Sleeping medications taken by millions could lead to disabilities down the line, a new study suggests.
Researchers from Penn State University and Taipei Medical University analyzed five years of data and found that increased insomnia symptoms and sleep medication use were associated with a higher risk of disability a year later.
Every year a person experienced an incremental increase in an inability to sleep, their risk for becoming disabled in some aspect of their daily life increased by 20 percent.
A similar level of risk was associated with increased usage of sleep medications.
Disabilities included having trouble with self-care activities including dressing, eating, using the toilet and showering.
The American Psychiatric Association notes that a lack of sleep can cause many potential consequences, with the the most obvious concerns being ‘fatigue and decreased energy, irritability and problems focusing’.
Meanwhile, some sleep aids can call drowsiness which could cause falls, especially in older adults.
However, the study showed that both insomnia and sleep medications both increased the likelihood of developing a disability by similar amounts, indicating that tiredness had the biggest impact on mental and physical health.
Sleeping medications taken by millions could lead to disabilities down the line, a new study has shown
Many studies have demonstrated the physical, mental and emotional harm that insomnia can cause, the researchers said.
It is unclear what type of sleep medications the subjects were taking.
Some of the most commonly prescribed sleeping pills for insomnia in the US include doxepin, stazolam, eszopiclone, ramelteon, suvorexant, temazepam and triazolam.
According to the National Sleep Foundation, approximately 30 percent of adults in the US experience insomnia symptoms, while 10 percent have chronic insomnia.
This translates to around 70 to 90 million Americans.
The researchers analyzed data from 6,722 participants in the National Health and Aging Trends Study (NHATS), which captured a national sample of Medicare beneficiaries over the age of 65.
The team used more than 22,000 individual observations from the first five waves of data collection – gathered between 2011 and 2015.
The NHATS data included annual measures of disability data using a validated questionnaire.
The questionnaire asked about a number of everyday activities, from their ease of getting out of bed to their ability to get dressed themselves.
To look at how insomnia and sleeping medications impacted these tasks, participants were asked to give one a ranking.
For each self-care activity, participants were classified as ‘fully able’ to complete the activity on their own; ‘vulnerable’ to disability if they used accommodations, reduced their participation in the activity, or had difficulty with tasks; or ‘assistance’ if they could not complete an activity without help.
A classification of ‘fully able’ was scored as one point; ‘vulnerable’ was scored as two points; and ‘assistance’ was scored as four, with higher scores representing higher levels of disability.
The researchers said any score of two or more showed a ‘meaningful level of disability’.
The NHATS data included five frequency levels of both insomnia symptoms and sleep-medication use – never, once a week, some nights, most nights, and every night.
‘Never’ was scored as one point, and each level was worth one more point up to ‘every night’ being scored as five points.
For every level of increase in the frequency of reported insomnia symptoms, the disability score was, on average, 0.2 higher the next year.
For every level of increase in the frequency of reported sleep medication use, their disability score was, on average, 0.19 higher the next year.
Commenting on the findings – published in the journal Sleep – lead author, Tuo-Yu ‘Tim’ Chen, said: ‘As an average example, these numbers suggest that an older adult who increased their sleep medication use from ‘never’ to ‘every night’ over the course of five years would be likely to develop a clinically significant disability.
‘On an individual level, we cannot predict risk so specifically, but if an older adult has prolonged sleep problems and/or sleep-medication use over time, they are very likely to become disabled.’
According to a prior study by the same research team, sleep medication makes falling more likely for older adults.
Orfeu Buxton, the new study’s co-author, said they suspect falls are one important reason that sleep medication was associated with higher levels of disability.
Because both insomnia and sleep medication may contribute to disability, the researchers warn that older people need to manage their insomnia safely and effectively.
They recommend cognitive behavioral therapy, which helps people identify and modify thought or behavior patterns, as a safer and equally as effective treatment for insomnia.
Soomi Lee, another co-author on the recent study, concluded: ‘Many older adults think sleep disruptions are a natural part of aging, but they are a real problem that must be addressed… and that problem is unlikely to improve unless people talk to their doctors.
‘There are not enough sleep clinics, especially in rural areas, so older people may need to advocate for themselves to get proper treatment.’
