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Faced with more and more life pressures, not only the elderly but also young people are at high risk of insomnia. Insomnia not only makes the body tired, the mind lacks alertness, but also causes many other health problems over time. So, when you have insomnia, is taking a lot of sleeping pills harmful to your health?
1. Mechanism of action of sleeping pills
When sleeping pills enter the body, their main task is to help patients sleep better, have a deeper sleep like normal physiological sleep. The drug works by affecting the central nervous system, helping you quickly find sleep when you are having trouble falling asleep.
Depending on your age and health status, the dose of sleeping pills will be prescribed by the doctor differently. Basically, at low doses the drug has a good effect on sedation, on the contrary when used at high doses you can fall into a coma, more dangerous is sleeping pill poisoning. Therefore, before you intend to use sleeping pills, you need to go for a health check and take according to the prescription of a professional doctor.
2. Drugs used in the treatment of insomnia
Currently several medications are recommended for insomnia such as:
Benzodiazepines: Drugs that are effective for treating sleep problems such as sleepwalking and night terrors. Medicines should be taken only by prescription, because taking the wrong dose can lead to addiction and dependence. Doxepine: The drug is recommended for people with a history of trouble sleeping, not sleeping well. Eszopiclone: When you take Eszopiclone you will quickly fall asleep. The drug is only used for insomnia, if you can still sleep but have little sleep, it is not necessary to use Eszopiclone Lemborexant: Lemborexant is also used for people who have trouble sleeping. The drug works by inhibiting part of the central nervous system. Another limitation of the drug is that when taking it, you still feel sleepy the next day. This makes you sometimes lack of alertness at work. Ramelteon: The drug can be prescribed for long-term use and the drug has no evidence of abuse or dependence. These are drugs with mild and moderate effects. There are also some strong sleeping drugs such as: Seduxen, Diazepam, GHB... However, when using these drugs you need to be very careful, because the drug is only recommended for certain subjects. certain.
3. Is there any harm in taking sleeping pills?
Before the question, is taking a lot of sedatives harmful? then the answer is yes!
Not only sleeping pills, any medicine used a lot, not as directed can be harmful to health. For sleeping pills, if you take too much, you can experience some of the following health conditions:
Excessive sleepiness and difficulty controlling your own behavior Taking a lot of sleeping pills, which can make you dependent on the drug , it is difficult to find normal physiological sleep. Irregular breathing: An overdose of sleeping pills can cause you to experience slow breathing or breathing dysfunction. In the case if the person using the sleeping pill gasps or stops breathing and loses consciousness. This is the most dangerous and severe case. Taking a lot of sleeping pills makes it difficult for the mind to stay awake, the body often feels tired... If the elderly use sleeping pills, it can cause confusion, memory loss... Sleeping pills if used with jaws Large amounts at once can cause poisoning and death. Therefore, not everyone with insomnia should take sleeping pills. Especially people over 65 years old or have health problems should not take sleeping pills unless prescribed by a doctor.
4. What should be noted when taking sleeping pills?
You should only consider sleeping pills as a kind of medicine to support the body during insomnia because of a certain problem. Should not be used regularly and abused too much, because that has many potential health problems.
A few special notes when using sleeping pills include:
Do not use alcohol when taking sleeping pills, because this can increase the effect of the drug and lead to the risk of poisoning. When taking sleeping pills, you should not eat too full at dinner. Because this is also one of the reasons that make it harder for the body to sleep. Usually sleeping pills work within 6-8 hours, so you need to be advised or timed to sleep, to avoid taking the medicine too late or waking up too early. Medicines should be taken exactly as directed, do not increase or decrease the dose on your own. When you have insomnia, you should first change your lifestyle, eat, and rest to see if your insomnia improves, then you should take medicine. Sometimes insomnia only comes from external objective effects, so drugs should not be used. Having answered the question, is taking sleeping pills harmful? You should consider and consult a doctor to use sleeping pills if the body has trouble sleeping, frequent insomnia caused by stress or certain problems.
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