How addictive is Restoril?
All benzodiazepines are addicting, however, Restoril is not as addicting as the others such as Valium and Xanax. Restoril is strictly a hypnotic, meaning it induces and maintains sleep, where most of the other benzos are anxiolytic. Anxiolytic benzos cause a euphoria or “buzz” which leads to dependence and addiction. Benzos other than Restoril for the most part have longer half-lives than Restoril, making the effects last longer. There are 2 types of addiction – physical and psychological. All sleep aids can be psychologically addicting, meaning the patient cannot sleep until that pill is taken. Sometimes people can become physically addicted to sleep aids, but this is not that common. Restoril has been around since 1981 and has a long safety record. I feel more comfortable with it than some of the newer sleep aids such as Ambien (sleep walking, sleep driving, amnesia, etc.). You can develop a tolerance to any sleep aid. This can be avoided by taking it only when you think or know that
