Sleeping pill consumption on the rise

Excerpts Courtesy of the NY Times

More than one in four Americans say they are literally losing sleep over the economic downturn — tossing and turning over personal finances, the economy, job security or health care costs. Those were the results of a poll released last month by the National Sleep Foundation, a nonprofit group. It is little surprise, then, that some over-the-counter sleeping pills have been doing a brisk business in recent months.

The National Institutes of Health estimates that 30 percent of Americans have trouble sleeping and 10 percent have some form of insomnia; their daytime symptoms include moodiness as well as impaired concentration and memory. But economic factors do weigh heavily. According to a recent report by the market research firm Packaged Facts, the age group most likely to suffer from insomnia are people 55 to 64 years old, who may suffer from arthritis or other ailments and are 26 percent more likely than the average consumer to buy pain-relieving sleep aids. “Not only does this age group have to deal with the pains of getting old, but they are also most affected by the financial crisis, a huge headache in and of itself,” the Packaged Facts report said.

Dr. Phyllis Zee, director of the sleep disorders program at Northwestern University, says she has had patients for whom over-the-counter pills have been effective, but she added that the medicines were not risk-free and discouraged using them more than occasionally. “If you take something like Advil PM intermittently when you have pain and can’t sleep, that’s a reasonable approach,” Dr. Zee said. “But I don’t think there really have been long-term studies to look at their safety and efficacy when taken on a long-term basis.” In a 2005 report about insomnia, the National Institutes of Health cited “significant concerns about risks” of such antihistamine sleeping pills, including “residual daytime sedation, diminished cognitive function and delirium, the latter being of particular concern in the elderly."

Steve - there are numerous natural therapies that can be explored for sleep issues as we outlined in our recent Sleep Well Action Plan.