Sleeping pills can help you sleep but health-wise, there is no question that some health risk is at stake. And apparently if people rely on them too much, there is the possibility of death after a study showed that the said drugs carry a substantially increased risk of death for those who are prescribed.

Over a two-and-a-half-year period, they compared the death rates among more than 10,500 people who received sleeping pill prescriptions with those of more than 23,600 others — matched for age, state of health and other factors — who had not received such medication. The average age of the study group was 54.

Overall, there have been issues associated with sleeping pills. And while they do intend to help a person get the proper amount of sleep, the side effects persist. This includes increased depression which may eventually trigger suicide if they are not careful.

Aside from that, sleeping pills also interfere with motor and cognitive skills, which makes driving dangerous, and can cause sleep apnea, which can lead to heart problems.

Via

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The dose of Intermezzo is 1.75 mg for women and 3.5 mg for men. The reason for the different doses is due to the slower clearance rate in women. The standard dose of Ambien for sleep is 5-10 mg each night.

The new sleeping pill should help out people who wake up in the middle of the night and have a hard time going back to sleep. It has already been evaluated via two clinical trials and was reportedly proven to be effective. However there are side effects and these include headaches, nausea and fatigue.

Be warned as well that Intermezzo should not be taken along with other medications. Further, it should not be combined with alcohol too.

In case you get the chance to come across it, be guided that you will need prescription to get one. And lastly, if ever you do try it out, do make sure you don’t grow dependent on it. One pill reportedly costs between $2 to $3, a bit expensive for people who may be planning to try it out.

Via

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There is a new app for the iPhone or iPod Touch that was made to help the sleep deprived folks and it goes by the name of the Sleeping Pill 1.0. This is a new app that is said to provide people a good night’s sleep where three stages to accelerate tiredness of users are used.

Stage 1 clears the mind so you can relax and free yourself to fall asleep, stage 2 helps users to relax and relieve stress. Finally stage 3 helps your eyes to tire by getting users to follow a “Z” across the device screen in a specific pattern. The app is now available at the iTunes app store for $0.99.

(Source) PR

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We have heard of sleep walking but now sleep driving? It is indeed hard to believe, getting up from you bed and then driving your car unconsciously. However, there are reports that there are people who do suffer from the said sleep disorder and most trace it to sleep drugs like Ambien and Lunesta.

Ambien is not the only sleeping pill that may lead to bizarre behavior. According to the ad for Lunesta, “After taking Lunesta, you may get up out of bed while not being fully awake and do an activity that you do not know you are doing. The next morning, you may not remember that you did anything during the night. … Reported activities include: driving a car (‘sleep-driving’), making and eating food, talking on the phone, having sex, sleep-walking.”

Weird or not, people who rely heavily on sleeping pills like Ambien and Lunesta should beware. You just don’t know when you may wake up in the hospital. Worst, not wake up at all.

(Source) Courant.com

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We know that there are quite a number of sleeping aids out there at the moment and apparently here is another one to add to potential sleep aids that can assist people who have trouble sleeping.

Based on reports, the TransMedia Group aims to kick thing off by a news release on July 21.

“We’re looking for TransMedia to get our product known and into the right hands, so that [consumers] can relate to the product and know the company,” said Paul Mitchell, president and COO of MedGen. “What we’re trying to do is tie the PR end of the business into advertising, prior to our ads running.”

(Source) PR Week

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With this in mind, you may be wondering, aren’t sleeping pills a bad way to restore sleep order? In reality yes but this will not stop sleeping pills manufacturers from producing and marketing their product. Business is business and for sure there are people who are desperate that they want instant results. For sleeping pill manufacturers, these are niches that they can still procure and all it takes is making their product visible to people who are unaware that they are potentially risky to their health.

“Pharmaceutical companies pour a tremendous amount of money and effort into these ad campaigns,” said Michelle Dockhorn, a Rockhurst University assistant marketing professor who has worked in pharmaceutical sales and marketing. “A popular campaign takes a monumental effort. They do a lot of brainstorming to understand the target market and what will make them buy the drug.”

(Source) Kansascity.com

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The whole report is over here and the research was spearheaded by Glasgow Sleep Centre at Glasgow University. The center admits hundreds of patients with sleep disorders yearly.

In relation to the research on insomnia, the director, Professor Colin Espie said:

“These kind of effects [not forcing sleep] are at least as good or better than a sleeping pill when it is working at its best.” He explained the programme worked by helping people allow sleep to occur naturally again.

Professor Espie said:  “What a good sleeper is often doing is resisting sleep and allowing it to be something that overtakes them, whereas bad sleepers try to evoke sleep, which encourages it to go away.”

So, the next time you find no relief in other methods that supposedly helps your insomnia, do the opposite and let sleep take over naturally.

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