With a lot of these pills there is a withdrawal syndrome. Anything that's sedating, if you stop taking it, can cause rebound insomnia. The combination of knowing you haven't taken the drug, which is a psychological effect, and the lack of a pharmacologic effect, are both sort of pushing toward a poor night of sleep.

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Supposedly, Edison got by on a few hours of sleep. You hear about CEOs of companies boasting about how little sleep they get.

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A lot of drugs are being marketed for lifestyle, as opposed to more narrow indications. I think there is a danger that it will be sort of accepted that you need to manipulate your level of arousal, either to wake yourself up with something or put yourself to sleep with something. There are a lot of other things to do first rather than settling on long-term medication as a solution.

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I think there's a real desperation that comes from not being able to sleep. People feel they've lost control over something very basic and they start taking sleeping pills... and they do get some relief.

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