Sleeping Pills - Are They The Answer?

Sleep has become the national obsession.  People are choosing more sleep over more sex, how crazy is that?  If you aren't getting enough - sleep that is - what should you do?  Is it time to wave the white flag and surrender to the lure of the sleeping pill?

Dr. Lois Krahn of the Mayo Clinic says, "sleeping pills could be considered when sleep loss is compromising daytime functioning."  So, if you are falling asleep at your desk, or worse, behind the wheel of your car, it's definetely time to do something about it.

It's always a good idea for you to understand what is causing your sleepless nights before filling a prescription.  Go to your doctor and make sure something more serious isn't keeping you awake.  The more common culprits could be restless leg syndrome, sleep apnea or even derpession.

Doctors used to say that sleeping pills should be used for two weeks and then stopped.  But, Dr. Krahn believes that if a person is tolerating a sleeping pill well and deriving a benefit, longer term treatment is acceptable.

I don't take a sleeping pill even though I do have some pretty restless nights.  I've tried melatonin, it doesn't do much for me.  On occasion I do take 2 Tylenol's and that does seem to relax me.

I'm a little leary of sleeping pills because there was a time many years ago that I got hooked on Ativan.  I started taking it after a small injury.  It came billed as a muscle relaxer.  Well, long after the original problem was no longer a problem, I was still relaxing my muscles every night without fail.  It was great.   I slept like a baby and in the morning had no residual effects.  Anyway, when I decided to give them up, my whole sleep cycle was so messed up it took my body almost a year to right itself.  I never want to go through that again, so I'm pretty careful about what I take.

So, what do you do?  Whatever you and your doctor decide is best for your body.  Lack of sleep can do a lot more harm that limited use of a sleeping aid.  Just be careful not to take advantage of a good thing.

Comments

[T S Wiley]

Losing sleep is more of a health hazard than you could ever imagine. In my research for Lights Out: Sleep, Sugar and Survival (Pocket Books, 2000) I discovered the link between aging and sleep loss. Most of the symptoms of aging are directly attributable to sleep loss. Women on the Wiley Protocol often recover slow-wave sleep within the first 3 months, because it's impossible to sleep without estrogen and progesterone on board.