Millions in the US take prescription drugs to help them sleep and defeat insomnia. The main pharmaceutical drugs prescribed for sleep problems are “hypnotics” like Ambien, Lunesta, Sonata, or benzodiazepines like Temazepam.
Sleep is essential, so what’s wrong with taking drugs to make me sleep?
There are many problems with drugs that are promoted as “sleep drugs” or sleeping pills.
It is important to point out that sleeping pills do not actually lead you to real sleep, they cause a state of sedation instead.
In addition, there are numerous health dangers. Reference these studies for some of the dangers:
Association of hypnotics with stroke risk: a population-based case-control study.
Lee et al. (2014)
Relationship between zolpidem use and stroke risk: a Taiwanese population-based case-control study. Huang et al (2013)
Hypnotics’ association with mortality or cancer: a matched cohort study.
Kripke et al. (2012)
Is usage of hypnotics associated with mortality?
Mallon et al. (2009)