Thanks to the internet and the growth of the online pharmacies, it’s just so easy to buy your drugs. All it takes is a few clicks and before you can say Jiminy Cricket, Cowabunga, or whatever leaps into your mind when you’re looking for just the right thing to shout when you want to make a point, the padded envelope is on its way to you. But there’s a trap in the speed of this transaction. You’ve been watching all those TV ads. You’re sold on the idea of this drug as the bestest treatment for whatever ails you. No more lurking in the doctor’s waiting room or those shakes of the head when the know-it-all doesn’t think that drug is quite what you need. Those drugs are on their way to you before you have the chance for second thoughts. So what’s the problem? Ah, insomnia. Finding it hard to get too sleep. Waking up too early. Feeling tired all the time. Well, let’s take one step back. There’s a possible cause and effect here. Fewer hours asleep and you feel tired. Except, the feeling of tiredness is not necessarily insomnia. Huh? Everyone tends to lump everything together. You feel tired when you wake up so you must have insomnia. Hmmm. . .

So just why are you finding it hard to sleep through the night? You’re not in pain, are you? Sometimes a physical problem like arthritis can generate just enough pain to disturb you. Or perhaps you have restless leg syndrome. This is a problem linked to high blood pressure, the risk of a stroke and some brain disorders like Parkinson’s disease. Some people find they cannot lie still. And then there’s sleep apnea where you stop breathing and have to wake up to start again. There are a long list of possible reasons why you might be feeling tired. So before you launch off on your own self-medication path and buy Ambien online, get some specialist advice. This probably means getting past your primary caregiver if you’re in a network. You should really go see a sleep specialist. There are centers all over the country that wire you up to a whole batch of machines to monitor this and that, and keep a video record of how much you move around. When the results come in you may find you grind your teeth and the noise wakes you up, so dentistry is the cure.

Although medical science is not as certain as doctors would have you believe (they still have to make their best guess some of the time), they stand a better chance of being right than you. This takes nothing away from Ambien. It does what it says, i.e, knocks you out for seven to eight hours. But it’s not a treatment for any underlying physical cause for you feeling tired every morning. So rather than take the easy line, be prepared to claim on your health insurance policy or spend some money to find out for sure what’s wrong. It’s possible Ambien might be the right answer in the short term, but get expert confirmation first. The worst thing you could do is take a powerful drug to knock you out only to discover you are lining up for a stroke or you have sleep apnea and just don’t wake up then next time you stop breathing.