The Sleep Aid Mistake You CAN’T Afford to Make
Trouble sleeping?
You’re not alone. Nearly 40 percent of adults 45 and older have trouble falling or staying asleep.
Besides making you tired and moody the next day, lack of sleep is linked to significant health problems, including heart disease, diabetes, obesity, and depression.
If you’re in this category, I recommend prioritizing quality shut-eye.
But prescription drugs are NOT the answer.
In fact, they could be causing more harm than good.
In a recent study, researchers recorded the brain activity of mice while they were awake and asleep.
They observed that during the deepest sleep (non-rapid-eye movement, or non-REM), a system that removed dead cells and other unwanted molecules from the brain was activated.
This is essentially your brain’s trash removal system (called the glymphatic system).
If that system isn’t working properly, waste products and other toxins build up, contributing to cognitive decline, memory issues, and neurodegenerative diseases.
This trash removal system ONLY works during the deepest part of sleep, which is a BIG reason why quality sleep is so critical for your health.
But using sleep aids to obtain deep sleep is NOT the answer.
This study also showed that the drug zolpidem (you might know it as Ambien) suppresses the brain’s trash-removal system (glymphatic flow).
This study leaves us with two critical takeaways…
- The first is that quality sleep is essential to a healthy brain and body.
- The second is that using sleep aids can’t replace lifestyle changes that allow your body to get the sleep it needs.
These lifestyle changes can include not eating late at night, sleeping in a cool room, eliminating exposure to blue light at night, and getting light directly in your eyes at sunrise.
P.S. The bad habit robbing YEARS from your life.
View Sources
Hauglund, Natalie L. et al., Norepinephrine-mediated slow vasomotion drives glymphatic clearance during sleep, Cell, Volume 0, Issue 0, Online: January 08, 2025
