Normally all of us, when looking for some medication, do our best to find the pill with the highest level of efficiency and with the lowest rate of side effects at the same time. It is especially important when the range of adverse reactions does not limit with nausea, headache or digestive problems, but include such serious problems, as memory loss, addiction or withdrawal symptoms.

Sleep medications, working in human brains to restore normal sleeping, may sometimes target some other brain areas, thus causing serous side effects. Taking into account that there are some peculiarities about choosing and using sleep medications, knowing these peculiarities may really help people understand why, when and which sleep medications may cause really serious side effects.

So, the first important fact in understanding the safety profile of sleep medications concerns sleep disorder itself. Remember, insomnia is not a disease, but a symptom, so sleep medications, targeting insomnia, does not cure the initial cause of difficulties with falling asleep or staying asleep the whole night. That is why, they are not recommended for long-term use; people may take sleep medicines only for a couple of days, up to two weeks as a maximum.

The duration of hypnotics usage is another factor in determining the severity of their side effects. It means that the longer one takes sleep medications, the more chances to experience side effects he has. In case insomnia persists and one must take sleep drugs night after night, it is the evidence that there is some other underlying disease. Thus, visiting a doctor is the best decision here.

The other factor is the so called “period of half-life”, peculiar to a specific medication. The longer a pill stays in human body, the more time it has to cure a disease and to cause side effects as well. That is why all the modern sleep medications are designed to work fast in the organism and to be eliminated from the body in a couple of hours. So, choosing a sleep medication, it is better to prefer the drugs with the shortest period of half-life not to expose the organism to the additional risk.

Finally, the newer drug is, the safer it acts (at least, it is considered to be so:-). That is why, the following chronology of sleep medications development may help to determine the most appropriate one.

Hopefully, the above said information will be of help for all those, who is looking for some medical solution of sleep disorders, but concerns about the potential hazards, these types of medicines may cause.

Nick

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