Why Sleeping Pills Can Leave You Tired the Next Day

If you’ve struggled with insomnia, there’s nothing like the relief that comes with the ability to sleep through most of the night. But if sleeping pills are what’s helping you fall asleep, you might not feel as well-rested in the morning as you’d think.

Some people wake up feeling exhausted, even after a full night of sleep. According to psychiatrist and sleep medicine specialist Ghaith Shukri, M.D., that’s because falling asleep and getting restorative sleep aren’t necessarily the same. “When it comes to natural sleep, it’s complicated, and it involves multiple neurotransmitters and mechanisms,” says Dr. Shukri.

For many people, a sleep aid seems like an easy solution for restless nights. Yet waking up groggy can leave you wondering whether the medication actually helps you get the rest you need.

Medicated sedation isn’t the same as natural sleep

You might assume that a sleep medication that helps you sleep through the night offers the same quality of sleep your body would naturally achieve.

That’s not always the case. “Most are sedatives that work on some mechanisms that help with sedation and relaxation, but don’t necessarily lead to normal sleep,” says Dr. Shukri.

Different sleep medications work by targeting chemicals and signaling systems in the brain and body, including:

• Serotonin: Regulates mood and plays a role in the sleep-wake cycle
• GABA: A calming brain chemical that slows nerve activity and promotes relaxation and sleep
• Dopamine: Regulates alertness, motivation, and wakefulness
• Melatonin: A hormone that helps signal to your body it’s time to sleep
• Histamine: A chemical that promotes wakefulness, so blocking it can make you tired

“Each medication has a different mode of action, but natural sleep is way more complicated than just that,” says Dr. Shukri.

Why sleeping pills can make you feel tired the next day

If you’ve ever slept for eight hours after taking a sleep aid but still felt sluggish the next morning, the medication itself may be part of the reason.

“There’s this individual variation between how people respond to those medications and how long it stays in their system,” says Dr. Shukri.

Some medications are short-acting and get cleared from the system quickly. Some are longer-acting, causing morning grogginess and daytime fatigue.

Why young adults may be turning to sleep aids

Sleep problems are especially common among teenagers and young adults. Hormones cause this age group to experience a delayed phase in their circadian rhythm, which makes them want to stay up later and then wake up later. Plus, access to social media and screens makes sleep especially challenging for young people today.

“They’re susceptible to having poor sleep, and then to fix this problem or to try to compensate for it, unfortunately, they engage in a maladaptive behavior of taking something,” says Dr. Shukri.

Instead of addressing the cause of poor sleep, he says, many young people look for what amounts to a quick fix.

“A Band-Aid that is not necessarily inducing normal sleep,” says Dr. Shukri.

The root cause of why you aren’t sleeping

Rather than immediately prescribing medication, Dr. Shukri starts by looking for the reason someone can’t sleep. Sometimes the cause is physical. Other times, it’s emotional.

For example, sometimes people may have anxiety and don’t know it. “They feel fine during the day because they’re distracted, but then nighttime is the time when they are alone with their own thoughts,” says Dr. Shukri.

That creates a cycle that’s difficult to break. “If your body becomes in a fight-or-flight kind of state, that prevents sleep, and if you’re not sleeping well, you have more tendency to become anxious. So it’s like a vicious cycle,” he says.

Sleeping pill addiction

Sleeping pills, especially when taken from a young age, can cause a dependency for both physical and psychological reasons.

Some medications, like the benzodiazepines Xanax and Klonopin, cause physical dependence. Stopping them abruptly can cause withdrawal symptoms, insomnia, and even anxiety.

This can be complicated by psychological dependence based on the belief that you need to take something to fall asleep.

Medication isn’t always the best long-term answer

The most effective treatment for chronic insomnia often isn’t medication at all. “The gold standard treatment for insomnia is cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT-I),” says Dr. Shukri.

Unlike medication, which may stop working once it’s discontinued, cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia is a structured psychotherapy that aims to retrain the brain’s relationship with sleep.

The approach takes more time than taking a pill, but the results tend to last, says Dr. Shukri.

“If you take medication, it may help, but then if you stop the medication, you may rebound. With therapy, the benefit is more sustained.”

When to seek help

Everyone experiences occasional sleepless nights. However, if you’re relying on sleep medications regularly or are waking up exhausted despite getting enough hours of sleep, it’s worth talking with your doctor.

The goal for a good night’s sleep isn’t simply to sleep longer, but rather for your mind and body to feel restored the next day. This is why a real sleep solution starts with understanding and addressing the underlying cause of why you’re not sleeping well or feeling refreshed in the morning.

“Sleep is the fourth pillar of health, alongside exercise, diet and mental health. So our habits, what we consume digitally or physically and exercise all affect our sleep. Sometimes the solution is subtraction, not addition,” says Dr. Shukri.

Request an appointment with a sleep expert at UHealth.

Written by Wendy Margolin. Reviewed by Ghaith Shukri, M.D.