Can I Cut Down on Sleeping Pills?

Key points in 30 seconds

1. Cutting down on sleeping pills can be set as a goal.
2. But don't stop on your own. Stopping suddenly makes things harder.
3. We start while you keep taking your medication as before.
4. We'll set the pace and size of the reduction while watching your progress.
5. If you snore heavily or your mood has been low for a long time, that needs to be checked first.

What we often hear

• "I want to cut down on sleeping pills, but I'm scared."
• "I feel like I won't be able to sleep at all without them."
• "I'm worried whether it's okay to take them for a long time."

Can I cut down on sleeping pills?

Cutting down can be set as a goal. But stopping on your own is risky. We'll decide when and how much to try reducing while watching your progress.

There's a reason we put this sentence first. When some people hear "quit sleeping pills with Korean medicine," they think they can stop taking them starting today. Stopping suddenly can actually make sleep even harder, and can also bring on anxiety or shaking.

Why do people want to cut down?

What we hear most is that the pills don't bring sleep the way they used to. People come in at the point where the same dose isn't enough, but increasing it is worrying.

We also often hear that people feel foggy during the day, don't feel refreshed in the morning, or have hazy memory. They're sleeping, but it isn't the sleep they wanted.

What part of this does Korean medicine treatment address?

It doesn't replace the medication; it addresses the conditions in the body that keep you from sleeping. As those conditions ease, the same medication brings sleep more easily, and there's room to cut down.

By conditions in the body, we mean things like these: heat rising to the head so your thoughts don't stop even after you lie down, tension that doesn't let go during the day and carries on into the night, and poor digestion that wakes you up during sleep. Which one is bigger differs from person to person.

In what order do you go?

We start while you keep taking your medication as before. Changes in how long it takes to fall asleep and how often you wake during the night show up first; talk of cutting down comes after that.

When it's time to cut down, we'll guide you to take those records and discuss it with the doctor who prescribed the medication. The size and pace of the reduction are for the prescriber to decide. It isn't stopping all at once, but coming down little by little, like walking down stairs. If it gets hard again while cutting down, we slow the pace. Going back a step isn't failure.

What are the limits of this judgment?

We don't have numbers showing that Korean medicine treatment allows people to cut down on sleeping pills. What's written here is a pattern we've seen in the clinic.

Something important to add. Trouble sleeping can have causes that need their own care: thyroid disease, sleep apnea, restless legs, and depression. If you snore heavily or stop breathing during sleep, a sleep study comes first. If your mood has been low for a long time, care for that comes first.

We don't start by telling you to stop your medication. Cutting down is something to discuss with the doctor who prescribed it; our part is getting your body to a state where cutting down is possible.

If you want to cut down on medication but can't bring yourself to try, come see us. We'll tell you what you can start with from where you are now.

The process of cutting down differs from person to person, depending on how long and how much you've been taking.