What Michael Jackson Can Teach Us About Sleeping Pills

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While official results have not been released to the public, it is widely accepted that Michael Jackson's death was a result of a prescription drug overdose. Heath Ledger was found dead with prescription sleeping pills nearby. May they rest in peace, and hopefully we can all learn something from their untimely deaths.

Are prescription drugs such as sleeping pills really any safer than the illegal substances we know harm our bodies and minds?

Insomnia is a terrible thing, because sleep is so important for our ability to get through our lives. Without the proper rest, our health and ability to concentrate plummet until we can't get through the day anymore. This can lead to employment problems, relationship problems and very real physical problems.

Because of the awful effects insomnia can have, sufferers more and more often turn to medication to help them rest so they can get through their lives. While most people have some awareness about more natural ways to cure their insomnia, they may not feel that they have the time to dedicate to re-establishing their sleep schedule.

Sleeping pills then become the easy, quick solution to their insomnia problem. Our society has trained people to have tremendous faith in the power of a simple pill to fix any number of problems. If you're depressed, take a pill. If you're eating too much, take a pill. If you're in pain, take a pill. It goes on and on, and applies to problems calming down and sleeping too.

Medication can be an essential tool in solving mental and physical health problems, but unfortunately sometimes it becomes the source of a whole new problem to deal with. When used with caution and under supervision, medication can help get symptoms under control enough so that the individual is able to focus on the underlying causes and solve those. However, often medication is used as a solution itself, rather than a temporary aid.

This kind of attitude leads to people becoming dependent on the drugs, unable to break free of using them to get the relief they are after. In the case of insomnia sufferers, sleeping pills used in this way can permanently affect your brain and how your body is able to fall asleep. You body knows how to fall asleep on its own, but when drugs do its job for an extended period of time it becomes dependent on them. Once this happens, it becomes very difficult to ever fall asleep naturally, without the aid of medication.

Over time, the medications also lose effectiveness and insomnia sufferers are met the the original problem once again; they aren't able to sleep. Except this time, they aren't able to sleep naturally [http://beatyourinsomnia.com/] or while taking sleeping pills. Desperate, these individuals sometimes turn to increasingly powerful drugs to get rest.

We've seen the results this can lead to with some public figures, such as those already mentioned. The amount of celebrities and known figures who have died too early of an overdose is very large, and yet people still aren't closely investigating the way medications are administered.