How Long Do Sleeping Pills Stay in Your System?

Nine million Americans are thought to be taking sleeping pills to get some rest, but many are unaware of how long the drug stays in their bodies. How long are sleeping pills retained in the body? The type, frequency, and potency of sedatives being used, along with the individual’s chemistry, all play a role.

Brand and active ingredient have a significant impact on the half-life of sleeping pills. Some sleep medications, such as Ambien (3 hours), have brief half-lives. Others, like Valium, have half-lives that fluctuate between 20 and 80 hours.

Continue reading to find out more about sleeping pills and how to use them responsibly.

Table of Contents

What Are Sleeping Pills?

Sleeping pills, as their name implies, aid in getting to sleep. These drugs may be used by people with sleep disorders like insomnia to aid in sleep. If you frequently wake up during the night, sleeping pills may also help you stay asleep.

Sleeping pills come in a variety of forms. Every function differently. While some sleep aids silence the part of the brain that keeps you alert, others make you drowsy.

According to studies, taking sleeping pills doesn’t really help you get a good night’s sleep. Typically, those who use sleep aids nod off eight to twenty minutes sooner than those who don’t. You could possibly get an extra 35 minutes of sleep on average.

In general, sleep aids should only be used temporarily. If a traumatic life event, like a divorce or a death in the family, is keeping you up at night, they might be especially helpful.

How Long Do Sleeping Pills Stay in Your System?

Sleeping Pills Half-Life

The time it takes for a drug to be metabolized and leave the bloodstream after taking half of the prescribed dose is known as the half-life. If a drug has an 8-hour half-life, it will be halved (to 50%) during that time. That 50% will further decline to 25% in eight more hours, and so on.

The precise half-life varies as well because age, weight, genetics, and any health conditions (such as liver disease) will have an impact on the procedure.

The drug in question works more quickly (and wears off more quickly) if its half-life is shorter. In contrast, a medication with a longer half-life takes longer to take effect, but it also takes longer to wear off, possibly long after its most beneficial use. (When it comes to sleep aids, a prolonged half-life may cause someone to wake up feeling groggy because the medication is still active in their system.)

Many sedatives have a wide range in their half-lives. When receiving a sedative prescription, that is something to keep in mind. There are a number of methods to reduce anxiety and aid in sleep, each with a different half-life ranging from an hour to a few days. Examples include:

Zaleplon, a hypnotic used to induce sleep and marketed under the name Sonata, has an hour-long half-life.
Anxiety and sleep disorders are treated with the sedative and benzodiazepine alprazolam (brand name: Xanax), which has an 11-hour half-life.
The half-life of the benzodiazepine diazepam (Valium), which reduces anxiety and promotes sleep, ranges from 20 to 50 hours.
The half-life of the antidepressant nortriptyline, which is sold under the brand name Pamelor, is between 28 and 31 hours.

How Long Do Sleeping Pills Stay in Your System?

Every drug and medication that a person takes stays in their system for a long time. We’ll try our best to explain how long something like a sleeping pill will stay in your system, but it’s difficult to predict how long a drug will stay in the body.

The length of time a sleeping pill stays in your system varies slightly depending on you, which is the first thing you should be aware of.

Sometimes the duration of something inside of you is determined by your body. Your age and, for instance, your health might be a factor. Another factor that may be important is a person’s capacity for detoxification, which has an impact on a variety of other elements. Exercise, proper hydration, healthy circulation, and a lack of chronic stress are all necessary for the body to get rid of toxins.

Of course, it’s understandable why each person’s capacity for eliminating a drug varies, just as a person’s response might.

However, there are a few standards that are important to note. The following are a few sleeping pills that people take and how long they might take to leave your body:

Xanax, one of the most popular sleeping pills, can take about three days to leave the body.
Valium, another popular sleeping pill, has one of the longest-staying times. This specific medication may remain in the body for weeks before being eliminated by the body.
Ambien, and other similar medications, have a shorter half-life, which means it should go away within 16 hours.

Factors That Influence How Long Sleeping Pills Stay in Your System

The amount of time a sleeping pill stays in your body depends on a few different things. Aside from the half-lives of various sleeping pills, factors such as genetics, age, liver and kidney function, general health, and substance use affect how quickly your body gets rid of the drug. The length of time you have been taking the medication and the dosage has an impact on the elimination process as well.

In general, tapering off sleep aids rather than stopping abruptly is advised when stopping use. This helps lessen some of the withdrawal symptoms that many people go through after stopping to take sleeping pills.

How Long Do Sleeping Pills Stay in Your Urine, Hair & Blood?

Generally speaking, you can multiply the half-life of your medication by five to get an idea of how long it will stay in your system. The half-life is the period of time it takes for a drug to enter your bloodstream in half its original amount. But the drug may also be present in areas other than the bloodstream.

For instance, the drug may remain detectable in a hair sample for up to 90 days. In addition, some medications may be absorbed by fat tissues and released gradually over time, becoming detectable in urine or saliva after five or more half-lives. Some sleeping pills will leave your body shortly after your last dose, while others can linger in your urine, hair, and blood for several weeks.

However, after a month of recovery, there usually won’t be any traces left in your body (aside from hair).

Conclusion

Depending on the medication prescribed, a sleeping pill may stay in the body for a different amount of time. For instance, while other sleeping pills like Ambien have a shorter half-life and typically disappear within 16 hours, Xanax typically leaves the body in three days. Some sleeping pill types leave your body shortly after your last dose, while others linger in your urine, hair, and blood for several weeks.