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Advantages of using medication for treating insomnia

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David Dukes
Advantages of using medication for treating insomnia

Medication can be useful as a last option


Sleeping pills are generally used for particularly bad conditions of insomnia. Sleeplessness or Insomnia can be caused by stress, travel, or other disruptions that keep you awake. Longer term insomnia is often caused by your daily lifestyle and behavior.


Behavioral therapy is generally the best and recommended as a first line of treatment to change these behaviors and get better sleep. If regularly facing difficulties in falling or staying asleep, your doctor can prescribe you some sleeping pills to help you fall asleep at night. But remember; do not take any sleeping pills on your own without consulting it with your doctor.


You can target your sleep problem


There are two main types of chronic insomnia:

1.    Acute sleep onset insomnia (struggling to fall asleep)

2.   Sleep-maintenance insomnia (struggling to stay asleep during the night).

Some sleeping pills work stand out really helpful for either one type or the other. 

Unfortunately, this means that while some sleeping pills may help you get to sleep, you might still wake up in the middle of the night.


Disadvantages of using medication for treating insomnia

Cons: You may develop a tolerance

Prescribed insomnia drugs, such as z-drugs (which include medications like Ambien, Sonata, and Lunesta) and benzodiazepines (Buy Valium Online, Buy Xanax Online, and Ativan) are not recommended for long-term use or to treat chronic insomnia because they might be habit-forming you can develop addiction.

If you take sleeping pills longer than prescribed in order to treat chronic insomnia, you may you may increase your tolerance towards it, that means you require a higher dosage for the same effect. Also, if you use these pills incorrectly, you might suffer from “rebound insomnia,” which can be worse than before.


Cons: There may be side effects


Most medications for insomnia can cause irritability and other dangerous side effects. For instance, antihistamine can often cause blurred vision, dry mouth, dizziness, constipation, and confusion upon waking.

Prescription drugs, such as z-drugs, can also cause similar side effects, such as dizziness, headaches, memory problems, dry mouth, daytime drowsiness, nausea, and constipation. They are also associated with serious side effects called complex sleep behaviors, where you try to go about normal activities but are not completely awake, such as sleepwalking and sleep-driving.


General comments about various classes of medications


There are some general comments that can be made about the various classes of medications:

Barbiturates, benzodiazepines, and antidepressant medications can help with sleep onset and increasing the amount of time spent in bed, but they may reduce the more important/restorative stage of sleep and lead to sleep that is less efficient or restorative.  

Antihistamines are generally sedating, and do not cause dependence, but patients may find that they develop tolerance over time and may suffer from next day drowsiness.

The barbiturates and benzodiazepines carry higher risks of dependency and the development of tolerance over time. The non-benzodiazepine hypnotics appear to have less of a negative impact on sleep architecture, and less (but not zero) risk of dependency and tolerance. 

 

Antipsychotic medications can be very sedating, though better at preserving normal sleep architecture, but they may cause more potentially significant side effects such as weight gain and metabolic symptoms. In addition, they pose an increased risk of death from cerebrovascular causes in geriatric patients. 

 

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