A Third to Half of Americans complain of Poor Sleep!
But not all may be equal in the world of sleep. Scientists in Durham North Carolina say that women need more sleep than men. In fact, they need at least 20 minutes longer and can suffer, mentally and physically without adequate sleep. Women use more of their brains, to juggle their family, household, and work. They tend to be lighter sleepers, awoken by their children, partners, or hormonal irregularities.
Women are more prone than men to take sleeping pills. Not having enough shut-eye can cause, anger, depression, and hostility in the morning. If this sounds familiar you might not be getting enough sleep.
On the surface, Sleeping pills seem like the perfect cure for insomnia. However, Doctors warn that Sleeping pills come with their problems. Before you turn to sleeping pills to help you sleep, read up on these possible side affects.
Sleeping pills are generally prescribed as a short-time drug to help you establish patterns to achieve natural sleep. When you take these drugs for a longer period of time your body builds an intolerance to the drug. Often the dosage is increased by the user to achieve the same level of sleep. But when does this stop? Sleep specialists agreed that problems evolve after taking these sleep drugs for longer than 7-10 days.
Certain forms of sleeping pills stay in your system for longer. This side affects may cause you to become forgetful, and impair your ability to drive or operate machinery safely. The FDA has even recommended different dosages, lower for women than for their male counterparts.
Some sleeping pills cause physical behaviour changes
- Sleepwalking
- Disorientation when waking up
- Amnesia
- Depression
- Breathing problems
- Unusual dreams
- Balance problems
Some affects are harder to detect due to Parasomnia. Parasomnia is movements, behaviours, and actions that you have no control over. Women have been known to make phone calls or even have sex without knowing about it the next morning.
Studies have shown that long-term dependence on sleeping pills can interfere with sleep patterns. The best way to avoid dependence is to follow the doctor’s recommendation and stop using the sleeping pills on the prescribed date.
In sleep studies performed on a variety of candidates over the age of 40, it was realised that most sleep patterns were broken, from uncontrolled sleep environments and emotional stress-related problems. Sleeping pills would not solve these issues long term.