I've noticed that taking a sleep aid, regardless of the amount of sleep I actually get, is actually helpful for feeling rested when I wake up. For instance, la

I've noticed that taking a sleep aid, regardless of the amount of sleep I actually get, is actually helpful for feeling rested when I wake up. For instance, last Saturday night, no sleep aid, I fell asleep around 5am, woke briefly at 10am, and woke completely at 1pm for a total of 7 hours. Last night, I took some AdvilPM (instead of my usual 3mg melatonin) at 10:30p, was in bed by 11p, and woke up this morning around 8a. This might be because the sleep aid actually pushes me into waking up at the end of a REM cycle; I can't ascertain that. But I've found that the amount of sleep I get basically doesn't matter. Before I started with the sleep aids, it was random and infrequent for me to feel rested. I've been taking them for about a month now and it's sort of amazing how much better I feel. (Also, as an aside, the first sleep aid I tried a year ago, a tablet of Unisom, did absolutely nothing for me. Also, 5mg melatonin seems to be too much for me. More data points.)