Drugs for insomnia shorten life by five years
What are the effects of sleeping pills about longevity? More than five years shorter life expectancy for those who take sleeping pills than for those who don’t. The shocking news is contained in an extensive analysis that processed data from almost half a million people. The risk of premature death increases by 55 percent. You can read the results of the study in the specialist journal sleephealth.
In this article
What is the situation with the use of sleeping pills in Italy?
In Italy, 20% of the adult population say they have suffered from it sleep disturbances at night. At least 10% take sleeping pills. The number is underestimated because it is believed that many take hypnotics or tranquilizers using the do-it-yourself method. Experts argue that theInsomnia is a real disease and not just a symptom of other diseases.
Effects of sleeping pills: The research compared data from nearly half a million people
Researchers from the University of Taiwan examined death rates and life expectancy data for 484,916 people. Only a fraction of them took sleeping pills. Experts subjected them to numerous routine clinical tests to determine their health status. All had to fill out a detailed questionnaire about the length and quality of their night’s sleep. Of course, anyone who took sleeping pills had to state the name of the drug.
The 4 Categories of Rest
Experts then ranked the participants based on how long they had slept:
- extremely short if it lasted less than four hours,
- short, between 4 and 6 hours,
- medium between 6 and 8,
- longer than 8 hours.
Effect of sleeping pills: how many hours are ideal?
After gathering all the information they needed, the University of Taiwan experts compared data on death rates and life expectancy of the people involved based on the number of hours of rest and the quality of the rest.
The results left no doubt. The lucky ones fall into the category that sleeps between 6 and 8 hours without having to take sleeping pills. At least it is many studies have shown that this is the ideal sleep time range for adults.
The experts’ surprise at the impact of sleeping pills on life expectancy
The real surprise for the researchers was the discovery that the risk of premature death in people who sleep between six and eight hours and take sleeping pills is 55% higher than in people who do not take the drugs. The consequences for life expectancy are immediate. On average, men who take these drugs live 5.3 years shorter, women 5.7 years.
