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Sleeping pills are generally bad news as they will break down your
bodys natural sleep cycle and make sleep very difficult in the long
term. Studies have shown that the effects of prolonged use of sleep
medication have an overall negative effect on the sufferer and
concluded that sufferers of insomnia are better off without them. Sleeping
pills can be addictive, like any other drug and whilst you maybe
thinking that they are safe, sufferers who use them generally have
higher mortality rates. The chemicals in sleep medication are not only
addictive, but they also decrease brain cell activity during the day. Over
time your body will build tolerance and dependency to sleep medication
and they may become ineffective. Many sufferers increase their dosage
because of this, to try and attain the same affect. This severely
increases the risk of damage to mental and physical health. 100,000
deaths occur a year in the U.S. alone, due to adverse drug reactions.
More than 1000 of these deaths are due to the overdose of sleep
medication. Because most major sleep medication interfere with
normal brain wave patterns you may not experience the deeper and
restorative stages of sleep at night. As a result you may find that you
wake up feeling groggy, drowsy or tired. Other Side effects include
urinary retention, blurred vision, dizziness and palpitations. Another
reason to avoid taking sleeping pills is that prolonged use can cause
rebound insomnia. When you begin to take sleep medication you are no
longer relying on your natural ability to sleep. Sleep is a natural
process which is supposed to just happen. When we begin to rely on
sleeping pills the body and mind increases dependency on them. In
reality sleeping pills are a crude way to fall asleep. Sleep no longer
becomes natural, you are essentially being drugged to sleep. As we
build dependency it becomes increasingly difficult to stop taking them.
If by any chance we are able to wean ourselves off them we get what is
called rebound insomnia, which is far more difficult to treat. Although
sleep medication may help you to fall asleep, they do not improve
daytime functioning whatsoever. In fact people who take sleeping pills
often complain of fatigue, lethargy, sleepiness and the inability to
concentrate in the day. Sleep medication cannot provide quality
restorative sleep, which many people have been misguided to believe.
Unfortunately people still rather take them because of the feel-good
effect they produce. New users often become dependant on sleeping pills
and end up becoming chronic sleeping pill users. Shockingly in a
recent study it was shown that a group of insomniac patients given a
placebo, performed better than those given sleeping pills. In a world
obsessed with quick-fixes , something must be done to inform sufferers
of the consequences and reality of taking sleeping pills.
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