Considering Whether Sleeping Pills Actually Assist With Sleep

Trace Dominguez of DNews discusses the questions that have arisen about the efficacy of sleeping pills.

Each of these drugs are great for knocking a human out, but being unconscious – that’s not sleep. Professor Matthew Walker from the University of California, Berkeley told Probably Science, if you want to lose consciousness, these drugs are fine, but it’s not natural sleep, it’s simulated sleep. Drugs alter the sleep structure or natural rhythms and patterns of your natural sleep…Most drugs will allow your brain to go into REM sleep, but the drugs DON’T allow the brain to go through the full natural sleep process, which means the brain doesn’t have a chance to clean up and process memories from the day before; cementing them for future reference.

So what’s an insomniac to do? Researchers have found that limiting caffeine and turning off computers and televisions three hours before going to bed can help a person get a better night’s sleep.