Could sleeping pills harm your health?

People who take sleeping pills should be on the lookout for a deterioration in their health, following the release of research showing that the drugs can lead to complications.

The association between poor health and sleeping pills has been present since the 1960s, when a series of studies found the drug was linked to cancer, poor sleep and early mortality, Professor Kevin Morgan from the Clinical Sleep Research Unit and Loughborough University explained.

"This is a finding that keeps recurring," he said. "It recurs in very large data sets and it’s an issue that needs to be addressed."

While researchers are still unsure why this happens, it is widely known that sleeping pills affect "our behaviour, they affect our thinking, they affect our mood, and they affect our general health."

What's more, they are sedatives and reduce activity and energy levels of patients that take the drugs.

Sedentary lifestyles also create further problems, as they are linked to obesity, cardiovascular complaints, stroke, and depression.

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