Prescriptions and Knols
The recent death of actor Heath Ledger has sparked a debate over the efficacy of prescription sleep aid medications. Recent studies have shown that as with most sleep aids, a tolerance can be built with consistent use resulting in the increase of the dosage to makeup the loss of effectiveness. This is when things get dangerous, as with the case of Heath Ledger. As a general rule, prescription sleep aids such as ambien should not be taken for more than 6 months at a time. If you are suffering from chronic insomnia and must take a prescription medication, it’s a good idea to quit as soon as you feel you are on track to a better sleeping schedule.
In other news, Google released a screenshot of their upcoming ‘knols’ initiative and it just so happens to be on the topic of insomnia. Written by Rachel Manber, Director of Insomnia and Behavioral Sleep Medicine at Stanford University, it’s a pretty good read offering some great insights to help you evaluate your sleep troubles. It will be interesting to see how knols is adopted, if it is adopted, and whether or not this will be the ‘Wikipedia killer’ as some new media experts have pegged it as.
Check out the screenshot here
