New Sleep Medicine

If you are a chronic insomniac, you have probably tried so many sleep medicines that you wonder if you will ever find a new sleep medicine that can help you. Most people who have chronic insomnia have tried several types of sleep aids and some people are able to sleep using them. However, many people do not respond to common sedatives, or if they do respond to sedatives, they become tolerant to them so that they no longer respond to them.

Non-benzodiazepine sedatives such as Ambien® was the best new sleep medicine ten years ago, but many people that need help sleeping have grown tolerant to it so that it no longer helps them to sleep. Ambien® also can cause amnesia and addiction in patients that have to take it on a long-term basis.

In 2005, Takeda Pharmaceuticals North America introduced a new class of sleep agents that binds to the melatonin receptors in the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) of your brain so that it does not cause amnesia or addiction. Rather than trying to dull your anxieties, erase your bad memories or relax your muscles as other sedatives do, Takeda's new sleep medicine, Ramelteon, marketed as Rozerem®, simply turns off the receptors in your brain that keep you awake.

Because you have neurotransmitters that have the job of turning off the receptors in your brain that keep you awake naturally, these receptors react the same way to the Rozerem® as they would to your natural neurotransmitters. Because the Rozerem is selective about which receptors it turns off, it only does what your natural neurotransmitters would do if they were working properly.

If your doctor finds the reason that your neurotransmitters are not working properly and subsequently repairs whatever is the cause of the malfunction, you may stop taking Rozerem® without any withdrawal symptoms. The only drawback that people have found with Rozerem® is that they do not always stay asleep throughout the night. While they can always go back to sleep, they often wake up several times during the night.