Browse: Home / Sleep / Sleeping tablets bring sleep benefits but they don’t bring health benefits

Menu

Skip to content
  • About
  • Better Body Chemistry School
  • Book a health conversation
  • Speaking query
  • The “Big” Spoons
  • Donate
Header image

BBC

Small things can make a big difference to your health

advertisement

Menu

Skip to content
  • Home
  • START HERE
  • Free Resources
    • 31 days to Better Body Chemistry
    • Willpower Report
    • Better Body Chemistry for Expecting Moms
    • The ups and downs of insulin resistance
    • Candy Floss Boards
  • Meet the Team
  • Library
  • Lucky dip
  • Better Body Chemistry TV
    • Video gallery for Expecting Moms
    • Video gallery for people with metabolic syndrome
    • Video gallery of how to survive flu season
  • Sound bites
  • Contact

Sleeping tablets bring sleep benefits but they don’t bring health benefits

Posted by Dr Sandy on in Sleep | 59 Views | Leave a response

sleeping tablet taking pot shots at ladyYou get it, sleep is REALLY important, so you climb into bed early each night, ready to catch your required 8 hours.

BUT……

The neighbourhood noises and brain ruminations rudely interrupt your OFF time. Two hours later, you’re in bed, but you’re still not actually asleep.

Eish…………………………………

You need HELP ! Is a sleeping pill the answer ?

Maybe……………..

Emerging from the house like a crazed zombie that has not slept a wink all night, is not a health move. Your ability to think clearly, pick up heavy items, remember things and act nice is going to be negatively affected, not to mention you could be scaring the neighbourhood children.

So a sleeping tablet is going to be helpful in the short-run.

But long term…………………..

Maybe not ……………………

A big analysis of people who are catching their zees every night with pharmacological assistance, suggests sleeping tablets aren’t switching things off, quite the same as mother nature.

The study tracked the drug buying habits of 40 000 people in a health scheme over a 10 year period. 10 531 of the members of the scheme filled a sleeping tablet script for a period of 2.5 years during the 10 years. The other 23 674 people did not.

When the numbers were crunched, those using sleeping tablets ended up being 4.6 times more likely to end up dead. One big health risk for this group was the big C, cancer.

Sleeping tablets don’t kill you

Calm down, that is not as bad as it looks at first glance. Taking a sleeping tablet is not going to kill you per se, unless of course you take way too much all in one go.

Yes, 4.6 times is quite a lot higher, but since dying itself, although inevitable, it actually quite rare, the research is just saying “Hey, people who take sleeping tablets die a tiny bit more often than people who don’t”.

It might be the sleeping tablets fault, but if you’re using sleeping tablets to do something that your body should be doing without pharmacological interventions, hey, you’re broke already.

Deal with the “broke”

The point of the post is not to vilify sleeping tablets. For many people, they’re life savers, not life takers.

Bad body chemistry ruins your sleep quality and sleeping tablets aren’t able to fix the bad body chemistry, they just help you to cope a little better, by getting a little down time.

But that down time is not perfect, just like short changed down time in the sleep deprived, it creates metabolic gaps, which leads to metabolic break downs, which put you at risk from the dreaded diseases : cardiovascular disease, diabetes and cancer. 

So in the long term, sleep problems need better body chemistry.

The ABCs of fixing sleep

Oh, if it was so easy………………

Both external and internal things can impact on your sleep chemistry. The list is pretty long one, big issues

  • Light – which is triggering melatonin, a big sleep hormone – too much light as well as too little, can cause major sleep disruption
  • Noise
  • Temperature
  • Caffeine and other stimulants, including certain types of food, in your system at bedtime,
  • Depression and other conditions in which neurotransmitters are out of balance
  • Hormones – especially sex hormones

So the ABC begins with

  • Analysis – you need to take a serious look at your habits, pin point the things your perpetually do that could be causing TROUBLE
  • Bed – get into bed, preferably at the same time every night and definitely before midnight.
  • Calm down – dial down that psychosocial stress. Try cognitive therapy, meditation, a soak in a hot bath full of bubbles….. the point is to switch off those racing thoughts. stress

Sleep easy not sleep quick

If you’re feeling all motivated to cut the sleeping tablets out. Bear in mind, sleeping easy won’t happen overnight.

Flushing your sleeping tablets down the drain and going cold turkey, could cause some seriously bad mojo. Go easy, work on the body chemistry issues and wean yourself off the sleeping tablets slowly i.e. cut back don’t just cut them out.

Hypnotics’ association with mortality or cancer: a matched cohort study. BMJ Open, 2012;2:e000850. Kripke DF, Langer RD, Kline LE.
 

Interested in learning more about the chemistry behind sleep ?

Subcribe to E-spoons, to get e-mail updates once a month to learn how to keep your body chemistry balanced for optimum health. 

View previous E-spoons.

Close

NOTE : Privacy & spam policy. Spoonful of Science will not rent, trade or sell the e-mail list to anyone. You can unsubscribe at any time by following the unsubscribe link.

Know someone who will find this post useful ? Share it on facebook, linkedin, twitter

Further reading

bad smells bring bad dreams compression stocking helping relieve sleep apnea alcohol causes non restorative sleep
Sweet dreams require sweet smells A cheap way to breathe easier if you suffer from sleep apnea Keep the night cap petite for a good nights sleep

The 7 Big Spoons™…. are master switches that turn health on.

balance eicosanoids rein in insulin dial down stress sleep vitamin D microflora think
Balance Eicosanoids Rein in insulin Dial down stress Sleep ! Increase Vit D Culivate microflora Think champion

Hire Dr Sandy from a Spoonful of Science to be the keynote speaker at your next event.

Did you learn something new or do you have a different perspective ? I’d love to hear from you so

Share Button
Posted in Sleep | Tagged asleep, bed, caffeine, cardiovascular disease, depression, diabetes, melatonin, sleep, sleeping tablet

Connect with us

facebook you tube pinterest 40 google plus 40 Linkedin

FEELING….

sign posts then you need better body chemistry.

Grab our free E-course

“31 days to better body chemistry”

The advice is simple to follow and based on REAL science, not hype

Need more information ? Click here

  • Popular
  • Featured
  • Recent
  • oatmeal breakfast being beaten by egg

    Which is a better breakfast, egg or oatmeal ?

    16938 views / Posted
  • poop getting stuck

    The fix for constipation is to go on a low fibre diet

    16206 views / Posted
  • chewing gum relieving postoperative ileus

    A stick of chewing gum gets the gut going after surgery

    16114 views / Posted
  • carbonated water bubbles fill you up

    Fizzing up the water flattens your appetite

    14297 views / Posted
  • a see food diet

    It might be time to try the TRF see food diet – it works

    11510 views / Posted
  • sun extracting cholesterol

    Make sure you have your “annual” check-up in the summer time

    / Dr Sandy
  • sending your kid to bootcamp won't stop childhood obesity

    Moving more won’t stop your kid from getting fat

    / Dr Sandy
  • cholesterol at the scene of the accident

    Bone cells are stiffening up your arteries not cholesterol

    / Dr Sandy
  • brain size the problem in ADHD

    Are kids with ADHD just acting according to their brain age

    / Dr Sandy
  • plastering the blood vessel with calcium

    Calcium supplements are building bones and breaking hearts

    / Dr Sandy
  • compression stocking helping relieve sleep apnea

    A cheap way to breathe easier if you suffer from sleep apnea

    / Dr Sandy
  • fat cells creeping out while women is sleeping

    If you don’t include this in your diet – you won’t lose fat

    / Dr Sandy
  • muslce arriving at gym for an afternoon exercise session

    When is the best time to exercise ?

    / Dr Sandy
  • allergy belly

    Is your antihistamine making you fat ?

    / Dr Sandy
  • cholesterol number

    If your cholesterol number is a little high – DON’T WORRY

    / Dr Sandy

RSS Recent posts

Dr Sandy Dr Sandy Evans, PhD

Located in Johannesburg, South Africa

Book an appointment with Spoonful of Science using SetMore
Disclaimer : The stories and articles are provided as a service. Dr Sandy's opinions are for information only, and are not intended to diagnose or prescribe. For your specific diagnosis and treatment, consult your doctor or health care provider.
 
 

Connect with Dr Sandy

facebook 40
you tube 40
pinterest 40
google plus 40
linkedin 40
meetup 40
 

Categories

Featured posts

  • oatmeal breakfast being beaten by egg

    Which is a better breakfast, egg or oatmeal ?

    16938 views / Posted
  • poop getting stuck

    The fix for constipation is to go on a low fibre diet

    16206 views / Posted
  • chewing gum relieving postoperative ileus

    A stick of chewing gum gets the gut going after surgery

    16114 views / Posted
 

©2011-2019 Spoonful of Science

Menu

  • Meet Dr Sandy
  • Disclosure/disclaimer
  • Privacy policy
  • Comment policy
  • Contact
Redirect Stakk
Thank You

Beat your SUGAR CRAVINGS, using biology, NOT psychology

Download our FREE REPORT entitled, "How to get the Willpower you Need to Trump Sugar's Power"

  • Do you have a sugar gremlin ?
  • Discover the biology behind sugar gremlins
  • Learn about the 10 weapons you can use to TAME YOUR SUGAR GREMLIN

Get instant access