America’s Love Affair With Sleeping Pills May Be Waning

By Steven Reinberg
HealthDay Reporter

WEDNESDAY, Aug. 24, 2022 (HealthDay News) — Fewer Americans are turning to sleep drugs to struggle insomnia.

After a dramatic rise in prescriptions for medication like Ambien, the pattern has ebbed, in accordance with a brand new research, and fewer docs are prescribing sleep drugs. Use of those sleep aids dropped 31% between 2013 and 2018, researchers discovered.

“There are a number of potential causes for this decline; for instance, there is a higher consciousness of the potential risks in the usage of these drugs,” stated lead researcher Christopher Kaufmann. He’s an assistant professor within the Department of Health Outcomes and Biomedical Informatics on the University of Florida.

“Also, there’s been a current upsurge in behavioral remedies for enhancing sleep that do not have the potential hostile outcomes that some drugs might need,” Kaufmann stated.

The greatest drop-off (86%) in use of sleep medication was seen amongst these over 80.

Before this new decline, researchers had reported that between 1993 and 2010, prescriptions for benzodiazepines jumped 69%. The medication, which deal with nervousness and insomnia, embody diazepam (Valium) and alprazolam (Xanax). Over the identical interval, prescriptions for zolpidem (Ambien) rose 140%.

The surge was pushed by direct-to-consumer advertising and marketing, notably of Ambien within the early Nineteen Nineties, in addition to higher consciousness of the advantages of sleep, Kaufmann stated.

Since then, use of all kinds of sleep drugs dropped, with the most important decline (55%) in federally accepted sleep aids.

For the research, Kaufmann’s crew used knowledge from 29,400 contributors in a U.S. authorities well being survey performed each two years.

Researchers stated the decline was pushed by knowledge pointing to undesirable uncomfortable side effects of the drugs. Among these are daytime drowsiness, in addition to greater threat for automotive crashes, reminiscence loss amongst older sufferers and falls that resulted in damaged hips.

In 2019, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration required “Black Box” warnings on packaging of the sleep medication eszopiclone (Lunesta), zolpidem (Ambien) and zaleplon (Sonata). Black Box warnings advise sufferers that affected medication pose critical security dangers.

Kaufmann famous that these medication have been initially designed for short-term use to get folks by means of bouts of insomnia as they reprogramed their sleep habits. Instead, many sufferers turned persistent customers.

“I believe that individuals are starting to turn into conscious of the potential pitfalls of the usage of these drugs,” Kaufmann stated.

Dr. Stella Hahn, affiliate medical director of the Northwell Sleep Disorder Center in New Hyde Park, N.Y., stated docs are prescribing these medication much less and recommending options comparable to cognitive behavioral remedy extra.

“Cognitive behavioral remedy for insomnia is a extra sturdy and protected choice to deal with insomnia,” stated Hahn, who reviewed the research findings.

The remedy helps determine ideas, emotions and behaviors that contribute to insomnia. In different phrases, it will get on the underlying causes of sleep issues.

With the heightened consciousness of the adverse results of sleep medication, major care docs do not feel snug ordering them for long-term use with out investigating different choices, Hahn stated.

She recommends a number of steps to assist her sufferers get a great evening’s sleep:

• Limit caffeine (together with none after 12 midday).
• Remove TV, computer systems, tablets or telephones from the bed room.
• Keep your bed room cool and darkish.
• Limit your time in mattress to sleep.
• Wait till you are sleepy to go to mattress.
• And if in case you have bother sleeping, even in the course of the evening, stand up and do one thing, like studying till you are drowsy.

If you are taking a complement like melatonin that can assist you sleep, remember to take it hours earlier than bedtime, Hahn stated.

“If you are taking it too near bedtime, it will possibly really mess up your circadian rhythm,” she stated, including that whereas it isn’t an incredible sleep medicine, it will possibly assist sufferers with jet lag or shiftwork dysfunction.

The findings have been lately revealed on-line within the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine .

More data

The Mayo Clinic has extra about prescription sleep drugs.

SOURCES: Christopher Kaufmann, PhD, assistant professor, Department of Health Outcomes and Biomedical Informatics, University of Florida College of Medicine, Gainesville; Stella Hahn, MD, affiliate medical director, Northwell Sleep Disorders Center, New Hyde Park, N.Y.; Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine, July, 12, 2022, on-line