Young Adults Turn to Sleeping Pills

Prescriptions for sleep medications increased nearly 50% in adults under the age of 45 between 1998 and 2006, according to a report in The New York Times. Among young adults aged 18-24, the use of heavily-advertised prescription sleep medications such as Ambien CR and Lunesta nearly tripled. These drugs truly are safer than older, benzodiazepine-based products, so there would seem to be little reason not to use them to get a good night's sleep.

However, in some cases these drugs may be prescribed too readily. Many of these prescriptions are written when the patient is being seen for something other than a sleep disorder, such as a general medical examination or a menstrual disorder. The worry is not the safety of the drugs per se, but that patients may not be receiving much-needed medical workups to eliminate potential underlying psychiatric disorders before prescriptions are written.

If all you want is a good night's sleep, what about adjusting your behavior or environment a little? You might just get a good night's rest if you were to move out of that noisy dorm and stop drinking 6 cups of coffee a day! Just a thought.