Who needs sleeping pills?

I seem to struggle for good, witty, clever titles with my blogposts of late, but despite that i'd like to talk about sleeping pills today so it's fairly apt. It was a pretty surprising thing to me, turning on the TV here and finding adverts for prescription drugs. It's probably one of the few things that is advertised on television that you can't actually just go out and buy on your own. It's banned in the UK but I don't really think it would take off much anyway as doctors aren't bothered by pharamacutical drug reps. they just use what the literature says. I suppose. I'll have to ask one. Anyway, I have seen a whole host of these adverts now. Viva Viagra always makes me smile. One I saw recently for sleeping medication kinda bothered me though. Especially as someone interested in the mental health care profession. I wish I could remember the name. It wasn't Advil or Tylenol PM. Something stronger I'm guessing. The advert shows that it doesn't matter what is keeping you up late or causing you problems sleeping, just take this pill and you'll go right to sleep and wake up feeling refreshed.

Now I'm sure that some people really do just have trouble relaxing and getting to sleep without any environmental factors. But I believe that a large majority of people are probably up because they have problems to worry about, concerns, or issues. Simply taking a pill to help you sleep won't make these problems disappear overnight and I think that is what the drug company is praying on. The quick fix. My suggestion would be to try some relaxation techniques, stop putting pressure on yourself to get to sleep then own up to and accept your issues before you try and deal with them. Happy sleeping!

40 winks

Sleep always seems to be an exciting topic for everyone. Most do not get enough, some love it, some hate it, some like naps, others last till the evening. We all gotta have it though. My thought today is "what amount of sleep can make a difference?" That's about the best I can phrase it but I'll explain...



I love hitting the snooze button. I like to view the first time an alarm goes off to get up as a practise or a reminder that I have to get up soon as it's morning. It's painfully difficult to get up at the first beep. I used to purposely set my alarm early so that I could get in this period of snoozing but what good does this actually do? Instead of snoozing, I could have slept for those extra 10 mins but would that have made me feel more rested and relaxed? It certainly seems to feel better just to snooze it out.



We tend to sleep in 4 hour cycles of light and deep sleep (if my memory serves me correctly) and so does it really matter if I wake up 20 mins before those 4 hours are complete? or will 10 do me just as well? What about if I wake up after only 7 hours? Will my head explode? Experience tells me no but I guess the mystery of sleep continues.