Sleeping Pill Detox

Sleeping pill dependence often starts with a prescription during a difficult period. At Abbington House, the dose is reduced gradually under clinical care. You have support through the day and night, while treatment looks at what made sleep difficult in the first place and what has kept the tablets in your routine.

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01438 583222

About The Author

Michael Williams

Michael Williams (Mikey) is the Treatment Director at Abbington House and has been in recovery since 2011. He oversees the day-to-day delivery of care and brings lived experience into every part of the work.

You take the tablet because you need to sleep.

After a while, taking it becomes part of going to bed. You check there are enough left. A night without one feels as though it has already gone wrong before you’ve even turned the light off.

The prescription may have started during a difficult period. Months or years later, the reason may have changed, but the tablet is still how the night works.

What does sleeping pill detox involve?

At Abbington House, sleeping pill detox involves a gradual reduction managed by a prescriber as part of a residential stay.

The pace is based on what you’re taking, the amount you’re taking, how long you’ve been taking it and how you respond as the dose comes down. The plan can be adjusted if it needs to be.

You’ll have somewhere away from the usual bedtime routine, with support available during the day and night. You won’t also be trying to manage work, family life and everything else after a night with very little sleep.

Detox isn’t offered as a separate service. It happens alongside treatment for the reasons the tablets became so difficult to manage without.

Which sleeping tablets can you get help with?

Zopiclone and zolpidem are two of the sleeping tablets people contact us about. They’re sometimes described as Z-drugs.

If you’re taking a different medicine for sleep, tell us its exact name. Sleeping medication is a broad category and not everything taken at bedtime is reduced in the same way.

This includes benzodiazepines, sedating antihistamines and any medication you’ve bought yourself rather than received on prescription.

We’ll look at what you’re actually taking before telling you whether detox at Abbington House is appropriate.

If it’s specifically zopiclone or zolpidem you’re taking, our zopiclone and zolpidem detox page covers those two medicines in more detail.

Can you just stop taking sleeping tablets?

If you've been taking

zopiclone, zolpidem or another dependence-forming medicine regularly, don't suddenly stop or change the amount without speaking to a doctor or prescriber.

You may have reached

the point where you want the tablets gone. That doesn't mean the safest plan is to stop taking them that night.

You can speak

to your GP or existing prescriber before contacting us. You can also call Abbington House first and tell us what has been happening. We'll explain what information we need before any decision about treatment is made.

What if a doctor prescribed them?

Many people who contact us about sleeping tablets started with a prescription.

The tablets had a reason for being there. You weren’t sleeping and needed help. Dependence developing later doesn’t mean you were wrong to take medication you had been prescribed.

Before admission, we need an accurate picture of what has happened since then. That includes what was prescribed, what you’re taking now, whether the amount has changed and whether you’ve added anything else. It also helps to know what happened the last time you tried to miss a dose or reduce it.

If you’re still trying to understand how something prescribed became something difficult to stop, our guide to sleeping pill addiction explains dependence and the signs that taking the tablets may have become a wider problem.

What if I'm taking other things as well?

Tell us all of it, including anything you’ve bought yourself.

That might include alcohol at night, diazepam or another benzodiazepine, medication for anxiety during the day, pain medication or other prescription drugs.

What matters is what you’re actually taking, rather than what appears on one prescription.

Different medicines may need different withdrawal plans. The prescriber will consider the full combination before deciding how any reduction should be approached.

How long does sleeping pill detox take?

There isn’t one timetable that works for everybody.

The pace depends on the medicine, the dose, how long you’ve been taking it and how you respond as it is reduced. Sometimes a reduction needs to be slowed or changed along the way.

Residential stays at Abbington House are usually around 28 days. That doesn’t mean every sleeping pill reduction can or should be completed within 28 days.

Before admission, the clinical team will look at what may be realistic during the time you’re considering. If getting to zero within one stay is unlikely, we’ll tell you.

You won’t be pushed through the end of a reduction simply to fit a departure date. If a longer reduction is needed, what happens next must be agreed with the prescriber responsible for continuing it.

What happens to your sleep as the dose comes down?

Reducing the tablets doesn't mean your sleep immediately returns to normal.
You may still be dealing with the problem that led to the prescription, such as anxiety, grief, pain or working shifts. In other cases, that period has passed, but sleeping without a tablet has become difficult in its own right.
The nights matter here. Support is available if you're awake and struggling, rather than leaving you alone with the decision about whether to take more.
Treatment also looks at the place the tablet has taken in your life. That includes what happens before bed, what you expect will happen without it and what makes taking another one feel like the only workable answer.
Therapy begins when you feel physically and mentally well enough. It can include CBT, DBT and trauma-informed workwithin Abbington House's 12-step structure,alongside family support and a year of structured aftercare.

What does sleeping pill detox cost?

Sleeping pill detox is included in the fee for residential treatment at Abbington House. It isn’t charged as a separate service.

The fee covers the agreed stay, including the detox, treatment, family support and aftercare.

Admissions will explain the fee for the length of stay being discussed before you decide whether to go ahead.

What if you're not sure it's a problem yet?

You may not know what to call it.

You’re taking a tablet most nights. You’ve tried going without it and ended up awake, watching the time and thinking about how you’ll manage the next day.

Perhaps the amount hasn’t changed at all. You just don’t like how impossible bedtime now feels without it.

You don’t have to decide that you need residential treatment before speaking to someone.

It helps to be honest about how often you’re taking the tablets, whether the dose has changed and what happens when you try to go without them. From there, we can talk about whether treatment here would make sense.

Talking it through

Call 01438 583222 to talk through what you’re taking and how long it’s been going on.

If you can, have the name of the medicine and the dose with you. We’ll also ask what happened the last time you tried to reduce or stop and whether you’re taking anything else alongside it.

If residential treatment at Abbington House may be appropriate, we’ll explain what happens next.

If your GP or existing prescriber is the better place to start, we’ll tell you that instead.

Written by Michael Williams, Treatment Manager at Abbington House, in recovery since 2011.

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