Having a hard time getting to sleep? Before you run off to the drugstore to find a good sleep aid there's a few things you need to be aware of. There are a couple different sleep aids that have become very popular. Advil PM and Tylenol PM, both recognized as effective sleep aids. Both contain pain relievers to get rid of those minor aches and pains that are keeping you from relaxing and falling asleep on your own.

Tylenol PM contains 500 mg of acetaminophen for pain relief and 25 mg of diphenhydramine HCI, as a sleep aid.

Advil PM contains 200mg of ibuprofen for pain relief and 38 mg of diphenhydramine Citrate as a sleep aid.

So what's the difference, is one safer or better then the other. The answer is not all that clear, each will affect different people in different ways. Acetaminophen has a history of causing liver damage if dosage restrictions are not followed closely. Care must be taken that when adding Tylenol PM to an existing medication routine that the patient is not doubling up on acetaminophen as it's commonly added to many drugs for pain relief. Because of that it's very easy to exceed maximum daily dosages, and the effect may cause rapid and permanent damage to your liver.

Because of this abundance of acetaminophen in other products, you have another option. Advil PM, which contains ibuprofen,an (NSAID)Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drug. The danger of accidental overdose of ibuprofen is not so great, as it is not found as often in other drugs. Be aware that ibuprofen is associated with digestive tract bleeding, but it's not as likely to affect the liver.

So where does this leave you, both drugs have pluses and minuses. Simple, its a matter of which works best for each person, and which can be added without affecting a current medication routine. For some Tylenol PM is the recommended application, and for others Advil PM will be preferable.

Do beware, neither should be taken any longer then absolutely necessary, and never longer then a period of 10 days without a physicians guidance. It's unlikely this will occur as you will quickly find that after a day or two the effectiveness of the sleep aid in either one becomes ineffective. Both drugs work best when taken after a period of many days of restless sleep, and used to get that one good nights sleep to catch up from what you missed all week. Like sleeping in on a Saturday morning after a hard week at work.

Learn more about this author, Curtis Carper.
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