Do sleeping pills work?
When can they be helpful?
See what doctors and scientific studies have to say about when (and when not) they help.
For others, itsracing thoughts.
Lying in bed is often the first time all day many have to process lifes stressors.
Then there are folkswho work at night, which throws off the circadian rhythm.
functional medicine doctor and chief medical officer at The Well
Others travel frequently,throwing another curveball to the circadian rhythm.
And lets not forget about snoring partners, kids, and petsthe lovable sleep disruptors that they are.
For all these issues, theres a blanket solution millions of Americans turn to: prescription sleeping pills.
The lack of data is startling, especially taking into account thatthe pandemic has made insomnia more prevalent.
Some doctors even say they do more harm than good.
So why are so many people taking them?
Millions more Americans take over-the-counter drugs or melatonin for sleep.
When do they work, when dont they, and are sleeping pills ultimately worth it?
Lets get into it and find out.
functional medicine doctor and chief medical officer at The Well
How do sleeping pills work?
Sleep specialist andThe Sleep SolutionauthorW.
When one gets turned on, the other should get shut off.
Its when both are turned on at the same time, Dr. Winter says, that sleeplessness occurs.
When GABAA is activated, as zolpidem and benzodiazepine drugs work to do, it has a calming effect.
Thats what causes someone to feel sleepy after taking it.
Heres how zolpidem drugs and benzodiazepines are different.Benzodiazepinesalso serve as muscle relaxers; z-drugs wont have that effect.
Theyre often used to treat seizures and muscle spasms as well as be sedative.
Alcohol actually works through GABAA receptors too, Dr. Winter says.
Drugs like Ambien and Lunesta, for instance, affect the brain similarly to alcohol.
Just like sleeping pills, alcohol is a central nervous system depressant.
Thats why its dangerous to mix them;the effects can be too strong.
As with alcohol, popping an Ambien can be successful in helping someone fall asleep quicker.
But the similarities also mean it can actually disruptdeep sleepthe same way alcohol does, too.
Theres a reason why sleep experts dont recommend relying on booze for sleep.
And you know what?
Thesame thing happens with drugs like Ambien and Lunesta.
Still, the results are mixed.
Only67 percent of people taking Ambienand55 percent of people taking Lunestareport that they think its worth it.
Are they ever helpful?
I was experiencing severe postpartum anxiety and wasnt sleeping well at night, she says.
The combination of panic attacks and sleepless nights left me unable to cope.
Her doctor prescribed her clonazepam (Klonopin) for sleep and Xanax for anxiety to take during the day.
Its Amazing How Its All Connected.
But she would wake up the next morning groggy and exhausted.
It wasnt just the Im tired because I just woke up pop in of exhausted, she recalls.
She adds that it took most of the day to completely shake off the effects of the sleeping pill.
She does say that even scaling down to taking a quarter pill wasnt perfect.
It affected her libido and she couldnt work up the energy to participate in sex.
But for sleep, she said it was key for getting through a tough time in her life.
Jas Rawlinson , a public speaker, also sought out sleeping pills several months after having a baby.
After I had my son, I would lie awake because my body was hyper-alert.
I was aware of every noise and my body didnt allow me to sleep, she says.
At this point she had tried every over-the-counter option she could find, including melatonin.
Her doctor prescribed her a very low dose of temazepam (a benzodiazepine) and only five days worth.
For her, they worked great.
She slept well, didnt have any side effects, and woke up well-rested.
(And she was still able to hear her baby when he cried out.)
Rawlinson obtained another prescription through another doctor and kept taking them for about a year and a half.
Winter says this is when he believes sleeping pills can be helpful and he has no problem prescribing them.
Our bodies sleep very well and dont need a lot of help doing it.
Sleeping pills are a Band-Aid, but sometimes people need Band-Aids, he says.
Im not against these jot down of drugs.
I just think they get overused and then used for a long period of time, Dr. Lipman says.
Thats when they become a problem.
And often, thats what happens.
(Not from him though, he adds.
Treating the core root causes of sleeplessnessishis job, after all.)
Got anything for that?'
Are sleeping pills the new opioids?
When people use sleeping pills habitually (aka not as a Band-Aid), the effects are detrimental.
So detrimental, in fact, that Dr. Lipman calls them the new opioids in his book.
Theyre not benign, he says.
Theyre given out like candy because so many people cant sleep and theyre a quick fix, he says.
Dr. Lipman says sleeping pills create more problems than they solve.
Sometimes the side-effects are flat-out bizarre.
The Ambien definitely put me to sleep.
Sometimes Id send them 10 messages in a row.
She decided to stop taking both medications after that.
Sleeping medications increase the chances of sleepwalking, sleep eating, and evensleep sex, he says.
This especially affects women to the point where Ambien actually had to start including a warning on the label.
Both Dr. Lipman and Dr. Winter also say thatsleeping pills can be addictive.
This is a major reason why Dr. Lipman compares them to opioids.
What these stats also show, however, is that for many people sleeping pillsarentaddictive.
Rawlinson, for example, had no problem stopping taking them after a full year and a half.
(Doctors would likely also debate whether she truly needed to take them that long.)
The reality is, just like alcohol, sleeping pills affect people differently.
They can cause some people to black out and do weird things.
They can help othersfall asleep fastand wake up fresh as a daisy.
They can be addictive and habit-forming and they can not be.
And they may or may not work.
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