The best sleep aids to help you get some kip in 2023 without a prescription

“Based on this, sunrise alarm clocks can be a great sleep aid. Some offer a sunset setting which allows you to wind down with the ‘sunset’, even when it doesn’t fit in with the natural seasons of daily life schedules.”

GLAMOUR recommends:

8. Herbal teas

Find the right herbal tea and it can be a wonderfully calming and soothing addition to your bedtime ritual. 

Dorothy Chambers explains: “Herbal teas are a great way to help encourage sleep. One of the most common sleep-promoting herbal remedies includes chamomile, which helps to act as a very mild sedative, calming nerves and anxiety. 

However, using a single tea bag on its own may not offer a potent enough drink for you to feel the full benefits of the herbs, which is why Dorothy recommends: “If making tea, I would recommend using two or three tea bags in one cup of tea to feel the full benefits.”

GLAMOUR recommends:

Pukka Herbs Night Time Organic Herbal Calming Tea

Clipper Organic Sleep Easy Infusion Teabags

Is it okay to use a sleep aid every night? 

Sleep aids can be super handy for improving how easily you drift off to sleep, but there are certain sleep aids (think: over-the-counter medicated sleeping pills) that are not recommended for long-term use.

According to the Sleep Foundation, most experts don’t recommend using these kinds of medicated sleep aids for anything longer than short-term use, instead recommending them for one-off use. However, most natural sleep aids – think: herbal teas, lavender pillow sprays (we whole-heartedly recommend the sell-out This Works’ pillow spray) and white noise machines – are safe to use for older adults on a longer term basis. So, if you find something that banishes your sleep disorders and sends you into sleepiness, as long as it’s natural, you can use it as often as you like. 

How many hours of sleep do you need to feel rested? 

If you’re finding drifting off a bit of a struggle, one question you’re most probably pondering is: how much sleep do I actually need? The truth is, there’s no one-size-fits all approach to sleep. How much sleep we need differs depending on a range of factors. 

That being said, on average Sleep Foundation reports that healthy adults aged 25 to 65 need between seven and nine hours of sleep a night. 

Sleep expert for Sleep Junkie, Dorothy Chambers explains that: “Struggling to sleep can have a negative impact on your day-to-day life, and having a healthy sleeping pattern should be a priority for everyone.”

Are over-the-counter sleep aids safe? 

Sleeping pills can be a total godsend when all you want to do is sleep but, no matter how hard you try, you just can’t seem to drift off. We’ve all been there; you lay in bed clock-watching, counting down the hours until you need to get up, and wondering if sleep will ever come. It’s stressful, frustrating, and just downright infuriating. 

For nights like this, when sleep feels just out of reach, sigh, taking an over-the-counter sleep aid is usually safe – provided you follow the dose instructions carefully. (It’s also worth noting that certain sleep medicines do come with potential side effects). 

So, in terms of side effects, what should you be looking out for? In general, the side effects are fairly mild and include things like feeling a little groggy the next day, in addition to having vision that’s slightly blurred, feeling a little confused, and being constipated. Not exactly the nicest side effects to have to deal with. 

One of the biggest concerns linked to medicinal sleep aids is the fact that, over time, your body may become accustomed to a sleep aid dose, meaning that the dose becomes less effective and doesn’t work as well as it once did. So, in order to get the same results, you may need to take a larger dose, which may then lead to more severe side effects. 

But, the good news is that, if you opt to use natural sleep aids instead of medicinal sleep aids, you shouldn’t have to worry about any nasty side effects or associated problems as a result of using them.