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Dr. Kim Mulvihill reporting Americans spend two billion dollars a year on prescription drugs to put them to sleep.
Some experts worry those drugs are being used for all the wrong reasons.
Instead of counting sheep, an increasing number of Americans are counting on sleeping pills to get them through the night.
Dr. Bob Dobrow, M.D., CPMC: A lot of people are stressed out and can't fall asleep. Other people fall asleep and often will wake up throughout the night and they have trouble getting back to sleep at that point.
One in ten people complain they have trouble sleeping In today's go-go-go world, who can blame them?
TV Commercial: "Millions of Americans who once had trouble turning off their minds are having a great night sleep with Lunesta."
A new generation of pills - such as Lunesta, Ambien, and Sonata - offers the overworked, and overwrought a tantalizing solution.
Dr. Bob Dobrow at CPMC hears it all the time.
Dr. Bob Dobrow, M.D., CPMC: "People are thinking "Gee.. I want that pill. I want a good night sleep. I want that little butterfly running around my head all night long"
Drug manufacturers say these pills are safe and effective when used as directed.
But little is known about the long term effects of using these drugs. They can have side effects: such as daytime drowiness - and in rare cases, amnesia.
But the market for these pills is expected to increase substantially.
Dr. Bob Dobrow, M.D., CPMC: "Insomnia is a huge problem. And it's becoming a bigger problem now that the pharmaceutical industry is doing direct to consumer ads."
And two new sleeping pills are now in works. Without a doubt, the sleeping pill wars are heating up.
"The only reason they did it was the pressure they felt from Wall Street and the frustration they were having in getting new drugs to patients," says one critic. "The pressure to churn out and pop out more new drugs is greater than ever before."
Unfortunately, these little pills don't always get to the root of a sleep problem.
Dr. Bob Dobrow, M.D., CPMC: "Anxiety problems or depression or medical conditions like sleep apnea"
