After becoming addicted to sleeping pills, they are more afraid of going to sleep.

The sky is about to brighten, but Li Nuo hasn't fallen asleep yet.

She is an online store seller who lives in Ningbo and has opened a store on a short-video platform. She boosts sales by live-streaming and selling products every day. One day in the middle of 2022, her live-streaming room suddenly became popular, and the business volume reached nearly 20,000 yuan. To maintain the popularity, Li Nuo, who usually ended the live-streaming at 11 o'clock, continued broadcasting for 7 or 8 hours. When she finished the live-streaming, it was almost 4 a.m. Then, she immediately packed all the express deliveries and completed the shipments in one hour.

It was 5 a.m. when she got into bed, but Li Nuo tossed and turned, unable to sleep. Thinking of her achievements for the night, she was excited, but at the same time, she had an inexplicable anxiety. What if the business volume dropped again in the future? Then, all kinds of anxious things in life flashed through her mind one by one like a movie.

She thought about it until dawn and didn't sleep for the whole night. The next day, she couldn't sleep either. To seize the popularity given by the platform, Li Nuo started the live-streaming again and was busy for the whole night. At 3 a.m., she lay in bed again but still couldn't fall asleep. During this period, the faint light and sound would be infinitely magnified. Li Nuo felt more and more uncomfortable. She began to feel flustered and her chest felt stuffy. She felt uncomfortable everywhere. But she didn't dare to play with her phone, worried that she wouldn't be able to sleep if she did. She could only lie uncomfortably in bed.

Image source: "Red, White & Royal Blue"

This situation lasted for three days. The lack of sleep caused physiological reactions in her body. She felt cold all over, had no energy and no spirit, and was always worried that she would suddenly die. On the fourth day, she finally couldn't stand it anymore, "I feel like I'm about to die," and quickly took a taxi to the hospital and went to the sleep department.

As soon as she entered the consulting room, Li Nuo burst into tears, "I haven't slept for two days," Li Nuo said while crying to the doctor, "I really want to sleep so badly." The doctor asked her why she couldn't sleep. Li Nuo said it was because she was upset. The doctor didn't say anything else and prescribed a box of 7 Zolpidem Tartrate Tablets for Li Nuo, and told her to take this first, with relatively smaller side effects, "After taking it, the metabolism is relatively fast, the half-life is relatively short, and there will be no headache." At the same time, the doctor also reminded Li Nuo that she could only take one Zolpidem Tartrate Tablet every day, "Because it makes you fall asleep very quickly, you should take it after lying in bed. After taking it, don't drive and don't move anymore."

Zolpidem Tartrate Tablets, also known as Zolpidem Tartrate, is a drug used to treat sleep disorders. The half-life is two and a half hours, and basically the drug effect will disappear by the next morning, and the person taking the medicine will not feel sleepy due to the drug effect. It has a lower dependence compared to other sleep medications, so when patients have sleep problems, doctors often prescribe this drug.

According to the "2024 China Residents' Sleep Health White Paper", sleep problems have become one of the five major health problems for the Chinese people. The survey shows that 59% of people have insomnia symptoms, and only 19% of people have no sleep disorders at all. The Zolpidem Tartrate Tablets with smaller side effects have increasingly become the life-saving straw for many insomnia patients.

Wang Xinxin, an advertising professional in Shanghai, is also one of the 59% insomniacs and a Zolpidem Tartrate Tablets user.

In 2021, she became the team leader and had to report directly to the big boss. But the big boss always asked her to work hard in areas that didn't require much effort - such as making the PPT more beautiful. Wang Xinxin didn't understand, "You haven't sold the product yet. What's the use of making it so beautiful?"

At that time, she was serving a Korean client who would only smile and say no, always with a friendly attitude. And she is a straightforward person, "Yes or no. If no, tell me the reason." So every time she dealt with this client, she was very anxious.

She didn't like serving this client and didn't recognize the boss's working ability. Wang Xinxin felt that she lacked a sense of control over all the projects, and she became more and more irritable.

A month later, Wang Xinxin had a very serious sleep problem. The Korean client required Wang Xinxin and her team members to go to their company for a meeting at 9:00 every day. This disrupted Wang Xinxin's schedule. She used to go out at 10:00, but now she had to go out at 8:40. Every night when she lay in bed, thinking that she had to get up early the next morning, she became more annoyed and couldn't fall asleep the more she thought about it.

This situation lasted for one and a half months. Her sleep time became later and later. At first, she could fall asleep at 2 or 3 o'clock, but in the end, she was still awake at 5 o'clock in the morning. Worried about her health, she went to the emergency department directly, "I can't sleep and need some medicine." Wang Xinxin said to the doctor on duty. The doctor prescribed her a few Diazepam Tablets, saying that this was the only medicine in the emergency department, but its half-life was relatively long. It was recommended that Wang Xinxin go to the outpatient department to get some sleeping pills.

The next day, Wang Xinxin, who was still groggy due to Diazepam Tablets, registered for an outpatient number. The doctor also prescribed Zolpidem Tartrate Tablets for her.

Image source: Respondent

Before taking Zolpidem Tartrate Tablets, most young people who suffered from insomnia have tried to save themselves.

Wang Xinxin has always had the habit of exercising, but exercise didn't trigger the sleep-aiding effect for her.

Qin Qing, a patient with sleep-onset insomnia, bought a bottle of Melatonin, but this legendary sleep aid was not only ineffective for her, but also made her very tired the next day. Finally, she ate Melatonin as QQ Candy.

At the beginning of this year, Xuan Xuan, who was still studying, suffered from sudden deafness and began to have insomnia due to the double impact of drug hormones and anxiety. She tried a series of countermeasures - exercising during the day, soaking her feet before going to bed, and not playing with her phone while lying in bed. But it didn't work at all. She lay in bed at 10 o'clock but couldn't fall asleep until 12 o'clock. In March, as soon as the school started, Xuan Xuan went to the district hospital to get sleeping pills. The doctor prescribed Zolpidem Tartrate Tablets for her and said "This is currently the drug with the smallest side effects on the market. Don't take too much or for too long. If you still can't sleep after that, come back to see me." From that day on, Xuan Xuan experienced the feeling of falling asleep quickly again.

The Zolpidem Tartrate Tablets history of Zhang Yiran, a post-80s, started earlier.

10 years ago, Zhang Yiran suffered from sleep-onset insomnia. It took her several hours to feel sleepy every day. She went to bed at 10 p.m. but couldn't fall asleep until 2 a.m. The next day, because of lack of sleep, Zhang Yiran would always be sleepy, but as a medical worker, she couldn't sleep and could only endure the pain.

Until one trip, a colleague recommended Zolpidem Tartrate Tablets to her, saying that every time she went to a strange environment, she would take one Zolpidem Tartrate Tablet to make herself "sleep better", and many medical workers themselves also took Zolpidem Tartrate Tablets.

She still remembers that when she took the medicine for the first time, she took half a tablet and lay on the sofa to play with her phone. Then a wave of sleepiness hit her. Zhang Yiran felt that she was about to fall asleep. She hadn't had this feeling and speed for a long time.

She discovered a new world.

But after discovering the new world of Zolpidem Tartrate Tablets, what awaits you is not just falling asleep quickly.

In 2021, Qin Qing started taking Zolpidem Tartrate Tablets, but sometimes she wouldn't lie down immediately after the medicine took effect. Instead, she resisted the drug effect and continued to play with her phone. During that time, Qin Qing always received some clothes, shoes, and cosmetics that she wanted to buy but hadn't decided to pay for. At first, she thought they were sent by friends and sent them messages, "Did you send something to me?" After getting a series of denials, she opened the shopping platform and realized that she bought them unconsciously. There would also be her own voice messages in the chat records with friends, but she had no impression at all. The next day, her friends told her that she had been talking nonsense and they couldn't understand what she was saying. Sometimes, she would also see herself dancing in the living room in the camera playback of the previous night.

Li Nuo is the same.

Ten minutes after taking the medicine for the first time, while still chatting with her friends on WeChat, she suddenly felt that the house was shaking, the chandelier was moving, and a shadow puppet show was being performed on the curtains. The phone in her hand became the remote control of a spaceship. She remembered trying to press the remote control button to control it, but she didn't get a response. Then Li Nuo lost her memory. When she checked her phone the next day, she was full of questions, "Why did I send so many garbled messages to my friends?"

Li Nuo's hallucinatory manifestations are different every time. Another time, the curtains at home turned into a theater, and a "Shakespeare" play was being performed on the curtain. "Imported medicine is really different," Li Nuo thought, "The hallucinations are Western-style hallucinations."

Image source: "Modern Family"

Search for "Zolpidem Tartrate Tablets" on Xiaohongshu, and the first related word is "side effects". The side effects of Zolpidem Tartrate Tablets are also different in different netizens. Some people have a fast heart rate and are irritable, some have memory loss, decreased cognitive and comprehension abilities, and some have emotional breakdowns and fall into depression...

Beijing Chaoyang Hospital once published an article called "Can Sleeping Pills Be Taken for a Long Time?" It mentioned that sleeping pills on the market are divided into Benzodiazepines and Benzodiazepine Receptor Agonists. The former includes Lorazepam, Estazolam, Alprazolam, etc., with a longer half-life. It is easy to feel sleepy during the day after long-term use. The second category includes Zopiclone and Zolpidem Tartrate Tablets, which work quickly and have a shorter half-life, but the side effects are also obvious, "Patients taking Zopiclone may have a bitter taste in their mouth during the day. A small number of patients taking Zolpidem Tartrate Tablets may experience dizziness, hangover feeling, and hallucinations after taking the medicine or during the day."

And in the instructions of Zolpidem Tartrate Tablets, there are as many as 43 adverse reactions listed. Among them, the "hallucinations, excitement, nightmares, depression", "ataxia, mental confusion, excitement, drowsiness, headache, dizziness, insomnia and aggravated insomnia, cognitive impairments such as anterograde amnesia", and "indigestion, hiccups, diarrhea, nausea, abdominal pain" that Qin Qing and Li Nuo experienced are all common reactions of the drug.

In addition, there are some drug reactions listed as "occasional" in the instructions.

After taking Zolpidem Tartrate Tablets, Zhang Yiran is always very hungry and wants to eat crazily. Once at around 10 p.m., she went to cook instant noodles in a daze and burned herself in the process. Her husband was scared and immediately told Zhang Yiran not to take this medicine anymore. Later, her husband would only dare to sleep after Zhang Yiran went to bed and fell asleep.

After taking the medicine for half a year, Li Nuo would occasionally suddenly fall into a very low mood. Even once, Li Nuo felt that her mind was very chaotic and she was in great pain. She kept crying and even had the idea of ending her life. After thinking about it, she fell asleep again. When she woke up the next day, she began to be afraid, "When you take the medicine, you have lost your subjective consciousness."

At that moment, Li Nuo realized that she needed to stop taking the medicine.

Quitting the medicine is not an easy thing.

From the first day of taking