The Risks of Taking Sleeping Pills

在表面上，处方睡眠辅助工具can似乎是失眠的完美治疗方法: Take a pill, and a few minutes later you slip into a restful sleep. Though they do have legitimate uses, sleeping pills also come with significant risks and side effects, which many people don’t realize, says Marc Leavey, MD, a doctor of internal medicine at MD Mercy Hospital in Baltimore. “They’re fairly safe and well-tolerated,” Dr. Leavey says. “But when you use them improperly, you can have problems.” Before you turn to medication to help you sleep, read up on these possible problems with sleeping pills.

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When you take prescription sleeping pills over a long period of time, your body grows accustomed to the drug, and you need higher and higher doses to get the same sleep-inducing effect. But, if you take a high enough dose, this could lead to depressed breathing while you sleep, which can cause death. To minimize your risk for this side effect, don’t take sleeping pills for longer than a week or two. “If you have a short-term sleep disorder — a need to re-establish normal sleep patterns — that’s a clear reason to use these medications,” Leavey says. “You can have problems when you use them longer than 7 to 10 days.”

有关的：8 Natural Ways to Treat Chronic Poor Sleep

昏昏欲睡的驾驶

New data has revealed that people who take certain forms of the sleeping pillZolpidem(安必恩)可能仍有足够的药物在寡糖r bodies in the morning to impair activities like driving. Women and people who take extended-release forms of the drug are particularly at risk. For this reason, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration required drug makers to lower the recommended dose for women and to suggest that doctors lower the dose for men. “[The drug’s effects] can really carry over into the daytime,” Leavey says. To avoid next-day drowsiness, follow your doctor’s dosing instructions, and don’t take sleeping pills like Ambien unless you have at least seven hours to devote to sleep.

行为不稳定的副作用

众所周知，我们都在睡眠中做奇怪的事情，但处方安眠药，尤其是苯二氮卓如triazolam，已知会引起副作用sleepwalking和健忘症。“你会醒来，你不会知道你在哪里，”怀利说。在采用Ambien等较新的睡眠辅助工具的人们中也可以看到这一点。如果您（或其他重要的其他）在服用安眠药时会注意到奇怪行为的证据，请立即向医生报告这些问题。

Falling Down

Hospital patients who took zolpidem were four times more likely to fall than those who did not take the drug during their hospital stay, according to a recent study published in the Journal of Hospital Medicine. “Falling is absolutely a problem,” Leavey says. “Your entire body is balanced on two little feet. You have sensors on your feet that constantly measure your center of gravity and where you are. If I give you a drug that dulls that system, you’ll fall down.” Older patients are particularly at risk for this problem with sleeping pills, he adds.

癌症and Death

服用处方安眠药的人是更有可能死亡或癌症than those who did not take them, according to a 2012 study published inBMJ Open。尽管结果令人担忧，但它们并不一定意味着这些药物肯定会引起负面影响。“我真的很想看到有关该证据的更多证据，” Welly说。该研究的作者认为，认知行为疗法是一种帮助您改变思维模式的治疗方法，可能是对慢性的更好治疗方法insomnia比药物。

您可能难以断奶的安眠药

一旦您开始服用安眠药，可能很难停止，尤其是如果您已经服用了很长时间。有些人会遇到“反弹失眠” - 当您停止服用药物后，睡眠问题实际上会恶化。如果您想脱下安眠药，请与您的医生谈谈设置时间表以逐渐减少剂量，而不仅仅是退出冷火鸡。“这可能很粗糙，但情况最终会变得更好，” Welly说。