Patient/caregiver was educated on how to take triazolam as follows:

1. Take the medication dose at the same time every day, for the duration prescribed. This can help with maintaining the required therapeutic concentration of medication in the blood and maintain compliance with intake of medication. Triazolam is usually taken close to the bedtime. Have a regular sleep routine can help intake of triazolam on time.
2. Triazolam can induce some nausea and vomiting, when taken on empty stomach. Taking the medication with some food or snack can help avoid these unpleasant gastrointestinal symptoms. But, food can slow the absorption of triazolam and compromise the therapeutic benefit of the medication.
3. Take the regular tablet as a whole with a glass of water. If you encounter difficulty swallowing the whole regular tablet, check with your doctor if you may cut the pill and swallow it in pieces with a glass of water. Usually tablets that can be cut bear a scoreline, displaying the line of cut. Check if your tablet has any. For individuals with swallowing difficulties, other preparations of medication could also be available to help an easy intake. Check with your physician on the same.
4. Do not take triazolam with alcohol. Both alcohol and triazolam cause dizziness and depress the respirations. When taken together, their side-effects on respirations and dizziness can get added up. This can result in compromised safety, lead to severe respiratory depression, and can even be fatal.
5. Observe a regular sleep time every evening, as sleep is a habit that can be trained. Take the dose of triazolam about an hour before the sleep time, as it needs about 30 minutes to show the desired effect of sleep induction. Maintaining compliance with the sleep time and medication intake an hour before the sleep time can help avoid forgetting the medication intake.
6. On some random day, if your schedule changes and you are not going to bed at the usual time, adjust your intake of triazolam accordingly. As the medication quickly induces sleep, taking the medication at the usual time and delaying your bedtime, can leave you severely drowsy. Trying to remain active in a drowsy state can invite risk for injury and accidents.
7. Therapeutic effects of triazolam taken for relief of insomnia can last for about 6 – 8 hours. Triazolam carries the risk of inducing temporary short-term memory loss at the end of these 8 hours. If you have a shorter sleep time in bed for the night, less than the 8 hour duration for which triazolam acts, you could probably experience the symptoms of short-term memory loss and confusion, when you wake up. This can compromise safety and lead to falls and accidents. So, plan to have atleast 8 hours of restful sleep in the night, if you are taking dose of triazolam.
8. If your schedule does not permit an eight hour sleep time for the night, you can avoid taking the dose of triazolam. This helps to avoid the risk for confusion and short-term memory loss, during your waking hours the next morning, thus helping to avoid any falls and accidents. Notify your doctor on dose noncompliance. Do not take an extra dose the following day, trying to make up for the missed dose. Taking unscheduled extra doses can lead to drug overdose and toxicity with triazolam.
9. Your physician could change the dose of triazolam, based on the response you show, relief obtained from insomnia, or other side-effects developed. So, maintain compliance with follow-up physician appointments, to have your doctor updated. Notify your doctor of any unresolving insomnia, worsening anxiety, worsening muscle pain and discomfort, episodes of seizures, excessive daytime sedation, or other continuing unpleasant side-effects, so that, a change in plan of care could be considered. Be accommodative to the plan of dose changes, until you show an optimum response.
10. Continue taking triazolam as ordered, for the prescribed length of time, even if you experience relief from the symptoms of insomnia, anxiety, muscle pain and spasms, seizures, depending on the reason for which it is prescribed. Discontinuing the medication abruptly, without physician recommendation, can result in exacerbation of anxiety episodes, precipitation of seizures, muscle spasms and unpleasant withdrawal symptoms of insomnia and hallucinations. Discontinuing the medication should be only on recommendation by your physician.
11. Individuals develop tolerance to the dose of triazolam with diminished therapeutic response over time. Do not discontinue taking the medication, as you failed to see the continuing response to the medication intake. Report to your physician regarding any blunting of therapeutic response, with reverting of insomnia, anxiety episodes, muscle cramps, nervousness, irritability, restlessness and seizures. Your physician could consider a change in the plan of care, by changing the medication or increasing the dose of triazolam, to provide the desired therapeutic relief. Increasing dose of triazolam could increase risk for addiction though, as triazolam intake can be habit forming and carries a potential for addiction.
12. Due to the risk for addiction involved, triazolam is usually prescribed for short span of time only, for a maximum of 2 weeks. The risk for addiction is even more in individuals with history of substance/drug abuse, as the craving for the desired effect in these individuals will be high. When prescribed for insomnia, if symptoms of insomnia are not relieved or further worsen within 2 weeks, notify your doctor on the same, to have your sleep disturbance further investigated into.
13. Maintain strict compliance with intake of the medication as ordered, with regards to dosage and frequency, to derive the benefit of the medication.
14. Do not change the dose on this medication without consulting your doctor.