I have good news to report!
I had my Ambien prescription filled yesterday morning at the grocery store and was given 30 pills. Instructions simply say "TAKE 1 TABLET AT BEDTIME". While I was there I did a little random shopping, picked up some food before wandering into the sleep-aid section out of curiosity.
Saw some "doxylamine succinate" tablets on sale, 96 tablets for like $6. Grabbed a bottle of those and went and checked out.
Got home and just took it easy and browsed the web until around when 6 o' clock hit, then I turned on my TV and started watching the latest episode of
WWE Smackdown. Watched about an hour and then got bored, was a pretty un-eventful episode.
Turned off the TV and went to the kitchen to decide what I was going to try this time around. Remembering all the bad stuff I had been reading about Ambien I thought to myself "what if I try an EXTRA dose of the OTC pills?". I looked at the instructions for the Doxy, also said "take 1 pill at bedtime". I went and swallowed 2 pills being that I am a larger guy, went to my room and got into bed and awaited to see what would happen.
I got into bed around 6:50 PM, noticed my over-active/annoying brain putting up the usual resistance. About an hour rolled by with nothing happening. I opened my eyes and it's like 7:45 on the clock. Close my eyes again. A few minutes later I suddenly get hit with some heavy drowsiness and I lose consciousness/fall asleep.... I'm guessing the Doxy finally hit the bloodstream. I wake up and open my eyes, my room is pitch black. Turn my head over to see the clock.....
It's 3:47 AM!!
FINALLY one solid night of sleep!
I guess-timate that I passed out around 8:15-ish PM, so that's a little over 7 hours of solid sleep! I had between 2-3 "mini dreams" last night, which tells me I got at least some REM (restorative) periods.
I will be trying this again for the next few days and seeing if I can repeat the results. This has me excited because whereas Ambien and other similar Rx come with all sorts of down-sides and can be addictive, I have not really read anything "bad" about OTC stuff like Doxy.
It's 8:30 AM and I feel fresh, looking forward to a productive day where I am not in a half-asleep zombie state like I have been for the last give or take 3 weeks.
Hopefully I can catch up on a bunch of stuff today......