#  >  > Travellers Tales in Thailand and Asia >  >  > Thailand, Asia & the rest of the World Questions & Answers Forum >  >  Sleeping Pills

## Janice

This the 1st time for me in here, I am lost...

We are going on Holiday to Bangkok next month, does anybody know if I can buy sleeping pills there, and if so will I have trouble bringing them home again to Holland ?

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## ChiangMai noon

oh dear.

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## kingwilly

> does anybody know if I can buy sleeping pills there, and if so will I have trouble bringing them home again to Holland ?


yes you can.

depends what you buy, some allowed back, some not.

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## Loy Toy

This world is your oyster here Janice.

Can buy almost anything here and without a presciption but I have no idea about your home laws and when taking them back. Be careful!

Have a great holiday in Thailand and I hope you don't need to take the silly tablets anyway.

Travel safe  :Smile:

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## The Fresh Prince

Don't get into taking stupid tablets! I have problems sleeping but that's the last shit I would resort to! Seee my previos posts.

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## buriramboy

I didn't think sleeping pills were sold here in the pharmacies, misses reckons cause they are worried the Thais will OD on them, now this could all be a load of bollox, just repeating what she said.

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## ChiangMai noon

> I didn't think sleeping pills were sold here in the pharmacies,


some will sell, some won't.
you can forget the big pharmachoice type places but the little ones will just give you their product book and let you flick through it.

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## Spin

> Seee my previos posts.


Good advice, go look at the fresh Princes previous posts and you will see he drinks himself to sleep after eating strange snack combinations and then sleepwalks to the wardrobe to urinate on his gfs clothes :Smile:

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## Thormaturge

My guess with sleeping tablets is that if you ask for them specifically the pharmacist may well give you a blank stare, or even refuse them.

If, however, you tell the pharmacist you are having trouble sleeping you may well find that you are offered everything from a cup of coffee to LSD.

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## Kaj

No sleeping pills or any other medicins,,,, if it is a must to have pills from home, be sure to have them in original packages and the prescription YOU got to buy them, otherwise leave all kinds of pills home. You can buy normal medicins in Thailand, some not normal, but do not try to take home any pills that make You feel OK, Go to a doctor, get your own prescription and it is ok.
BE CAREFULL, if you cannot sleep, go to the bar and have some beers or drinks, be sleepy and then you see you are falling asleep. Good Night.

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## Thormaturge

Half an hour of Thai TV should be enough.

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## Carnwadrick

> Originally Posted by The Fresh Prince
> 
>  Seee my previos posts.
> 
> 
> Good advice, go look at the fresh Princes previous posts and you will see he drinks himself to sleep after eating strange snack combinations and then sleepwalks to the wardrobe to urinate on his gfs clothes


I didn't see the part about pissing in the wardrobe..used to know a pro footballer in the seventies..Brian ### played for Bolton...did the same stuff, not you by any chance

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## Jet Gorgon

Hi, Janice. You'll probably find you won't need sleeping pills in Thailand. Get up early, eat all the healthy fruit and foods, swim and exercise, and then pass into a deep sleep.

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## Thormaturge

I saw the post that followed my last one early this morning, but it has been removed now.

My guess is that DD was up early.  No sleeping pills for him then.  LOL

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## blackgang

Different here than elsewhere, If you have a brand in mind then go into a small pharms shop and ask for them, they might sell them and they might not as most drugs have been put on a doctor order list.
You can go to a dr. office and he will most likely give them to you or you can go to a hospital and talk to a Dr. and he will write you a prescription but that is good only at the pharma counter in the hospital and not outside, or you can do as the wayward few do and get drunk and get rolled.
Enjoy.

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## The Fresh Prince

> Good advice, go look at the fresh Princes previous posts and you will see he drinks himself to sleep after eating strange snack combinations and then sleepwalks to the wardrobe to urinate on his gfs clothes


 :rofl:  :rofl:  :rofl:

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## ChiangMai noon

> BE CAREFULL, if you cannot sleep, go to the bar and have some beers or drinks, be sleepy and then you see you are falling asleep. Good Night.


great advice doctor.
 :tieme:

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## good2bhappy

Sleeping tablets are not handed out these days you need a Dr's letter.
Best to go to a small clinic pay 50 baht for a Dr consultancy and tell him you are having trouble sleeping.
Will sell you Xanax or Valium from the clinic

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## ChiangMai noon

> Sleeping tablets are not handed out these days you need a Dr's letter.


I maintain that they are in the small, family pharmacies.

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## good2bhappy

althings are possible here I agree, but it is easier to just go to a clinic- more sure!

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## blackgang

Xanax and Valium are some mean sombitches,, stay away from em,, altho I can buy em from a pharma shop I have been doing business with for 7 or 8 years,, but I would reccomend Lorazepam 1 mg, and cut it in half and take it, it is short acting and is some addictive but not bad and at that dosage it will not be for a goodly amount of time.
If taken with 1.5 mg of melatonin it keeps me sleeping for 6 or 7 hours anymore. I don't think you can buy melatonin here so I have it shipped in and it is a suppliment and not a drug.

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## Texpat

I've never taken a sleeping pill.

Never will.

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## sun shade

My experience is that every month i have to go to the doctors ( the one in town good but allways busy ) yesterday i waited over half an hour to get them i take at night to sleep because of my spinal problem. If like CMN says you can get them in a small chemist please tell me which one as 32k round trip is just silly. My previous doctor was great at only took 5-10 mins max and i was on my way, i think it was because it was on computer and all they did was check that i was not over useing and that was fine no probs Let me know Cheers. :Smile:

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## sunsetter

get some daily excercise, drink more water and read before bed, dont go getting hooked on pills you know nothing about

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## good2bhappy

I've heard that reading before sleep is not such a good idea

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## sunsetter

always works for me, make sure its a book you dont really want to read though as youll take a long time to take in the content

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## blackgang

I take my half pill and settle down to read and about 15 minutes I am shutting down and going to sleep.

I was married to a gal names Janice once when I was young, and all I had to do was get into bed after we was married and she went right to sleep,, found out later tho that I was the only guy that effected her that way, all the others in town seemed to make her perk right up, so end of my first marriage.

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## sun shade

It is very difficult when you are in bad pain and it stops you from getting a good nights sleep it is the only answer i have tryed to cut down on pain medication during the day but night is a different matter alltogether i wish i didnt have to honestly, but pain is pain,and no sleep is not good. Cheers :Sad:

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## Norton

Janice!!!  Are you there? Have you fallen asleep?

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## blackgang

Did you know my wife Norty?? She had a fine rack,, best in town I think.

Coarse she screwed every guy in town too, but what the hell,, it wasn't a very big town..

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## Norton

> Did you *know my wife* Norty??


Not in the biblical sense! :Smile:

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## Norton

> She had a fine rack


Heard she was great at fly fishing as well!

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## rawlins

Xanax - get them at loads of pharmacies and a lot of them will only sell them to farangs... I use them on long flights along with some red wine for good kip... Don't take too many days in a row though or you might become a xanax junkie.....

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## sun shade

Cheers Rawlins I will see if i can get some maybe an option from the trip to the doctors as by the time i am through i am in a worst state with the walking. Thanks for the tip. :Smile:

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## rawlins

^ Sunshade - they are not a 'sleeping pill' as such... they are an 'anti-anxiety' pill that chills you out nicely and help towards a good sleep... Can be dangerous if combined with too much alcohol - one 1mg pill along with one glass of booze does the job for me...

The person who told me about them originally didn't even use them as a sleeping aid - he used them as a hangover recovery aid in the mornings...

Anyway - do your research before chucking them down your throat...

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## Ivor Biggun

> misses reckons cause they are worried the Thais will OD on them


That's more insentive to sell them in my opinion.

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## killerbees

I have a terrible time sleeping on planes, buses, and trains. For the most part, this is due to my size (I'm a bit tall) which makes it hard for me to get/stay comfortable. I've gone into all sorts of small and large pharmacies looking for something to knock me out. I know it's not necessarily the safest way to travel... if I'm conked out on Xanax then it's much easier for someone to steal my bags. However, a 16-hour train ride with no sleep, followed by another 20 hours on a plane, or 12 more hours on a bus... I'm a lunatic. 

I've had good luck in Bangkok getting generic Xanax or Valium. When I went into the pharmacy (someone had told me this was the place to go) the pharmacist had it within arm's reach. I just walked up and said, "Non my laap," and he pulled out a pack of pills and said, "Xanax. 300 baht." The pills are 1 mg. I usually take half of one and may or may not have a few beers if I'm traveling with friends. I get a little sleepy, drift off to sleep, and generally get a good 5-6 hours. That's enough for me to be able to face the next day. I've found that they give me a bit of a "hangover," however. It can take an extra cup of coffee or two to wake up fully. 

At a pharmacy in Surat I tried to get just regular old sleeping pills before a bus ride. They gave me a box of something. Took one at night in a hotel room to try it out... nothing much happened and I fell asleep as normal. The next day I was groggy until the late afternoon, felt drugged and loopy. What they gave me was an anti-psychotic or something, used for medicating people in asylums. I ended up throwing the box of pills on a coffee table. A friend came over and flipped out on me... wanted to know why I had "date-rape" drugs laying around. Apparently this stuff was like Rohypnol (Roofies?). 

I've had similar issues in other smaller pharmacies... they might not have actual sleeping pills but they're more than happy to sell you medication that has "drowsiness" as a side effect. Be forewarned! I just go without unless I know what it is I'm taking. Even if you do know what you're taking, be careful about your alcohol intake, who you're around, where you are, etc.

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## Ivor Biggun

Long term taking of sleeping tablets doesn't work according to the experts. After 2 weeks they cease to be effective.

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## sunsetter

and there you go, better to leave them alone

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## blackgang

There has been lots of people die from mixing pills and booze, a normal dose of valium and a couple of shots of hooch and you have done ODed and are on your way out.
The liver will not metabolize the drug if it has alcohol to work on as it is a lazy bastard and booze is easier, and just keeps kicking out the drug and it goes on it's merry way cycling around your system and into your brain and soon "thats all folks".
Thats why people say to take a glass of wine, damn straight, makes one pill do the work of 4 and you are on an OD trip.
If you want to live a long life, either be a drunk or a junky, but you can't be both and live.

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## sunsetter

more wisdom to be listened to,find some other way to deal with the pain if poss

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## rawlins

> .
> If you want to live a long life, either be a drunk or a junky, but you can't be both and live.


I beg to differ...

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## SomchaiDriver

There is a pill sold here call Atarax that is an antihistamine used for being itchy and one pill will knock you on your ass.

Stronger than Xanax and no headache or groggy feeling when you wake up.

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## sun shade

Sounds like its hit and miss with this medicine,but as i am not a regular drinker and very carefull with any meds like it seems good advise to not mix the two.And everybodys tolerance is different,just like pain threshold.I will check the info on xanax to make sure. Thanks for this helpfull thread everyone. Cheers :Smile:

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## chitown

Stay away from the Xanax 

Go for the Atarax

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## ChiangMai noon

> xanax to make sure.


it's a beta blocker.

very fast acting.
i used to take it for panic attacks post divorce number one.

i would recommend against it as it is highly addictive.

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## sun shade

Great and not groggy in the morning, and needing 5 glasses of water and 4 cups of coffee sounds good to me. I know when i had the tic problem i got some tablets like you said and a couple of days i kept falling asleep i do not remember the name just that they had a yellow band on the bottle i got them from the chemist for the itching. So these sound ok Thanks  :Smile:

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## sun shade

Thanks guys, good advise Atarax is the way to go No more divorces for you CMN sounds like we have that in common too !! Wise members me thinks, been there got the T shirt. Cheers :Smile:

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## lysander

> Originally Posted by sun shade
> 
> xanax to make sure.
> 
> 
> it's a beta blocker.
> 
> very fast acting.
> i used to take it for panic attacks post divorce number one.
> ...


Xanax is a benzodiazepine from the same family as librium and valium. It's not a beta blocker.

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## Loy Toy

> My experience is that every month i have to go to the doctors ( the one in town good but allways busy ) yesterday i waited over half an hour to get them i take at night to sleep because of my spinal problem. If like CMN says you can get them in a small chemist please tell me which one as 32k round trip is just silly. My previous doctor was great at only took 5-10 mins max and i was on my way, i think it was because it was on computer and all they did was check that i was not over useing and that was fine no probs Let me know Cheers.


Spinal problem.

Had a similar problem for years and had been to doctors in Oz, The UK and Malaysia and when I was working there.
Nobody could solve my problem until I went to the Bangkok Nursing home in Soi Convent, Bangkok.
The orthopedic/ spinal specialist there sorted out my problem within 1 hour. Had 2 fractured vertabrae at the top of my spine and after weeks of spinal extension/ traction, ultra-sound therapy and regular exercise the problem is now under control.
Worth a visit and to get another assessment of your problem if you are in town.

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## sun shade

Thanks Loy toy my problem is sciatica and tailbone pain, i used to work as a nurse and lifting was a cause of my problems well before regulations were in place. I do Yogalates when i am not in pain and also do extra spinal exersizes to keep the discs in place it is a lot better. I also tryed Thai massage many years ago but it made it worse, as you know you have to be very carefull like they say sciatica pain is 1,000 times worse than toothache as it is the main nerve in the body, hence the pain. Great to here yours is under control, i must admit the weather over here is a great help. Cheers  :Smile:

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## ChiangMai noon

> Xanax is a benzodiazepine from the same family as librium and valium. It's not a beta blocker.


you are quite right I have just checked.

always thought i was taking a beta blocker.

either way it's very effective for anxiety attacks.

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