Kapok Aging and Caregiver Resources: Sleep Medication Risks and Alternatives for Seniors
By Angelica Herrera Venson, DrPH, MPH
The following excerpt is reprinted with permission from Kapok Aging and Caregiver Resources.
Many people struggle with sleeping, for a wide range of different reasons. These issues often get worse with age and with any chronic health problems.
In some cases, the solution may be as simple, such as following healthy sleep practices, ensuring that bedtime is roughly the same each night and avoiding bright light in the evening.
However, many seniors find that sleeping problems persist, even if they had no such issues in their younger years. This pattern often leads to sleeping medication. Such medication can be effective in the short-term. But, only be considered when no other options are available, as there are multiple risks and side effects.
Sleeping Pills Risks for Seniors
Sleep medications always come with some side effect risk, regardless of who is taking them.
Medication Dependency
Perhaps the most common is dependence. People who rely on sleeping medication often find that they are unable to sleep without it. Alternatively, sleep becomes much more difficult for quite some time after stopping the medication.
This is always a concerning pattern.
It can also mean that people become less focused on healthy sleep habits. As a result, the quality of sleep may decrease, even if the senior is able to fall asleep without issue.
Reluctance to Stop
Dependency can also make people reluctant to stop taking the medication. This is especially common with over-the-counter sleep medication. Many people, including seniors, take this for much longer than is recommended.
In most cases, such medication should only be taken for a few weeks. Yet, Consumer Reports suggests that more than 40% of adults who take them do so for a year or more.
Angelica Herrera VensonAngelica Herrera Venson, DrPH, MPH is a gerontologist born in San Diego and raised on both sides of the U.S-Mexico border. She’s a public health advocate who has spent two decades in community health work and research investigating how immigrant and racial /ethnic minority family caregivers and seniors navigate old age and seek out health and elder care. Today, Angelica supports some of Arizona’s community health centers, which serve primarily Medicaid and underserved communities, in their transition to value-based care.
About Multicultural Guide to Caregiving
Author and gerontologist, Angelica P. Herrera Venson, DrPH, opens up and shares her family’s personal stories and lessons from her field work and research on aging and caregiving with communities of color and first generation Americans.