory arrest, a critical drop in blood pressure up to cardiac arrest, as well as depression of consciousness, disorientation in space, narrowed consciousness, inadequate behavior. If you need help, please get in touch!

Clinic “NarcoDoc”: treatment of alcoholism, withdrawal from hard drinking, calling a narcologist at home.

Go to shansclinic.ru

1 expert agrees

Elena P.

November 12, 2021

I accidentally mixed donormil and alcohol 2 times, at 8 o’clock I drank wine at dinner and then at 10 I went to bed I drank … Read more

Aleksey Paramonov

gastroenterologist, therapist, PhD, founder and director of the Rassvet Clinic January 3, 2016

In most cases, nothing special. The effect of sleeping pills will increase, it is as if you took not one, but two pills. You can suddenly get drunk and get into an unpleasant situation – they drank the usual glass of champagne and got carried away like from a bottle of vodka. Some antidepressants have a tendency to provoke epileptic seizures in predisposed individuals, alcohol has a… Read more

Alina Gukova

January 4, 2016

What about the famous theory about cardiac arrest? Or is this not your profile?)

Dmitry Mikhailovich Alfeev

1C programmer. I am fond of theater. · 29 Jan

In the worst case, you may never wake up again. Or wake up, but only to feel all the horror and torment of the transition to eternal sleep.

Still, it is not in vain that they warn that it is impossible to combine alcohol and medicine. Not just sleeping pills, any.

Anton Lisnenko

IT Manager · 25 Jul 2017

In case of an overdose, and it just occurs, there is a possibility of a very dangerous condition – vomiting while lying in an unconscious state, which can result in death as a result of asphyxia. In other words, you can choke on your vomit and suffocate.

LX Fun Line

June 18, 2019

Olga Anisimova

Nedonets · 24 Oct 2017

It depends on what is meant by sleeping pills. In principle, the rule always applies that alcohol unpredictably enhances the effect of such drugs. In particular, it can cause breathing problems if the medicine depresses the respiratory center, for example.

Anna F.

freelancer November 16, 2017

Due to youth and stupidity, there was such a thing, with a friend we celebrated the first scholarship. Three tablets of phenobarbital were washed down with champagne, a bottle for two. From the restaurant it is not known how they crawled to the cinema, since it was opposite. The movie was not finished, it was very sleepy. We barely got out of the hall, I don’t remember further. I woke up a day later at home, in my bed. The strangest thing was that… Read more

Viktor Loboda

Conformist, fatalist, lover of snowy peaks and sea areas 8 Apr 2019

There will be a phenomenon of synergism, strengthening the action of one substance by another.

If there is a lot of alcohol, then with the last glass a couple of aspirin tablets and a diazepam tablet (Valium, Seduxen, Relanium) hangover prevention.

Recommendation for sane people. Idiots by

LX Fun Line

June 18, 2019

The recipe is wild: but it’s still working for beginners. It’s not exactly synergy, it’s just an increase in action, which is about… Read more

Tatyana Yurgeneva

30 Oct 2020

Perhaps alcohol and sleeping pills are not the best combination. And the consequences of such a combination depend on many factors: dosage, age, gender, overall and general health. If you use a minimum of alcohol and sleeping pills, then there are unlikely to be negative consequences. But if you overdose, you can catch an unpleasant bouquet of side effects:
1. Pressure reduction
2… Read more

First

sofi

June 24, 2020

I drank an energy drink, beer and 5 tablets of Sonex. 7 hours of at least my life just disappeared. In the morning, I remembered what was happening in fragments where they hurt me (that is, strong physical sensations, although some emotional ones were remembered).