“Rest up, you have a big day tomorrow.” This sentiment is not simply a figure of speech for our culture today. Instead, it highlights one of the most important relationships between the amount of sleep we get and the amount of energy we have the next day. For many of us, energy is synonymous with productivity. The amount of energy we have is directly related to how productive we are, especially in our professional lives. To prove it, tens of millions of sleeping pill prescriptions are filled every year in America. But in the name of productivity, are sleeping pills actually a good choice? Could sleeping pills actually be harmful to productivity?
Sleep vs. Safety
It’s hard to talk about sleeping pills without mentioning the prevailing drug of choice in the sleeping pill market: Ambien. In fact, a quick visit to the Ambien home page reveals a drug that boasts a track record of over two decades, dedicated to helping a large portion of the 30% of Americans who have sleep problems. Ambien (zolpidem tartrate) is a short-term medication that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved for use, but there are some things to know about this popular drug of choice.
For starters, the Ambien website includes a long list of warnings at the bottom of its marketing page, described especially as “complex sleep behaviors.” These complexities can include sleepwalking, sleep-driving, having sex, or making and/or eating food, to name a few.
Along with these warnings, there are medical conditions that should be discussed with a doctor before taking Ambien and symptoms that should be reported to a doctor after taking the medication. These are common warnings we might expect from just about any medication, but these are described in much further detail in Ambien’s prescription information that the FDA provides. People might be surprised to learn that Ambien’s prescription information displays the FDA’s infamous black box warning.
This warning was not part of Ambien’s initial drug warnings, but back in 2019, the FDA updated its warning for Ambien to emphasize its high abuse potential. This update came in the aftermath of fatal cases involving Ambien use. Still, the instances involving these deaths could occur after short or long periods of use and even for those with no history of adverse side effects.
Long-Term Risks and Hangovers
Sleep driving is one example, but others include drug mixing. For example, mixing Ambien with alcohol can be fatal because both drugs are central nervous system (CNS) depressants.
Besides the risk of death and the strong warnings the FDA provides, there is a strong risk of developing an addiction to Ambien. While the drug is different from the earlier varieties of sleeping medication (benzos, barbiturates, etc.), it’s no longer an easy argument to say that different necessarily means safer. Since Ambien is marketed as a short-term medication, it’s understood that long-term use greatly increases the drug’s adverse effects. For one, using Ambien long-term increases the risk of dependency. When this occurs, people will either experience withdrawal symptoms when trying to stop using the drug or require a higher dosage to experience the drug’s normal effects. In the case of Ambien overdoses, immediate deaths from heart or lung failure can occur, but most fatal cases occur from the activities done after too much Ambien is in someone’s system.
Sleep driving is one example, but others include drug mixing. For example, mixing Ambien with alcohol can be a fatal combination because both drugs are central nervous system (CNS) depressants. Mixing the same class of drugs can create a perfect storm of adverse reactions, especially the intoxicating effects of these drugs simultaneously. Speaking of alcohol, alcohol consumption is widely known to cause next-day hangovers for people who consume more than their bodies can safely process. But the concept of a hangover is not restricted to alcohol. In fact, for almost 10 years, Ambien has been understood to cause next-day hangover effects, including not fully awakening the morning after using the medication. Even at the lowest doses, Ambien labels recommend avoiding activities and functions that require full alertness.
Productive or Problematic?
It could be easy at the outset to claim that sleeping pills clearly help people stay productive. However, when considering the various warning labels of sleeping pills like Ambien, the restriction of recommended use for short-term only, the fatal potential with no previous warnings, and the hangover effects of the drug, these trade-offs all point to situations that are problematic to the pursuit of a productive life.
Unfortunately, this is the same as other so-called productivity drugs. While helping you sleep seems like a safer way of staying productive than keeping you awake for long periods, it turns out that it comes at a great price or at least a great risk we shouldn’t be willing to take.