Just an anecdotal warning. Unisom is not recommended for long term use. I didn't know this and used it for a year straight to combat stress induced insomnia during my first startup. It took me a few years before I returned to feeling "normal". YMMV.
Another data point:
I've been using it on and off for a year now and it's been a life saver. I can reliably get to sleep when I need to for the first time in my life
As best I can tell it's not recommended for long term use because it hasn't been studied for that purpose and because there are prescription sleep aids that don't cause as much drowsiness
I'm terrified of taking a prescription sleep aid because of all the sleepwalking horror stories.
I take only 5 mg so the drowsiness isn't that big of a problem for me especially if I exercise in the morning. I'll take drowsy and rested over alert and unrested any day.
The first generation antihistamines are strongly anticholinergic, so long term use might have cognative effects and may increase the chance of dementia later in life. They can also interact with a lot of other medication since they are much less specific than most drugs. I agree that they are still quite a bit better than GABA-A agonists. IMO, any sleep medication is best taken with breaks as frequently as possible, which can both increase effectiveness when you take it and reduce side effects of long term use.
