Sleep meds don’t improve sleep in the long-term
Women rated their quality of sleep the same whether taking drugs or not, reports a two-year long US study
Prescribing sleep medications for middle-aged women appears to have little impact on their sleep patterns in the longer term, US research shows.
There was no difference in the quality or duration of sleep reported by women prescribed drugs and those who weren’t, after one or two years, the study in BMJ Open found.
“The current observational study does not support use of sleep medications over the long-term,” the authors wrote.
The women, averaged age 49, were part of a US multicentre study looking at biological and psychosocial changes during menopause.
