Reducing Sleeping Pills and Anti-Anxiety Medication

With long-term use of sleeping pills, the brain becomes accustomed to the drug's sedative effect, leading to tolerance where a higher dose is needed to achieve the same effect as before. If you keep increasing the dose, the effect may briefly return, but dependence and side effects (daytime drowsiness, memory problems, fall risk, etc.) deepen along with it. So rather than increasing the dose, the better direction is to work with your prescribing doctor to restore sleep itself while gradually tapering.

Our Korean Medicine Clinic's Perspective

In Korean medicine, the inability to fall asleep is seen as a problem of rising heat, an overstimulated autonomic nervous system, and depleted fluids. Dongjedang focuses on calming this rising heat and the oversensitized body during tapering to restore the natural ability to fall asleep. This is not a substitute for medication but support to help you get through the tapering process, and dose adjustments are always discussed with your prescribing doctor.