The dangers of using sleeping pills

It could be an over-the-counter drug or a prescription drug. Prescription drugs are actually more dangerous than you think.

That's according to a new study by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Bureau of Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services. The report found that the number of emergency room visits for overdoses of zolpidem, an active ingredient in some prescription sleeping pills, nearly doubled between 2005 and 2010. Women accounted for two-thirds of those admitted.

[Caption] Photo: united-academics.

Exactly how dangerous are sleeping pills? According to Dr. Carl Bazil of Columbia University, who notes that prescription medications are often stronger than over-the-counter medications, sleeping pills can help you fall asleep quickly, but they are not a long-term solution to sleep disorders and can be dangerous if used improperly.

One of the biggest dangers is that the drug’s effects are stronger in women than in men. “Women tend to metabolize sleeping pills more slowly than men, but many people, including doctors, don’t realize this,” Bazil explains. In 2013, the US Food and Drug Administration reduced the recommended dose for women from 10 mg to 5 mg. Many doctors still prescribe higher doses for women, while other women may use old prescriptions or get the drug from their husbands. When they overdose, the consequences can be dire.

Another big problem with sleeping pills is the next-day effects. While they are supposed to wear off after eight hours, drowsiness can last longer if you take high doses. As a result, many people still feel tired in the morning when they drive to work, and this poses a serious safety risk. “Impaired driving ability is one of the biggest problems with sleeping pills, because many people don’t realize they’re still not awake,” says Bazil. In other words, it’s a lot like drunk driving, in that you don’t have good judgment or quick reaction times, so the risk of an accident increases significantly.

Sleeping pills can also be harmful when combined with other drugs, namely alcohol and stimulants. According to Bazil, this is because the combination increases the effects of both, so you end up being sedated by both the drug and the alcohol or stimulant. This means the drug will last longer, and you will feel drowsy and groggy when you wake up. An even more extreme scenario is that if you take a high dose or two at a time, you will feel as if you are suffocating, and you will most likely need to go to the emergency room.

Another downside is that sleeping pills can also make you act strangely around the house if you take them before you’re ready to go to bed. See, sleeping pills knock you out instantly. But again, many people don’t realize how quickly sleeping pills work, so they take one just half an hour before something, and end up making bad decisions. “If you take a pill before you go to bed, you might do strange, even dangerous things that you can’t remember,” says Brazil. You might collapse, burn yourself, or even have risky sex.

Sleeping pills can also be addictive, which is fortunately not common. The long-term effects of prescription sleeping pills have not been studied, but the big risk is when you stop taking them after becoming dependent on them. “If your body gets used to sleeping pills, you will feel bad when you stop because your body has adapted. That means you will need to take more and it will be difficult to sleep well without them.”

Ultimately, it’s important to remember that sleeping pills don’t fundamentally address the issue of poor sleep over time. Think of them as a sleep aid that you need to stop using at some point. To do this, Bazil recommends using them for a full month (under a doctor’s supervision) to retrain your sleep, and then stopping them completely. How you use them during that month is up to you. Some people take them every night, while others take them a few times a week when they really feel like they need them.

According to VnExpress