I have been taking melatonin supplements for my sleep problems for sometime now and I am kinda feeling what others are saying about melatonin. It doesn’t seem to work for me anymore. My girlfriends told me that a cocktail of Benadryl and melatonin does the trick better. Does it? What are the effects if I take both the melatonin and Benadryl?

You’re having trouble sleeping, you are trying so hard but you just end up wondering when you’re going to able to actually sleep. And when you finally get that much coveted snooze, something wakes you up and, voila! You’re back to “trying so hard but not quite succeeding”.

You’re not alone and you know that. Statistics show that 1 in every 8 people in America suffers from insomnia. But despite the popularity of sleeping pills and the advent of lower-risk sleep pills like Ambien and Lunesta, a lot of these insomniacs refuse to give in to these enticing TV commercials. Others, if not most, prefer to go the natural way.

The newest natural sleeping aid today is melatonin supplements. These are synthetic forms of the hormone melatonin that naturally induces sleep and is normally produced by the pineal gland in the brain. However, this doesn’t work quite the way some users would want it. So, instead of taking double doses, they match it with another mild sleeping aid, Benadryl.

Benadryl is an antihistamine that happens to have a side effect of drowsiness. Benadryl and melatonin together seem to work just fine for some people, especially those experiencing jet lag and shift work sleep disorder. They report being able to sleep a few minutes after taking both Benadryl and melatonin and is able to maintain sleep for 6 to 8 hours.

A Benadryl-and-melatonin user suggests that limiting coffee and alcohol while on this regimen helps make it work better. It is also important that you know how to taper the doses when you feel that your sleep/wake cycle has returned to normal. Your brain and body becomes immune to the effects of Benadryl and melatonin when it is constantly exposed to high doses of these drugs. There are also sleep aid preparations that contain both Benadryl and melatonin but they are not sold without a prescription. Some claim that they work even better.

But then these two, Benadryl and melatonin, both causes sedation, drowsiness and slowed breathing and if I remember correctly, when two substances with the same effects are taken together, their combined effects would always border on the dangerous. And with Benadryl and melatonin together, it may even result to coma.

Now, they may seem harmless when taken separately but these two would potentiate its other’s effects once they are ingested together and drug interactions may arise. You might think that’s a good thing since they don’t work quite as well when taken alone. But you also have to bear in mind that when it comes to drugs, one and one doesn’t always comes out two. More often than not, it’s ten… or none.