You are not alone ...
Not falling asleep and lying awake at night: anyone who suffers from insomnia or who suffers from sleeping problems will pay a lot for a good night's sleep. For some, sleeping pills seem to be a solution to get rid of their sleeping problems. Almost a third of Belgians suffer from sleeping problems or insomnia1
10 to 15% of them visit a doctor with these sleeping problems and 60% of that group is prescribed a sleeping aid after the consultation. After 1 year, half continue to use the sleeping aid2. As people get older, the use of sleeping pills increases.
In what follows you can read more about:
How exactly do sleeping pills work?
Sleeping pills are always prescribed by a doctor and are only indicated if daytime functioning is disturbed by insomnia . You should only use them for a short time - in principle no longer than one to two weeks - always in combination with the application of healthy sleep hygiene. Many people claim that they cannot sleep without sleeping pills.
This very often has to do with the fact that they are stressed or anxious because of events in their daily life or because of the vicious cycle of not being able to sleep that they have ended up in. Therefore, it is possible that sedatives are sometimes prescribed for sleeping problems.
There are different types of sleeping pills , which can be divided into long-acting sleeping pills, so-called 'sleepers' and the short-acting drugs, also called 'sleepers'. Sleeping pills often have an anesthetic and narcotic effect.
What Are the Risks of Sleep Medication?
Sleeping pills are still prescribed regularly and are often asked for at the pharmacy. However, never just take sleeping pills. After all, taking sleeping medication entails risks:
Different causes …
For starters, sleeping pills are not a solution at all to the cause of your sleeping problem . Those causes can be very diverse. Very often they have to do with stress or anxiety. Chronic pain is also a common cause of sleeping problems. It is therefore important to also address the cause.
Not good sleep quality
Taking a sleeping pill does not necessarily ensure good sleep quality. Due to the fact that sleeping pills have a rather sedating effect, they do not necessarily generate quality sleep with all the sleep phases that go with it.
Side effects
They have side effects that can be felt in the short term. Because you sleep less qualitatively, you can experience a 'hangover effect' the next morning. You may feel tired and drowsy. As a result, your reaction time slows down, your memory fails and increases the risk of accidents such as falls. You can also become irritable, suffer from headaches, or become dizzy, ...
Chance of addiction
After a few weeks, habituation can occur, which means that the dose has to be increased... Sleeping pills can also be addictive . If you would like to stop taking a sleeping pill, it is important that you do not just stop, but that you gradually reduce it. It is best to consult a doctor for this.
This is because withdrawal symptoms can occur, one of which is insomnia. It is important to break the vicious circle. So always ask your doctor or pharmacist for advice.
Conclusion
Whether sleeping pills are the best sleep aids is up for debate. They are effective, but there are still a lot of side effects that need to be taken into account. The government is also communicating to alert people to the potential dangers of sleeping pills , in the hopes that sleeping pills will be used for a limited time.
But what are the alternatives to get rid of the sleeping problems? Working on better sleep hygiene can already help. Find out more in these ten tips for better sleep.
What alternatives are there to sleeping pills?
Be sure to first consider your sleep hygiene and sleeping pattern. Maybe there are some things you can improve that will help you sleep better?
It can also help to consciously pay more attention to relaxation before going to sleep.
If necessary, you can visit a doctor or a sleep therapist (somnologist). It can be interesting to collect information about your sleeping behavior in a sleep diary.
And there are also natural remedies that have fewer side effects than sleep medication.
