The Zolpidem medication belongs to the class of medicines popularly known as sedative-hypnotics. It is primarily used for treating sleeping disorders or insomnia. In other words, Zolpidem helps people sleep better.
This medication basically induces sleep by enhancing the effects of GABA. It is nothing but a chemical transmitter within the brain. You should note that the chemical structure of Zolpidem is quite different from that of benzodiazepines.
Today, this article will discuss a few things that you need to know before you pop in a Zolpidem. Let’s find out.
Upsides of Zolpidem
It is important to know that Zolpidem offers a plethora of upsides. Some of them include the following:
- It helps in getting sufficient sleep and staying asleep for the appropriate amount of time.
- This medication is available in numerous dosage forms, such as tablets, sublingual tablets (under the tongue), extended-release tablets, and oral sprays.
- Multiple forms of Zolpidem are used for sleep maintenance, sleep initiation, and returning to sleep after awakening in the middle of the night.
- Generic Zolpidem is widely available.
Compelling Tips to Consume Zolpidem
If you are about to consume Zolpidem for the first time, you can follow a few tips. Adhering to them will actually help in making the most of the medication, thereby acquiring the best results. Here, we have enlisted a few tips that you can readily follow:
- While consuming sublingual tablets, you must place them under the tongue. You can wait for some time and allow it to disintegrate. Please ensure that you don’t swallow the entire tablet at once.
- It is important to keep the sublingual tablets of Zolpidem away from light and moisture. In other words, you need to store them in a cool and dry place. While Edular is a dissolvable tablet, it can easily be placed under the tongue. You must allow the medication to dissolve on its own without the help of water.
- You must remember that food considerably delays the onset of Zolpidem’s effect. So, the medication is bound to work faster if it’s not taken with food. You can consider taking the tablets right before you go to bed.
- If you are using the oral spray Zolpimist, then you need to spray it directly into the mouth. Make sure that you spray it over the tongue. And before your initial use, you need to prime the pump. You must do the same if you haven’t used the oral spray for at least 14 consecutive days.
- A single dosage form of Zolpidem must be consumed by patients who wake up in the middle of the night. You must avoid taking it if you have less than four hours of sleep remaining. All the other forms of Zolpidem must be taken if there are 7-8 hours that can be used for sleeping before awakening.
- Patients can take the extended release of Zolpidem to stay asleep and even for sleep initiation. Also, please ensure that you don’t crush, cut, or chew the extended-release forms.
To Conclude
You should also note that the time-to-peak effect significantly varies on the formulation. However, it completely ranges from over half an hour to 1.5 hours. And since food regulation delays the time to peak, you must avoid food while popping in Zolpidem.
