Sleeping Pills: Effects, Uses & Risks

High-quality sleeping pills are special medicines that are effective against insomnia or sleep disorders. In medical terminology, sleeping pills are accurately referred to as hypnotics. Sleeping pills can be used to either induce sleep or induce sleep-inducing drowsiness or have a sleep-promoting effect.

What are sleeping pills?

Sleep medications can be used to either induce sleep, induce sleep-inducing drowsiness, or have a sleep-promoting effect. However, when it comes to the term hypnotics or sleeping pills, no clear distinction exists between sedative medications and narcotics. Sleeping pills not only have an enormous significance in terms of establishing the physical performance of humans through balanced, sufficient and restful sleep. The sleep-promoting and sleep-inducing effect of sleeping pills is needed in dependence on different diagnoses, in order to be able to operate also the psychological balance and a so-called psychic hygiene. Both in individual use and in combination with other medications, sleeping pills can be quite helpful in the therapy of quite different diseases, their symptoms and temporary sleep disorders.

Sleeping pills for sleep disorders and insomnia.

The use of sleeping pills can be based on a variety of indications. To ensure healthy and restful sleep, specific sleep stages must be monitored and treated with sleep medications. In connection with sleep, disorders of sleeping through as well as falling asleep are the most common impairments. These can be treated with sleeping pills. In order to treat sleep disorders that are only of temporary duration, it makes sense to prescribe only certain sleeping pills. However, if the problem is a so-called chronic sleep disorder, then the use of highly effective sleeping pills with other ingredients and active ingredients is considered. In many cases, sleeping pills are also used when dealing with mental illnesses in which sufferers either sleep too little or simply cannot get enough rest. This can be the case with bipolar disorder, for example.

Herbal, natural and chemical sleep aids

Sleeping pills differ greatly in their mode of action and their ingredients. In addition to purely herbal and natural sleeping pills, preparations with synthetically produced, chemical active substances are used in a targeted manner, as it were. Herbal sleeping pills contain natural substances from plant extracts. Behind the large group of artificially produced sleeping pills are the so-called benzodiazepine- or non-benzodiazepine-containing drugs. In addition to these options, the pharmaceutical industry offers sleeping pills that contain derivatives of barbiturates and antihistamines. Due to the significantly stronger side effects and more intense sleep-promoting effects on the organism, which are equally accompanied by the risk of dependence due to addictive side effects, the chemical-synthetic sleeping pills are prescribed exclusively on prescription. A quite modern category among the artificial chemical sleeping pills are the non-benzodiazepine antagonists. They are characterized by a significantly lower dependence potential than benzodiazepine-containing sleep aids. For this reason, they are currently prescribed more frequently than benzodiazepine-rich hypnotics, which in many cases lead to dependence.

Risks and side effects

The side effects of sleep aids depend on which class of sleep aid is taken. With herbal and natural sleeping pills, no side effects occur, at most intolerances. Known side effects of artificial chemical hypnotics may include dizziness and headache, disturbances in coordination, fine motor skills, and sense of balance, and daytime sleepiness. Many patients also complain of coordination disorders and memory lapses, as well as malaise. Typical side effects with benzodiazepine-containing hypnotics may include the development of dependence and drug abuse. This is mainly due to the fact that benzodiazepine-based sleeping pills can trigger an addictive craving.If these sleeping pills are taken over a longer period of time, it is to be expected that the sleep phases will shift in such a way that there will be a disturbance of natural sleep. Positive side effects are the extremely calming, muscle-relaxing and sometimes even anxiety-relieving effects.