WHY YOU SHOULDN'T REST EASY TAKING SLEEPING PILLS

Sleeping pills are not safe!

Sleep disruption can leave you feeling depressed and deprive you of the energy to get through the day. Many people rely on prescription sleep aids to help them get back on track.

In the short run it works.

You feel like you got the rest you needed, you didn't spend half the night watching the minutes roll by or trying to relax and fall asleep.

The next night, you have two options

For some people, that one night of sleep was enough to get them back on track and it may be months or years before they think of taking a medication again for sleep. They are the lucky ones. For the rest of the population struggling with insomnia, sleeping pills are not going to solve their problems, and will actually create new ones.

After a few nights of using sleep aids, you will become psychologically and physically dependent on the medication, and it will become harder and harder to fall asleep. If you try to stop it feels like your insomnia has gotten worse.

Your insomnia is not getting worse, you are becoming addicted!

Good sleep starts with good sleep hygeine. It's that simple. Sleeping pills will begin to destroy good sleep. They deprive your body of REM sleep, and can actually make you more anxious during the day. Some sleeping pills cause a hangover, while others can make you bright eyed and alert first thing in the morning, only to leave you feeling drained and depressed as the day goes on.

What can I do to get off sleeping pills?

1. Treat the underlying condition, whether it's anxiety, depression, addiction, bipolar disorder or relationship issues. Until you address what's really bothering you, you are not going to get a good night's rest.
2. Follow the sleep hygeine protocol.
3. See a psychiatrist who has experience in helping people get off sleeping pills.

What do you mean by unsafe?

Recently drugs like Ambien, Sonata, Lunesta, and Rozerem have been linked to cancer in animal studies. Limited human studies have also drawn links between sleeping pills and cancer.