Why Not Sleeping Pills?

Having difficulty sleeping? Sleeping pills are not the answer. Although many people turn to sleeping pills when they are suffering from insomnia they can actually have negative side effects and can be addictive and less effective over time.

An article in the New York Times, October 23, 2007 revealed some disturbing research results. Viewed as a group, sleeping pills improve the time you take to get to sleep by 12.8 minutes compared with fake pills, and the total time you actually sleep by 11.4 minutes a night.

So why are they so popular? Two observations made in exactly this article give us some clues. Firstly, most sleeping pills work on the same brain receptors as drugs to treat anxiety - so you might just feel better about not sleeping. And secondly, there's the effect of anterograde amnesia (trouble forming memories while under the influence of sleep medications) which means by morning you might have forgotten you had trouble sleeping! Does this sound like a wake-up call?

Sleeping Pills Tend to Be Addictive

Most sleeping pills tend to be addictive. Many people want to get off sleeping tablets to lead a more normal life but when they try they may suffer terrible withdrawal symptoms such as a repeat of poor sleeping patterns, anxiety, shaking, or panic and generally feeling awful. If you are already addicted to sleeping pills then it is important to speak to your doctor and come off them carefully and with help.

Being addictive means that they become less effective over time, meaning that continually higher doses are required just to get the same effect.

For more information online please refer to the work and website of Professor C.H. Ashton on benzodiazepines. For Joan E Gadsby, the author of Addiction by Prescription, her 18 year struggle to withdraw from medication prompted a letter recently to President Obama.

Sleeping Tablets Can Cause Drowsiness

Drowsiness when you want to sleep may seem like a good thing but when you need to lead a normal life and get on with the activities of the day this can actually be a problem. People who take sleeping tablets often find that they are also very drowsy the next morning and this may make it difficult or even dangerous for them to do their usual activities such as driving, operating machinery, etc.

Sleeping Tablets May Impair Night Activities

If you are on sleeping tablets and need to get up at night to use the bathroom or do anything else you may have problems. The sleeping pills tend to make you clumsy and confused and this can be dangerous and cause you to injure yourself through falls. This is especially dangerous for older people who may be more likely to fall and break a bone.

Sleeping Tablets are Blamed for Weird Actions

An article published in The Sun-Herald May 10, 2009 highlighted that one controversial sleeping pill was the number one drug reported to a national hotline in Australia for adverse side effects from drugs. Of 1669 calls made to the Adverse Medicine Events Line between September 2007 and February 2009, 12 percent (196) related to a particular sleeping pill - making it by far the most reported medication to this hotline, run by the Australian National Prescribing Service and Brisbane's Mater Hospital. Other studies confirming reports of abnormal behaviours include a report published in April 2009 by the Australia and New Zeland Journal of Psychiatry citing sleep walking and eating during sleep. And sleep walking has been associated with a higher likelihood of being overweight or obese.

What are the Alternatives?

As we have said, sleeping pills are not the answer but what else can you use if you are having difficulty sleeping? The first thing is to consider what could be the cause of your sleeplessness. There are many reasons why people can't sleep which include anxiety, stress, not being able to switch off at the end of the day, food intolerance, toxic relationships and environments, unfulfilling jobs, use of prescription and non-prescription drugs, worrying (including financial, health, family issues) - and many more.

Insomnia is a symptom of something else. Getting to the bottom of the 'something else' is the challenge. Sometimes this is easy, for example if it's just a matter of relaxing at the end of the day. Sometimes it's more difficult - if it related to a childhood trauma, etc.

The good news is that there are many technologies for solving the problem naturally.

They include Cognitive Behavoir Therapy (C.B.T.), Emotional Freedom Technique (E.F.T), Neuro-training, relaxation (yoga, meditation, etc.), brain entrainment (certain types of music, theta metronomes etc.), kinesiology, nutrition, exercise, herbal and other supplementation, food intolerance and/or allergy testing, aromatherapy, sleeping cooler in bed, making life changing decisions to fulfil your life, other lifestyle changes and brilliant books on particular topics (e.g. The Wisdom of Menopause, by Dr Christiane Northrup).

Sleeping pills are not the answer. They may be a popular way to try and remedy insomnia but they aren't that effective and they can be addictive and sometimes dangerous. Most of all they don't address the underlying problem that caused your insomnia in the first place - and that's where your real solution lies.