Lunivexa

Adults 18+Reference and inquiryAustin, Texas

Sleep medicines, read off the label.

Prescription sleep medication for adults, and the over-the-counter boxes that sit next to it, written up as one plain card per family. Every dose on a card comes from the current US prescribing label, and the card tells you which section of the label it came from.

We are a reference and inquiry desk in Austin, Texas. You write in with a question about a card. We send back the printable card and a one-page question sheet for your own prescriber. We quote no prices, because we sell no medicine: what you pay at the counter depends on your plan and your pharmacy, and nobody but them can tell you that number.

Send a question Read the insomnia medication list
A dark bedroom at 3 a.m. with a glowing clock, a glass of water and a pharmacy bottle on the nightstand

03:00 · four hours to the alarmThe cutoff most people miss

Insomnia medication list

Five families. One card each.

Each card carries the indication, the label start dose, when to take it, whether it is a controlled substance, and three to five safety notes. No price on any of them. Pharmacy cost varies by plan and by pharmacy, and we would rather print nothing than print a guess.

  1. 01 Orexin receptor antagonists Suvorexant, lemborexant, daridorexant. They switch off the wake signal instead of sedating the whole brain. Within 30 minutes of bed, at least 7 hours left. Schedule IVNot for narcolepsy
  2. 02 Z-drugs Zolpidem, eszopiclone, zaleplon. Fast onset, short half-lives, and a boxed warning since 2019 for sleep-driving and other complex sleep behaviours. Zolpidem starts at 5 mg for women. Schedule IVBoxed warning
  3. 03 Ramelteon One agent, one dose: 8 mg for trouble falling asleep. Not a controlled substance, which is the main reason people ask about it. Not with a high-fat meal. Not controlled
  4. 04 Low-dose antidepressants Doxepin 3 to 6 mg is approved for staying asleep. Trazodone and mirtazapine are prescribed for sleep all the time, and neither label says so. Those two cards carry the red stamp. Not controlledOff-label
  5. 05 Over-the-counter aids Diphenhydramine, doxylamine, melatonin. The first two are anticholinergic antihistamines on the Beers list for over-65s. Melatonin is a dietary supplement, not an FDA-approved drug. OTCBeers list 65+

Sleep medication safety, next morning driving

One night, timed to the label.

The dose is the easy part. The hours are where people get hurt. This is a single night with a 07:00 alarm, drawn from what the zolpidem, zaleplon and orexin antagonist labels say about time left in bed. The most common failure we hear about: a Z-drug at 2 a.m. with four hours to go, then the drive to work.

Night timeline from 22:00 to 07:00 Lights out at 22:30. A bedtime zolpidem dose at 23:00 with eight hours left. The four-hour cutoff for a middle-of-the-night dose at 03:00. A wake at 03:30 with no redosing. The alarm at 07:00 with no driving if drowsy. 22:00 23:00 00:00 01:00 02:00 03:00 04:00 05:00 06:00 07:00 8 H Lights out Dose · 8 h left 4 h cutoff No redose Alarm
  1. 22:30

    Lights out. Nothing taken yet.

    The label clock starts when the tablet goes down, not when you get into bed. If you are going to lie awake reading for an hour first, the dose waits until the book is closed. Every family on the list is written for a dose taken at, or within 30 minutes of, actual bedtime.

  2. 23:00

    Zolpidem, eight hours to go.

    Take it only if you have seven to eight hours left in bed. Not six. Not "about seven". Zolpidem 5 mg is the starting dose for women; the FDA cut it in 2013 because of next-morning blood levels. Suvorexant, lemborexant and daridorexant read almost the same: at least 7 hours before you plan to get up.

  3. 03:00

    The four-hour cutoff.

    Two products carry a label for a middle-of-the-night dose: zaleplon, and low-dose sublingual zolpidem at 1.75 mg for women and 3.5 mg for men. Both need at least 4 hours left in bed. With a 07:00 alarm, 03:00 is the last minute, and only if no bedtime dose went in.

  4. 03:30

    Awake again. No second tablet.

    Past the cutoff, with a bedtime dose already on board. No label on the list allows a redose here. Write the time in the sleep diary, stay down, and take the entry to your prescriber. A night of broken sleep is safer than a morning with a drug still in the blood.

  5. 07:00

    Alarm. Drowsy means no car.

    You can feel fully awake and still be impaired. That was the finding behind the 2013 zolpidem change. Anyone on 12.5 mg extended-release zolpidem is told by the label not to drive the next day at all, and the suvorexant label says the same for 20 mg. The safety rules cover the rest of the morning.

Method, not testimonials

Every number has a label behind it.

This is the check you can run yourself. Each start dose below is copied from section 2 of the current US prescribing label, or from the Drug Facts panel for the over-the-counter boxes. Half-lives are rounded from section 12.3. Pull the label on DailyMed and compare; if a figure is wrong, we correct it and tell everyone who received that card.

Where there is no label dose, the cell says so. Trazodone for insomnia is off-label, so the card gives no label dose because there isn't one.

Source column names the label section. Check your own product's label: strengths and formulations differ.
Agent Family Label start dose Half-life Status Source
Suvorexant Orexin antagonist 10 mg ~12 h Schedule IV FDA label · §2 · §12.3
Lemborexant Orexin antagonist 5 mg 17–19 h Schedule IV FDA label · §2 · §12.3
Daridorexant Orexin antagonist 25–50 mg ~8 h Schedule IV FDA label · §2 · §12.3
Zolpidem IR Z-drug 5 mg women · 5–10 mg men ~2.5 h Schedule IV FDA label · §2.1 · §12.3
Eszopiclone Z-drug 1 mg ~6 h Schedule IV FDA label · §2 · §12.3
Zaleplon Z-drug 10 mg ~1 h Schedule IV FDA label · §2 · §12.3
Ramelteon Melatonin-receptor agonist 8 mg 1–2.6 h Not controlled FDA label · §2 · §12.3
Doxepin (low dose) Sedating antidepressant 6 mg · 3 mg over 65 ~15 h Not controlled FDA label · §2 · §12.3
Trazodone Sedating antidepressant No label sleep dose 5–9 h Off-label FDA label · §1 indication is depression
Diphenhydramine OTC antihistamine 50 mg at bedtime Longer over 65 OTC Drug Facts · Directions
Melatonin Dietary supplement No FDA dose Under 1 h Supplement Not an FDA-approved drug

Source · FDA label via DailyMed · Section 2 Dosage and administration · Section 12.3 Pharmacokinetics

Who this is not for

What the desk won't do.

  1. We don't prescribe.

    No card tells you which medicine to take or whether to take one at all. That call belongs to a prescriber who has seen your history, your other medicines and your sleep diary. We write the sheet of questions you take into that appointment.

  2. We don't sell, ship or dispense.

    There is no cart, no checkout and no price list on this site. Nothing leaves the desk except paper and email. If a site offers you zolpidem without a prescription, close the tab.

  3. Nothing for anyone under 18.

    Every dose on every card is an adult dose. Questions about a child or a teenager go to their pediatrician; we will not answer them, even to point at a number.

  4. We don't stand in for your pharmacist.

    Your pharmacist has your full medication list and we don't. For a crisis, call 911. For a mental health emergency, call or text 988. The chat on this site is not watched around the clock.

Questions people ask before writing in

Is this just a drug-maker page with a different logo?

No. Nobody pays to be on a card, and every family sits next to its competitors in the same format. The orexin antagonist card and the zolpidem card get the same fields, the same number of safety notes and the same source line. Where the old generic does the job, the card says so.

Why no prices?

Because we don't sell anything, and the price of a generic sleep medicine in Austin can differ several times over between two pharmacies on the same street and two insurance plans in the same household. A number we printed would be wrong for most readers. Ask your pharmacy for the cash price and the plan price; the question sheet has a line for both.

Can I ask about my own dose?

You can ask what the label says about a dose, and we will quote it back with the section number. We won't say whether your dose is right for you. If your prescribed dose is above the label maximum, the card will make that visible and the question sheet will give you the words to ask about it.

Suvorexant vs zolpidem: which is safer?

They fail differently. Zolpidem is short-acting and carries the 2019 boxed warning for complex sleep behaviours. Suvorexant hangs around longer, around 12 hours, so next-morning impairment is the thing to watch, and it is off the table for anyone with narcolepsy. Both are Schedule IV. The two cards set the rules side by side.

Sleep medicine information, Austin, Texas

Ask the desk about a card.

What happens after you write

  1. We read the question against the card. If the answer is already on the card, you get the card with the line marked.

  2. We pull the current label. Labels change. The card you receive shows the label version date it was checked against.

  3. You get two pages back by email. The printable card, and a one-page question sheet with blanks for your prescriber's answers.

  4. You take the sheet to your prescriber or pharmacist. They make the call. We don't follow up with them, and we don't contact anyone on your behalf.

Send a question · reply by email

Name the medicine and the strength on the box if you have it. Leave out anything you would not put on a postcard.

Information only. Not a prescription, not a diagnosis. Talk to your prescriber or pharmacist before starting, stopping or changing a dose.