Many insomnia patients talk about sleeping pills, some people think that sleeping pills will be addictive; some people are worried that taking sleeping pills for a long time will lead to dementia. Out of these concerns many people prefer to endure the pain of insomnia for a long time without seeking medical help, until one day they finally can’t stand it anymore and step into the hospital door. Why are the people so afraid of sleeping pills, the reason is that they do not know the true nature of “sleeping pills”, the following I will unveil the mystery of sleeping pills for you one by one. There are two categories of sleeping pills in the mouth of the people: one is benzodiazepines (i.e. Valium), including Valium, Alprazolam, Oxazepam, Clonazepam, etc. These drugs actually belong to the anti-anxiety drugs, its role is mainly anti-anxiety, treatment of insomnia, etc. The other is the new non-benzodiazepine class, including zolpidem, zaleplon, and zopiclone, which mainly treat insomnia. Because of the rapid onset of action of these two types of drugs for insomnia and relatively mild side effects, the clinical application is quite widespread. There is also a class of antidepressants, which are sometimes used as sleeping pills in clinical practice because of their sedative effects. For example, mirtazapine, doxepin, amitriptyline, etc. Antidepressants are not addictive, so please refer to the previous article “Is there dependence on antidepressants?” But it is not always necessary to take medication for poor sleep. What kind of insomnia should I take medication for? First of all, we need to determine whether we are suffering from insomnia, we can refer to the following indicators: if you go to bed and lie down for half an hour and still do not fall asleep, or sleep less than 6 hours a night, or wake up for more than half an hour in the middle, and at the same time obviously affect the next day’s work and study, appear irritable, lose three, etc., basically we can confirm the diagnosis of insomnia. The impact on the individual’s work and study is quite important in the clinical diagnosis. Because there are great individual differences in the amount of sleep people need, the feeling of sleep, etc.: some people only need to sleep for four or five hours a day, but the next day is still full of energy. Therefore, as long as insomnia does not affect your work and life, you do not need to deal with it for the time being. And half of the people who have insomnia symptoms are occasional insomniacs. Occasional insomnia is not terrible and can be adjusted with proper self-adjustment. However, it is worth noting that many people with chronic insomnia develop from occasional insomnia. If you have insomnia for more than three days a week, and this continues for more than a month, it is time to seek medical attention. Once you choose to take the medication, it is necessary to know the side effects of sleeping pills, which are a major concern. The side effects of benzodiazepine sleeping pills are relatively mild, mainly weakness, dizziness, easy to forget things; therefore, you should not drive vehicles, work at height or other fine and dangerous operations during taking the medication. There are also individual differences in the effects of taking the drug: some people will experience the “hangover effect”, which is manifested by being able to sleep peacefully after taking the drug, but waking up drowsy, dizzy and unable to concentrate; some people take the drug and sleep significantly better at night and feel energetic during the day. After taking the drug for a period of time, if the sleep improves, some people will take the initiative and stop the drug on their own. Sudden discontinuation of the drug may result in “withdrawal symptoms”, manifested as a series of physical and psychological discomfort, such as headache and dizziness, nausea and vomiting, tremors, and even convulsions, etc. Therefore, the dose should be slowly reduced under medical advice when discontinuing the drug. Long-term users may need to increase the dose to achieve the previous effect. The inability to stop suddenly and the need to increase the dose to maintain the previous effect is the origin of the verbal saying that “sleeping pills are addictive”. Many of you are thinking, “Oh no!” In fact, as we have said before, the more you worry about addiction, the less you will become addicted. As long as the medication is taken systematically under the guidance of a doctor, only a very small number of people become addicted, and it is not serious. In addition, most people only need to use sleeping pills for a short period of time and do not become dependent. Therefore, addiction is not a cause for undue concern. Doctors have long considered similar problems in advance when prescribing such medical advice and have certain precautions in place. The new non-benzodiazepines are characterized by rapid sleep induction, suitable for those who have difficulty falling asleep, short duration of action, generally do not affect the next day’s work and life, and are less likely to produce dependence, and have much lighter side effects, so their application is beneficial to a wide range. It is suitable for patients who need to ensure sleep for a short period of time, such as night shift, jet lag, etc. On the question of whether long-term sleeping pills will become dementia, our answer is “memory deficits due to insomnia far exceed those of sleeping pills!” There have long been studies abroad that memory deficits and decline caused by insomnia are far higher than those caused by sleeping pills. Many times, people think that their memory problems are caused by taking sleeping pills, in fact, the main reason is that the treatment is inappropriate, only treating the symptoms but not the root cause, resulting in more and more sleeping pills, insomnia more and more serious treatment, and finally there is a significant memory loss. In addition, we would like to remind other people in taking sleeping pills precautions: 1, can not drink alcohol during taking, because alcohol increases the central inhibitory effect; 2, the elderly should take the drug to prevent falls; 3, pregnant women are prohibited. In short, you should not take sleeping pills for a long time without the guidance of a doctor. Remember to consult a specialist if you have any questions! Please leave the professional problems to the professional people to do it!