How Long Does Valium Take to Work for Sleep

How Long Does Valium Take to Work for Sleep

How long does valium take to work for sleep – Valium (diazepam) generally consumed for the short-term treatment for anxiety and seizure disorders. Diazepam is thought to work by enhancing the effects of GABA, which is an inhibitory neurotransmitter in the central nerves system. This type of medication gives  such as anxiety-relieving, seizure-relieving, muscle relaxeant, anticonvulsant, and amnestic effects.

Valium belongs to the class of medical drugs known as benzodiazepines.

Valium works by facilitating the activity of the chemical GABA at various receptor sites in the brain. GABA reduces activities in different areas of the brain, including parts that help control emotion, thought, memory, and automatic functions such as breathing. By increasing the effects of this brain chemical, Valium helps reduce anxiety, relax muscles, and increase drowsiness.

Valium also commonly prescribed to treat anxiety, restless leg syndrome, insomnia, seizures, muscle spasms, and alcohol withdrawal syndrome.

It can also be used to calm and sedate people prior to surgery or other invasive medical procedures.

Valium can be consumed orally, by injection, or rectal gel. When it administered via injection, it takes about one to five minutes before the effects starts to turn. When taken orally, people usually begin to feel the effects 15 to 60 minutes after ingestion. Rectal gel may be used for those who are experiencing seizures and begins working quickly after administration.

Before you take this type of medication, it\’s important to know how long the drug stays active in your system to avoid associated risks

This type of drug is a very effective medication and considered important to medical establishments in general. However, benzodiazepines are addictive and can be abused, and eventually will lead their consumers to serious health problems by taking them in long period of time.

How Long Does Valium Take to Work for Sleep

Benzodiazepines (benzos) were developed and promoted as a substitute for highly addictive and dangerous barbiturates – another class of sedative and anti-anxiety drugs. At Valium’s peak in 1978, 2.3 billion tablets were sold in a single year. However, it soon became clear that benzos also have a high risk of life threatening potential when people become addicted and dying not just from overdose but also from the withdrawal symptoms drugs like Valium and Xanax. Benzos are central nerves system depressants that slow the respiratory system, so an overdose, or mixing the drug with other depressants like alcohol, can cause an person to stop breathing, leading to coma, giving brain damage, and death.

Having too much Valium in your body at one time can cause severe side effects. These include drowsiness, confusion, impaired movements and balance problem, shortness of breath, and potentially unresponsiveness.

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Valium can easily become habit-forming. After certain period of time, your body will develop a tolerance for the drug. As a result, you may have to take the drug on higher dosages. Notably, overuse of Valium can have some alarming consequences.

Studies have found, for instance, that long-term use of Valium and similar drugs used to treat anxiety are associated with an increased risk of developing Alzheimer\’s.

Valium can have serious or even life-threatening side effects if you take certain other medications before it\’s totally cleared from your body. It\’s especially dangerous to take sedatives, sleeping pills, or tranquilizers if you have Valium in your system. The same is true of drinking alcohol.

How Long Does Valium Last?

How long Valium stays in a person’s system influences and how the drug will affect them? As a long-acting benzo, Valium generally remains in the person’s body longer and produces some effects that last longer than short-acting benzos.

The drug’s half-life helps predict how long an individual could potentially test positive for Valium on a drug screen based on the time since they took their last dose. However, due to unique factors and the fact that the half-life has a relatively wide range, a person should probably expect that it will be closer to the longer side of this spectrum.

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Valium has a half-life of approximately 48 hours. The half-life of a drug is how long it takes for half of a dose to be eliminated from the body.

As Valium is processed by the body, it is broken down into other substances known as metabolites. In many cases, these metabolites are detectable in the body for much longer than the drug itself. The most common metabolites of Valium includes nordiazepam, temazepam, and oxazepam.

The metabolites of the drug may have much longer half-lives as well. Nordiazepam, for example, has a half-life of up to 100 hours. Valium also accumulates when people take multiple doses over a period of time, which can slightly prolong the total half-life of the substance.

Valium—or rather, metabolites associated with the medication—can be detected in the body by using different ways

A drug test for Valium can be performed using samples of saliva, blood, urine, or hair follicles. The length of time the drug remains detectable depends on numerous factors, including the following:

• Age
• Weight and body fat
• Metabolic rate
• Polysubstance use
• Administration method
• Average dose
• Kidney and liver function
• Overall health

Hair follicle testing can detect Valium for up to 90 days. These tests are generally used to check for chronic use or abuse, as they couldn’t determine if the person has been using the drug recently.

Urine testing is probably the most common used method to determine if an individual has used Valium in the recent past. The drug can be detected in urine for as long as six weeks after administering the last dose.

Saliva testing is not commonly used for Valium because it is only identifiable using this method for up to 60 hours after the last dose has been administered.

Blood testing is still another way to determine if a person has Valium in their system. However, similar to urine, the medication’s metabolites do not remain in the blood for only short period of time—only about 48 hours following the last dose.

When an individual enters a detox facility, intake staff will often perform an assessment and take one of these tests to evaluate how much Valium is in the person’s body. In most cases, a urine or blood screen will be conducted.

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Factors That Affect Detection Time:

There are many variables that affect how long Valium remains in the body. The rate at which medications and other substances break down depends on physical things like metabolism, age, weight, percentage of body fat, activity level, and hydration. Some health conditions, including liver impairments, can play a certain role in the rate at which drugs are metabolized by the body.

Other factors that can affect how long Valium stays in the body have to do with the specific prescription. The larger the dose and more frequently you take the drug, for example, likely means it will be detectable for longer period of time.

How to Get Valium Out of Your System

The first natural step to getting Valium out of your system is by stop taking the drug, though you should never stop taking your prescribed medication without consulting to your doctor first. Because your body can develop a body tolerance and dependence on the substance, suddenly stopping your medication can decrease your body\’s tolerance for the drug.

If you start taking it again at the same dose,the result might gives you an accidental overdose. Discuss your options first for safely stopping your medication, which might involve a gradual reduction in your dose in order to avoid withdrawal effects, a process known as tapering.

Once you have safely stopped taking Valium, make sure that you stay well hydrated, having  healthy diet, and doing workout or regular physical exercise. These such habits may help to slightly increase how quickly your body metabolizes and excretes the drug and its metabolites.

Can Diazepam Withdrawal Kill You?

If this becomes common enough, an intervention of some sort is often needed. Otherwise, the diazepam user will try to increase their dose or supplement the medication with longer acting benzodiazepines or other dangerous drugs. This practice, while certainly understandable, only serves to increase the level of dependence and expose the user to the risk of seizures or even death.

This is true of benzo withdrawal in general. Depending on the half life of the benzo in question, the onset of severe or dangerous side effects can begin anytime from 24 hours to several days after the last dosage. The symptoms of diazepam withdrawal might be mild at first, but they can eventually include bizarre behavioral changes, high level of agitation, insomnia, seizures, and death. Though death from diazepam withdrawal all by itself is extremely rare, anyone who is experiencing these type of symptoms should seek medical attention and benzo detox immediately.

Further information

Remember, keep this and all other medicines out of the reach of children, never share your medicines with others, and use Valium only for the indication prescribed.

Always consult your healthcare provider to ensure the information displayed on this page applies to your personal circumstances.