Insomnia - Why Sleeping Pills Aren't Always the Best Solution

Sleeping pills are mostly effective if taken as a short-term solution or if the source of the insomnia is related to anxiety.

Unfortunately, many people, who suffer from insomnia for a whole range of different reasons, believe that taking medication is their only option to beat sleep deprivation.

Sleeping pills or anti-anxiety drugs are often prescribed particularly if someone is going through a stressful situation such as divorce, job loss, change of home or bereavement.

However in the long-term, your body can become accustomed to the medication which then reduces or cancels out its effect. The dosage may then sometimes be increased which runs the risk of creating habit-forming behaviour, dependency or addiction.

Withdrawal symptoms, after coming off prescribed medication, may also lead to high anxiety and further bouts of insomnia.

There can be a host of other problems brought on by taking sleeping medication. For example, some forms of sleeping medication, such as barbiturates, can suppress the REM (rapid eye movement) dream stage of sleep of the sleep cycle. This stage of the sleep cycle is vital for our emotional and physical health. Sleeping pills or sedatives can also disturb the body's built-in master clock in our brain and our circadian rhythms. People have been known to walk, eat or attempt to drive in their sleep after taking sedative-hypnotics.

There is also a condition called psychophysiological insomnia where the person affected worries obsessively about their inability to sleep, often taking drastic measures with different forms of medication in a desperate attempt to get some sleep.

Some prescribed medication can cause confusion, headaches, visual disturbances, constipation or diarrhoea and balance problems.

So what are the alternatives?

Researchers in New York have found that, cognitive behaviour therapy for people who suffer from insomnia as a result of chronic back or neck pain or for psychological reasons, is more effective than taking sleeping pills.

Taking a holistic approach to beating insomnia is also more beneficial and long lasting.

With this method, you would take steps to naturally reset your body's biological clock, reduce the stimulants and chemicals that keep you awake, eat foods that have naturally sedating properties, exercise at the appropriate times during the day and adapt your lifestyle (particularly if you work shifts or at nights) so that it supports your endeavours to get healthy natural sleep.

Learning to fall asleep naturally is the best long term solution to beat insomnia.