According to this recent New York Times article on choosing the right sleep medication, thirty percent of Americans report experiencing sleeping problems (and forty percent of those individuals suffer from coexisting psychiatric disorders), ten percent show signs of daytime impairment associated with a lack of sleep, and twenty percent of serious car accidents are believed to result from driver drowsiness.

Furthermore, despite discussing a variety of prescription sleep medications and sleep aids, NY Times reporter Peter Jaret points out that many physicians are too quick to prescribe sleeping pills as an easy fix for their patients’ sleep problems, simply because it is easier and faster to write a prescription instead of discussing sleep habits, sleep hygiene, and how to improve their sleep naturally.

The very last sentence in the article is also very revealing. After all, many people are looking to improve their sleep and fall asleep more quickly and easily; however, what they are really looking is to improve the quality and productivity of their waking hours. Here’s the quote: “People come in complaining about their sleep,” Dr. Neubauer said. “But of course what we’re really looking for is better wakefulness.”

Tags: Sleep Aids, sleep behavior, sleep drugs, sleep hygiene, sleep medications

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This entry was posted on Monday, August 11th, 2008 at 10:36 am and is filed under Health, Sleep Aids, Sleep News, Sleep Studies. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.