Smarter Sleeping 101

From News Inferno:

“New generation sleeping pills, like Lunesta and Ambien, may be as likely to cause serious adverse reactions as older sleep aids.  While older pills are much more likely to cause daytime sedation, addiction and withdrawal symptoms, drug classified as nonbenzodiazepines (NBZs), including Lunesta and Ambien, seem just as likely to cause amnesia and erratic behavior.

Introduced in the 1990s, NBZs are all sedatives used for the  treatment of insomnia. They have proved to be safer than both benzodiazepines and the older barbiturates, especially when taken in overdose, and also have less of a tendency to induce dependence and addiction although these issues can still become a problem with abuse of NBZs.  As a result, NBZs like Lunesta an Ambien have become widely prescribed for the treatment of insomnia, particularly in elderly patients.

But it appears that NBZs have not eliminated all of the problems associated with sleeping pills.  According to a report in The Wall Street Journal, an analysis of adverse-event reports filed with the World Health Organization suggests that some side effects of this generation of sleep medications may be as bad as- and even worse than - the older generation, including Halcion, which was banned in some countries.”

Keep Reading… 

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