By Haley Tanenbaum
Sleepless by pittaya
Everyone can remember a frustrating night of sleeplessness. You are lying in bed for hours, unable to fall asleep. Perhaps you were preoccupied with worries from the day before, over energized, or simply just not able to doze off. Whatever the reason, sleepless nights are unbearable, and for years scientists have been working to develop medicines that can help people fall asleep and stay asleep. There are countless sleeping medications on the market today. The question is: are these sleeping pills helpful or harmful?
Here’s a little bit of background—sleep consists of alternating periods of what scientists refer to as REM sleep and of non-REM sleep. REM sleep is classified by rapid eye movement, which is absent in non-REM sleep. Non-REM sleep consists of stages 1 through 4, which feature increasingly slow and steady brain waves. REM sleep occurs in the 5th and final stage of sleep. Most commonly, when people fall asleep they have a long period of non-REM sleep and then a short period of REM sleep .
Why is sleep so important? First of all, sleep gives the brain time to heal. While a person is sleeping, the brain repairs and restores brain tissue as well as neurons (Myers, 2007). Sleep also helps our memories. In a study by Kimberly Fenn and others in 2003, it was shown that people who were trained to remember tasks recalled them better after a good night’s sleep than after hours of being awake.
Sleeping pills are a fast and easy way for the typical sleep-deprived student or workaholic to catch up on their z’s. Though these pills may help you maintain your energy on a day-to-day basis, in the long run, they are harmful. A six-year study conducted by Daniel Kripke of the University of California, San Diego used more than a million adults between the ages of 30 to 102. Kripke found that those who took sleeping pills every night had a greater risk of death than those who only took them occasionally. In addition, the risk of death for people who took sleeping pills occasionally was 10 to 15 percent higher than people who never used sleeping pills at all.
So, the next time you find yourself tossing and turning in the dead of night, don’t reach for the pill bottle. Instead of popping an Ambien, try some warm milk or the good old counting sheep trick…
References
Myers, David G. (2007). Psychology (eighth edition in modules). New York:
Worth Publishers.
WebMD (2005-2006). Sleep 101. Retrieved October 8, 2008, from
http://www.webmd.com/sleep-disorders/guide/sleep-101.
Nature International Weekly Journal of Science. Consolidation During Sleep of
Perpetual Learning of Spoken Language. Retrieved October 8, 2008, from
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v425/n6958/full/nature01951.html.
Live Science. Sleep Deprivation: The Great American Myth. Retrieved October
8,2008, from
http://www.livescience.com/health/060323_sleep_deprivation.html
So, maybe reaching for an Ambien isn’t the best way to go, but what about those over-the-counter herbal supplements you can get from your local health food store?
Mark Shimazaki and Jennifer Martin studied the results of experiments that used valerian and melatonin as sleep aids for the elderly.
Valerian is a plant-derived supplement. Its active compounds are currently undefined, yet it appears to significantly affect the architecture of sleep when administered for longer periods of time (more than eight days). In several studies, elderly patients with previous complaints about sleep displayed increased time in slow wave sleep, decreased time in stage one sleep, and took less time to fall asleep when administered valerian over periods of time (Shimazaki & Martin, 2007). And the best part about this supplement? Patients given valerian did not report any grogginess the next morning, making this a promising alternative to traditional benzodiazepines.
Melatonin, on the other hand, did not show as much promise. Melatonin is a naturally occurring neurohormone that works to regulate the circadian clock. Patients taking melatonin showed no significant change in sleep architecture (Shimazaki & Martin, 2007), yet reported next morning grogginess with use of this supplement.
Although all of these studies were directed towards older insomniacs, these studies show that these supplements may, in fact, show some promise as alternative (and non-addictive) sleep aids.
Reference
Shimazaki, M., & Martin, J. L. (2007). Do herbal agents have a place in long-term health care? PubMed. Retrieved from http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/picrender.fcgi?artid=1939981&blobtype=pdf
Comment by Arianna Gass — September 29, 2009 @ 8:16 pm
I find this post to be extremely relevant since it’s seems to be a growing trend: people habitually taking sleeping pills in order to get a better night’s rest. Even people my age are becoming more and more dependent on sleep aids. Since about the age of 16, I have struggled with restless nights of no-sleep, or that lying awake for hours feeling addressed in this blog post. My mother has always been skeptical of sleeping pills, although I used to take melatonin pills a lot, since it is naturally produced in our bodies and seems like a much more natural and safer remedy than Ambian or Lunesta. My question is when someone truly does struggle with falling asleep and staying asleep, what is the lesser of two evils: suffering from a constant, steady lack of sleep deprivation (that you can live with) or becoming addicted to prescribed sleeping pills? What are other strategies that our brains can learn in order to get better rest and how can we ever learn them if we grow increasingly dependent on drugs to provide us with sleep?
Comment by Wendell Winton — September 30, 2009 @ 10:06 am
I was very intrigued by Kripke’s conclusion that “people who get only 6 to 7 hours a night have a lower death rate than those who get 8 hours of sleep.” The study seems quite extensive, as he used over a million people over a spanning every age group over 30, but I was wondering if he showed that this specific result about hours of sleep vs. death rate (the Livescience article was unclear). If it’s not related to sleeping pills, it’s still a really fascinating result, because intuitively, the more sleep and therefore rest/recovery we have, the healthier we should be.
Comment by Hannah E. — October 4, 2009 @ 1:03 pm
It doesn’t surprise me that sleeping pills are potentially harmful when used in the long term, though I do feel it needs to be said that just because the study observed a correlation between sleeping pill use and chance of death does not necessarily mean that using sleeping pills causes one to have a greater chance of death. There may be lurking variables. For example, could people resorting to sleeping pill use, on average, be less healthy than the ones that don’t resort to them? Could it be that long term pill users are more stressed in their day to day lives, have more erratic patterns of sleep, etc? Furthermore, there is the question of whether the pills are being used correctly – on most bottles, there is a warning that says they should not be used unless the user can devote 7-8 hours of sleep. Are all users following that warning?
Comment by Psych10502 Student — October 4, 2009 @ 5:37 pm
American’s spend millions of dollars a year on sleeping pills.
There are two different types of sleeping pills benzodiazepine and nonbenzodiazepines. Nonbensodiazepines were developed after benzodiazepines and over time nonbensodiazepines became more popular. The problem with benzodiazepine is that the body develops a tolerance after a certain amount of time therefore to have the same effect there has to be an increase in dosage. (http://www.healthline.com/sw/hr-nl-by-the-way-doctor-should-i-take-lunesta-to-help-me-sleep)
The University of Maryland has information on how to relax to be able to sleep, which is a healthier solution, then taking sleeping pills, see link to site below.
(http://www.umm.edu/sleep/relax_tech.htm)
Comment by Paloma Torres – October 2, 2009
Comment by Paloma Torres — October 4, 2009 @ 7:42 pm
This post seems especially relevant when considering our generation. In fact, in 1998 only 599 people out of every 100,000 people under age 45 used sleeping pills regularly. By 2006 that number had nearly tripled with 1524 users out of every 100,000 under 45. Dr. Plakun, director of admissions at the Austen Riggs Center, attributes the rise in popularity among young people to a change in people’s attitudes concerning medications. People enjoy the convenience of having a pill as the answer.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/15/health/15sleep.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=sleeping%20pills&st=cse
Comment by Austin Ford — October 8, 2009 @ 12:49 pm
Austin’s statistics regarding the increased regular usage of sleeping pills is extremely alarming considering all the drawbacks of using sleep aids on a regular basis. Many people become dependent on sleeping pills and develop withdrawal symptoms such as vomiting, increased sweating, and shaking. Also, once the consumer has been regularly taking sleeping medication, his or her tolerance will begin to increase so that there will be no effect unless the consumer increases his or her dosage. The use of sleeping pills is often accompanied by a reduction in the consumer’s sleep quality, meaning that he or she will not experience as much deep sleep. One must also keep in mind that sleeping pills are not a cure for insomnia, but rather an aid to help one fall asleep. Therefore, if the consumer decides to stop taking the pills, insomnia will return.
Comment by Kate Rainey — October 13, 2009 @ 2:22 pm
I find this post to be very intriguing because of personal involvement. For a period of four months I was a habitual sleeping aid taker. And one thing I have noticed from personal experience is that when I took sleeping pills I was never able to remember my dreams. This led me to believe that the pills were interfering with REM sleep, because I never could recall my dreams at all. It was as if I awoke to a blank slate of memories and felt somewhat confused at not being able to recall any images from the night before. Upon my own research into this subject, I came across an article (http://www.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/09/19/healthmag.sleeping.pills/index.html) that is a simple Q&A about sleeping pills. One question has to deal with pills and dreams, and apparently some sleeping pills will block dream recollection.
Comment by Preston Miller — October 10, 2009 @ 2:49 pm
This article reminds me my roommate in my high school who was dependent on sleeping pills. Regarded as a perfect student by everyone else and facing high expectations, she was often struck by insomnia. Therefore she resorted to sleeping pills to ease the problem before important events like public speaking or examinations.
Most sleeping pills are sedative hypnotics, including benzodiazepines, barbiturates, and various hypnotics. Their fundamental use is to calm the body, increase drowsiness and induce sleep. Just to supplement some information, sleeping pills may cause health problems such as constipation, diarrhea, headache, drowsiness, unusual dreams, dry mouth and throats etc. The effects act differently on different individuals. Some people may be more resistant to the side effects while some may be more vulnerable. (http://www.webmd.com/sleep-disorders/understanding-the-side-effects-of-sleeping-pills) I think, though it is tempting to take sleeping pills to have a peaceful night of sleep, given that there are lots of alternatives, taking the fastest way at the expense of health is totally not worthwhile.
The article gives out a well-known point – sleeping pills are no good. They ease short-term insomnia but are harmful to long term health. However, I agree with Psych10512’s view that there are lurking variables in the causal relationship between sleeping pills and chances of death. There is an ambiguity on this point in the article. Overall the article seems inadequate in elaborating the harmfulness of sleeping pills by putting too much focus on the background information.
Comment by Jacqueline Tam — October 10, 2009 @ 6:36 pm
This was a very interesting article however, I have a couple of questions. What do you mean people who took sleeping pills had a higher risk of death? Does this mean sleeping pills cuts their life span or that they had a higher chance of disease and would die early? Or did the pills just make them unhealthy? This article was also very interesting to me because I have always believed that sleeping pills just helped you get more sleep not that they are actually harmful in moderation. It made me wonder, what is in fact more harmful not getting any sleep or choosing to take sleeping pills?
Comment by pysch10502student — October 11, 2009 @ 10:52 am
It seems that the causes of the deaths is not directly from the pills, as I had first assumed, but instead the drugs act as depressants, producing a calming effect that has the unintended side effect of reducing fear. Sleeping pill users are then more likely to engage in risky behavior like driving fast. There are also risks of anaphylaxis, facial swelling, and performing risky behaviors while asleep- like driving or cooking. The medications can also cause dizziness, leading potentially life-threatening falls in elderly patients. (Kripke)
The increase in the use of sleeping pills is closely tied to the culture of medication that we are immersed in, and is tied to the rise in ADD medications. ADD can itself cause insomnia, and the medicines used to treat it are stimulants, which can also have insomnia as a side effect. To combat this, many people who use ADD medication also use sleeping pills, leading to more people on more medications – always creating a greater potential for risks and dangerous side effects and a greater reliance on medication overall. (http://cme.medscape.com/viewarticle/521117)
Comment by Mollie Baker-Salisbury — October 12, 2009 @ 2:34 pm
By the same token, more and more students are beginning to use caffeine pills as a means of staying awake, then following up with sleeping pills in order to induce sleep after their artificial energy boost. With everything in pill form, the necessity of a good night’s sleep is losing its significance; why do why your body wants you to do when you can use pills to ensure alertness when convenient and exhaustion when appropriate? There is a tendency to ignore the negative side effects of these drugs in favor of their convenience, which can result in addiction or serious health risks. Sleeping pills especially are highly addictive, and should be taken only with great caution.
http://www.articlesbase.com/health-articles/proper-consultation-and-dosage-making-sleeping-pills-safe-244170.html
Comment by Mariah Minigan — October 12, 2009 @ 3:46 pm
Reference:
http://www.helpguide.org/life/sleep_aids_medication_insomnia_treatment.htm
Comment by Kate Rainey — October 13, 2009 @ 2:38 pm
The convenience of having a pill is definitely beginning to override not only a night of sleep, but even the time it takes to drink a cup of coffee. The use of caffeine pills and sleeping pills in combination is proving deadly in some situations, and yet it appears that both are on the rise. Erratic patterns of sleep are seemingly inevitable in a world that expects so much of each person, and many people are turning to a series of medications to help them adjust to this unnatural schedule. As long term effects are thus far unexplored, the effects may be dangerous, but are most certainly hard to identify as of yet.
http://www.articlesbase.com/health-articles/proper-consultation-and-dosage-making-sleeping-pills-safe-244170.html
Comment by Mariah Minigan — October 14, 2009 @ 2:38 am
It doesn’t surprise me that using sleeping medications would have negative long term effects. Ambien enters the system and alters the role of gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA). GABA naturally regulates the activity of brain cells and helps facilitate communication between them. However when coupled with Ambien, GABA is encouraged to reduce the activity of brain cells- effectively turning them off in a sense until the drug leaves the system. I don’t know if the nature by which Ambien works is what makes it dangerous, but it sounds like a pretty unnatural way to induce sleep.
Comment by Kris Adkins — October 23, 2009 @ 6:21 pm
This article provides just one example of the many pills which people in today’s society take on a regular basis. In a world where the answer to every question is “take two of these and don’t call me in the morning,” research and discussion of the effects of consistently turning to medication for any and every problem is very relevant. It seems to me that the danger is not so much in the nature of an individual sleeping pill, but rather in taking it repeatedly, night after night. Sleeping pills may be just another one of those things which can be useful every so often when a strong need arises, but harmful when put into a routine. The people marketing sleeping pills, of course, have done nothing to emphasize that they are merely a short-term solution.
Comment by Sahara Kruidenier — November 5, 2009 @ 7:55 pm