In the 1930s, doctors warned about the risks of relying on sleeping pills to treat insomnia. The same warnings apply today.
Everybody’s Family Doctor, London, 1935
Diazepam, other benzodiazepines, and the Z-drugs are less toxic than barbiturates in overdose when taken alone. However, these medications are dangerous when combined with other drugs, especially opioids, even at regular doses. Learn more about the dangers of sleeping pills.
Maybe yes, maybe no. Impairment is difficult to detect. Sophisticated driving studies demonstrate that people taking zopiclone are impaired the next morning (11 hours later) at the same level as if they had a blood alcohol content above the legal limit. People in the study did not think they were impaired. Learn more about sleeping pills and impaired driving risks.
Older people spend less time in deep sleep and experience night awakenings more often. These age-related changes in sleep are expected and normal.
CBTi is effective even if you have been taking sleeping pills for many weeks or years. Ideally, you should start to reduce your sleeping pill dose gradually, for 1-2 weeks, then start to apply CBTi to help improve your sleep while slowly reducing and stopping sleeping pills. Learn more about how to stop sleeping pills.
What do you know about sleeping pills? Take our Sleep Medication Quiz.
Learn about the various risks associated with sleeping pills.
It is common for you to experience a return of insomnia when stopping sleeping pills.
Learn how sleeping pills have been used to treat insomnia throughout our history.
Learn how Terry gradually reduced and stopped taking sleeping pills.
Learn how to stop sleeping pills safely while getting your sleep back.