Why You Should Avoid Medications For Insomnia

Dec. 16, 2009 - PRLog -- 60 million American adults deal with an insomnia problem and 90% of those will develop other health problems, suffer in their relationships and have decreased work performance.

Insomnia is generally defined as a difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep. I’m not referring to an occasional bad night sleep because you exercised late or had a Coke before bedtime.  

We’re all familiar with the definition of insanity – doing the same things we’ve always done and expecting a different outcome.  If 60 million American adults experience insomnia and that number is growing, not shrinking, what we are doing apparently isn’t working.  So let’s change the way we look at insomnia and hopefully change the outcome.

The thing that is so dangerous about insomnia is that it's not an injury like a broken bone or a cut or scrape. There isn’t a blood test or x-ray to objectively diagnose insomnia.  

Typically, insomnia comes on slowly.  A person will often brush it off until it’s been going on for some time and then they suddenly realize they aren’t the same person they used to be.  

That's when you go to your family doctor.  Unfortunately, because there isn’t a test to diagnose insomnia you’ll probably hear something along the lines of…”You probably have insomnia.  Try these meds and if they don't work, we can try some others.”  

This needs to the alarm that says, “your family doctor may not be the person to talk to.” You see, most doctors do great with general medicine. If you have an infection, a disease, a broken bone or life threatening condition medical science can do wonders!  Insomnia, on the other hand is a functional syndrome that in most cases isn’t resolved by medications or cutting out caffeine.

The problem with most insomnia medications is that they never go after the root of the problem.  Some popular insomnia mediations include Lunesta, Ambien, Ambien CR or Rozerem.  Some will use anti-depressants like trazadone or amitriptyline.  

Here’s why taking medications for your insomnia may not be the right thing.  Insomnia is a symptom.  Pain and nausea are symptoms.  Our body gives us symptoms to let us know something is wrong.  If you are taking pills so you can sleep and possibly more pills to get through a day of work, then you've sabotaged your body's only means of keeping you healthy. Obviously, this form of treatment is not a permanent fix because no matter how many pills you take, you'll never get better!

Here are some general concerns about insomnia medications.

·   Drug tolerance. You may have to take more and more of the sleep aid for it to work, which can lead to more side effects.
·   Drug dependence. You may come to rely on the medication to sleep, and will be unable to sleep or have even worse sleep without it.
·   Withdrawal symptoms. If you stop the medication abruptly, you may have withdrawal symptoms, such as nausea, sweating and shaking
·   Side effects. There are several side effects to sleep medications, such as drowsiness the next day, confusion, forgetfulness and dry mouth. These side effects can be severe.
·   Drug interactions. If you are taking other medications, sleeping medications can interact with them. This can worsen side effects and be dangerous with medications like prescription painkillers and other sedatives.  
·   Rebound insomnia. If you need to stop the medication, sometimes the insomnia can become even worse than before.  
·   Masking an underlying problem. There may be an underlying medical or mental disorder, or even a sleep disorder, that if treated would provide more relief from insomnia.
If you’ve taken medications for insomnia and they haven’t been effective or you would just like to get off the drugs there are other choices.  The fix for insomnia is surprisingly simple.

In the next article we’ll talk about why you have insomnia and some simple tests you can do all on your own to diagnose the cause of your insomnia.

If you’ll go to www.askdrned.com you can get access free reports, podcasts, and videos providing you the most up to date and most relevant information on insomnia.  While there you can read my blog, connect with me on facebook, follow me on twitter and listen to my internet radio show.

If you would like to schedule a free introductory visit call my office at 801-225-1311.

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