More harm than good
Sleep deprivation is typical of this time. To try to break the vicious cycle of sleep deprivation, people are turning to sleeping pills en masse. But those drugs often do more harm than good.
In the Netherlands, approximately 750,000 people take a sleeping pill every night for long-term insomnia. About 300,000 people do this for more than three months and are chronic users of sleeping pills. This makes insomnia an underestimated public health problem.
Most used sleep medication
The most commonly prescribed sleep medications are oxazepam (brand name Seresta) and temazepam (brand name Normisom). These drugs fall under the so-called benzodiazepines, a collective name for drugs with sedative properties. Most sedatives and sleeping pills belong to this group.
Benzodiazepines have a positive effect in the short term, but are highly addictive after long-term use. Women and the elderly in particular appear to use a relatively large amount of sleeping pills and sedatives. The group of ‘benzo addicts’ is therefore the largest among them.
Withdrawal should be gradual and under proper supervision. Even then, only half of the people who are addicted to sleeping pills manage to really stop taking the drugs.
Effects
The negative side effects of sleeping pills (benzodiazepines) are large and downright dangerous. Sleeping pills make you drowsy and sluggish and cause muscle weakness. You also no longer have coordination and concentration capacity and memory loss, habituation and addiction occur. Your daytime functioning deteriorates, as does your driving ability. Elderly people who take sleeping pills are known to be more likely to fall and fracture a hip.
We also know that oxazepam and temazepam disable your ability to dream. The drugs help to suppress your fears, which would otherwise prevent you from falling asleep peacefully.
It is not known what the consequences are if you do not dream for a long time, but it is certain that dreams play a crucial role in processing your emotions.
Withdrawal Symptoms
The withdrawal symptoms after stopping sleeping medicines are also great. A summary: palpitations, anxiety attacks, irritability, agitation, muscle twitching, tremors, hard tense muscles, diarrhoea, dizziness, hypersensitivity to light, sound or touch, burning skin, loss of interest, concentration disorder, loss of appetite, nausea, headache, blurred vision and – how ironic! – fatigue and insomnia.
The common sleep medicines that we turn to when we want a good night’s sleep often end up doing more harm than good.
