Demand for sleep drugs soars in U.S.

Prescriptions for sleep drugs have swelled 60 percent in the last five years, leading some experts to speculate that doctors are overprescribing the meds that are available. A chief reason for the growing demand is a steadily rising rate of insomnia, the byproduct of a much more turbulent average work day in America. A new wave of sleep drugs is supposed to have corrected some of the side effects, such as lingering fatigue, associated with older sleep drugs. But reports of short-term amnesia and sleepwalking are raising new concerns. Drug makers, meanwhile, say that the drugs are safe and effective when taken as prescribed, a message that they are promoting with an ad budget that breaks the $300 million-a-year mark.

- read this article from The New York Times for more information