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" YOU&amp;#039;RE ON THE ROAD A LOT, you work late, and you drink more than you probably should. Plus, you&amp;#039;re anxious. A good night&amp;#039;s sleep is a rare luxury. If you haven&amp;#039;t yet asked your doctor to write you a sleeping-pill prescription (which, considering 43 million were filled last year, seems unlikely), you may soon. But which of these magic pills works best? Being a chronic insomniac myself, I tested four prescription drugs against a popular &amp;quot;natural&amp;quot; sleep aid and an over-the-counter stalwart.  Melatonin (Natrol brand) SHUT-EYE When I was already exhausted, melatonin--a hormone produced in response to darkness--worked like a charm with no residual drowsiness. On other nights, sleep was fitful. None. SIDE EFFECTS The most peculiar dreams: I donned antlers and rode in an elevator with Jerry, the orthodontist from The Bob Newhart Show. Sonata (zaleplon) SHUT-EYE With an efficacy of about four hours, it successfully knocked me out when taken at bedtime but didn&amp;#039;t keep me asleep. HANGOVER With its short half-life, Sonata left me feeling chipper, like the star of a breakfast-cereal commercial. SIDE EFFECTS Some report mild hallucinations on Sonata. Unfortunately, I saw nothing of the sort. Lunesta (eszopiclone) SHUT-EYE Despite friends who swear by it, it didn&amp;#039;t matter if I took Lunesta after downing most of a bottle of decent syrah; I was entirely immune to its charms. HANGOVER It didn&amp;#039;t provide any assistance in the quest for slumber, but it also left no lingering lethargy.  SIDE EFFECTS Though I didn&amp;#039;t notice it, many complain of this little pill&amp;#039;s harsh, metallic taste.  Ambien (zolpidem) SHUT-EYE For me, Ambien is the ultimate magic fairy dust, even when I wake up at 4:00 A.M. (half a 10 mg pill does the trick) and on airplanes. It never fails.  HANGOVER Occasional mild morning bleariness, but it&amp;#039;s easily shaken off with a small dose of caffeine. SIDE EFFECTS There have been reports of Ambien-induced sleepwalking, sleep binge eating, and amnesia, but I experienced none.  Ambien CR (controlled release) SHUT-EYE The newer Ambien CR is a kind of slow-drip (or dual-layered) version of Ambien. It knocked me out and kept me knocked out all night long--usually longer. HANGOVER For at least an hour after waking, the morning felt like running a marathon through a vat of butterscotch pudding.  SIDE EFFECTS Side effects included sleeping through my alarm and multiple whacks at the snooze button, but no dizziness or headaches, as others have reported. Tylenol PM  SHUT-EYE Tylenol PM usually worked just as well as Ambien, and it&amp;#039;s a hell of a lot cheaper.  HANGOVER A major downside of Tylenol PM is that it tended to carry that PM deep into the A.M., leav-ing me sluggish all morning, even post--double espresso.  SIDE EFFECTS After several nights on Tylenol PM, it seemed to stop working, making me want to up the dosage. I imagined becoming a jones-ing TPM addict.  A QUICK KICK IN THE PANTS BY COACH PAUL FRYE, ALBA-GOLDEN HIGH SCHOOL, ALBA, TEXAS THE LOSINGEST TEAM in Texas history (0--40) recently hired winning coach Paul Frye to turn things around.We asked him for an impromptu halftime speech, something to get us off our lazy asses.  &amp;quot;YOU CAN LOOK at any setback as a stumbling block or a stepping-stone. So we&amp;#039;re going to look at anything that happens to us negatively as a stepping-stone. We&amp;#039;re going to learn from it. Because we can go out there and work as hard as we can every day and we&amp;#039;re not going to have success. It&amp;#039;s not about working harder; it&amp;#039;s about working smarter. Working smarter is learning. If you work smarter, success is gonna come. Abraham Lincoln failed in ways that would drive a normal person to suicide. But he kept pushing. He lost for the state legislature at age 23, lost his girlfriend at 26, had a nervous breakdown at 27, and failed in business at 28. He was defeated for the speaker of the state legislature at 29 and for Congress at 34. He lost senatorial races at 45 and 49. Abraham Lincoln failed and failed and failed. And then--wham!--at 51, he was elected president of the United States! What would&amp;#039;ve happened to our country if he quit?&amp;quot; "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.esquire.com/lifestyle/health/a168/esq1106betterman-88/>