Prescription Sleeping Pills
Who Really Gets A Good Night Sleep Without Some Sort Of Sleep Aid?
So many women I talk to need help relaxing at night. Sleeping is not a warm, fuzzy thought. It's a dread because what lies ahead is a night with hot flashes, & insomnia.
So many women I talk to need help relaxing at night. Sleeping is not a warm, fuzzy thought. It’s a dread because what lies ahead is a night with hot flashes, insomnia, uncomfortable feelings in their bodies.
Prescription sleeping pills, including such popular brands as Ambien and Lunesta, can cause strange and potentially dangerous side effects, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration warned Wednesday 03/14/07.
Those side effects can include dangerous allergic reactions and bizarre behaviors such as "sleep-driving," in which a person will drive a car while not fully awake and have no memory of doing so.
The FDA is asking makers of the sleep aids, called sedative-hypnotic drugs, to strengthen product labels to include stronger warnings about the potential risks. In addition to "sleep-driving," the agency said it has received reports of consumers walking or eating while not fully awake, and not remembering it later.
"Because these drugs are designed to put people to sleep, they might not know that they are having a side effect," Dr. Russell Katz, director of the FDA's Division of Neurology in the Office of Drug Evaluation I, Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, said during a teleconference.
At least ten women in the past six months have explained to me that they got up in the morning and found food prepared, food left out, food completely eaten. One woman told me that she had actually awoke to all of the cheese in her refrigerator cut up on display for company. All the cheese in her refrigerator, ruined because it became hard and stale overnight. She had no memory of preparing the cheese plate.
Another woman told me that an entire cooked chicken was missing and still does not know what happened to it. She feared she might have eaten it. The remains were in the garage. But, she went on to say, she had a wonderful night sleep.
Katz said it's not possible to know how many cases of these side effects have occurred because the system for reporting adverse effects is voluntary. "We believe these are rare occurrences," he said. "But we don't know the actual number of cases."
At that time, the FDA also asked the manufacturers to add warnings about complex sleep-related behaviors, including sleep-driving, making phone calls, and preparing and eating food or having sex while asleep, Katz said. In addition to these label changes, the FDA is asking the manufacturers to send letters to health-care providers notifying them about the new warnings. These will start going out this week, according to the FDA.
Since little is known about these drugs and their potential side effects, the FDA has recommended that the drug makers carry out clinical studies to find out which medications are most associated with sleep-driving and other odd sleep behaviors.
"So far, no drug company has agreed to do these studies," Katz said. That sounds right. Why mess up a good thing? Why stop the sales that are going too well? The commercials make you want to get the pills immediately.
We all know the feeling from waking up from a great nap, why can’t we do that once it’s time for bed? Why do we need a pad by our bed to write down things we need to get done? Jump out of bed to write that last memo, or check our email? A drug that could stop that, umm… might be worth an extra bite to eat while driving unknowingly around the block. Who’s to say which is worse? I know one thing for sure, we should have better warnings and that doesn’t seem to be in the plans of the drug companies.
More than 20 million Americans suffer from chronic insomnia, which is defined as poor sleep every night or most nights for more than six months, according to the American Insomnia Association. According to Consumer Reports, pharmacists filled 43 million prescriptions for sleep drugs in 2005, a 32 percent increase from 2001. Prescription insomnia medications brought pharmaceutical companies more than $2.7 billion in 2005.
Well, I’m tired now and I plan to take a pill to help me sleep. Hope my cheese doesn’t disappear. Night-night.
