
One-third of the world’s population suffers from insomnia, while others may face it at a certain point in their life and consider taking the help of sleeping pills or sedatives.
Sleeping pills fall into the category of sedative-hypnotics. Due to its molecular formation, similar to Benzodiazepines, they connect with the same GABA receptors and cause drowsiness and feeling good effects. Thus, they work wonders for people who suffer from sleeping troubles and keep tossing and turning on the mattress all night.
Sometimes doctors prescribe sleeping pills to their patients to treat insomnia, promote sleep, or as surgical anesthesia. While sometimes, people take it by themselves without any prescriptions.
However, in both cases, due to high chemical compounds or particular contents, sleeping pills may impact your overall health in the long term.
Side effects of sleeping pills
So what harm do sleeping pills have on health?
1. Addiction
People often find sleeping pills so good that they take them every time they feel even the slightest problem sleeping. This further increases and ultimately makes them addicted, further escalating many serious physical, psychological, and neurological issues.
2. Memory issues
Sleeping pills contain a heavy amount of sedatives or doxylamine, melatonin, valerian, or chamomile. Despite being functional, the excessive consumption of these drugs has their side effects which impact your memory restoration brain cells and can cause you dementia or other memory-related issues.
3. Concentration problem
A blend of different and heavy sleep-inducing compounds such as doxylamine, melatonin, valerian, or chamomile makes you feel drowsy most of the day, making you tired and affecting your circadian rhythm. It all affects your concentration and makes you confused.
4. Damages nervous system
Sleeping pills suppress a part of the nervous system that keeps you awake. Thus, excessive sleeping pills may weaken your nervous system, leading to coma or death in some cases.
5. Other health issues
Besides the severe impacts on the nervous and cognitive systems, excessive consumption of sleeping pills can cause stomach issues, skin problems, and failure of other organs like kidneys, lungs, and heart.
Alternatives for sleeping pills
Sometimes it becomes necessary to take sleeping pills; however, due to their harmful side effects, it’s impossible to use them continuously. Therefore, many doctors and scientists suggest finding alternatives or other supportive aids to improve sleeping quality.
So, what alternatives or supportive aids can one use to improve sleep quality?
Nutritional food and drinks
Food items and drinks are the best sources to get all the nutrients, minerals, and compounds that can help you improve sleep quality. In fact, most food items have a rich amount of melatonin, tryptophan, serotonin, and other sleep-inducing hormones, nutrients, and minerals that work better than sleeping pills without any side effects.
The food items that help you get better sleep are
Bed
Bed or the place where we sleep is generally a collection of sleeping mattresses, pillows, comforters, mattress protectors, etc. Thus, quality and comfortable materials are essential to have a better sleep.
However, when it comes to buying the bed collection, people often get confused and make the wrong selection. Therefore it is recommended to do proper research before buying it about the company, manufacturers, quality of product, and costs. There are several companies that sell mattresses and other bedding products separately or collectively. One of the top mattress brands in India like The Sleep Company, which sells a variety of SmartGRID mattresses like a luxe, ortho, and hybrid. Also, they sell other bedding materials like pillows, mattress protectors, and comforters, separately or in a smart bundle with reasonable prices and the best qualities.
Bedroom climate, hygiene
The bedroom and its hygiene play a vital role in improving sleep quality. Since our brain is programmed to sleep in a sound and secure environment, maintaining a bedroom is essential.
There are several ways to make your bedroom comfortable and safe for sleeping.
Sleeping habits
Besides external things, self-discipline and proper sleeping habits help you improve sleep quality drastically.
Good sleeping habits that can help us improve our sleep quality are
Bottom Line:
Thus, despite sleeping pills being fast enough to bring that most awaited sleep because of their harmful side effects, selecting alternative options is always better for long and healthier life.