There are three families of sleep medicine, and they are not interchangeable. Antihistamines like diphenhydramine and promethazine are sold in shops; they sedate but leave you groggy and stop working within days. Z-drugs and benzodiazepines are prescription-only, effective short-term, and habit-forming. Melatonin is the body’s own night signal: it doesn’t sedate, it shifts your clock.
That makes melatonin the right tool when the problem is timing — shift work, late nights that have crept, a body clock that has drifted — and the wrong tool for anxiety keeping you awake or pain waking you. Our pharmacists supply a short melatonin course privately to adults after a consultation; see the sleep service page and what actually resets a bad pattern.
For insomnia that has lasted more than three months, the treatment with the strongest evidence isn’t a tablet at all: cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia (CBT-I), available through your GP and some NHS apps. It outperforms every sleeping tablet over the long term.
Flying across time zones is a different problem with the same medicine — see our jet lag service for how to time it.
15-minute pharmacist consultation, supplied under a Patient Group Direction. Book a time at any of our six branches or walk in.
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