Sleep disorders Naturopathy helps

Sleep Disorders: Phytopharmaceuticals help without "hangover".

(11.05.2010) Hangover stands for hangover in English. How hungover often feel the next morning, people who have taken in the evening against their sleep problems, a sleep aid. However, a good sleeping aid should not only help you to get asleep and sleep through, but also to help you to wake up fresh, rested and powerful the next day. As scientific studies have shown, these requirements are usually better for treating sleeping pills than their synthetic competitors.

Among the most commonly prescribed sleep aids in Germany are the so-called benzodiazepines. Their most dangerous disadvantage lies in their addictive potential: According to current data from the German Center for Addiction Issues DHS, 1.1 to 1.2 million people in Germany are dependent on benzodiazepine derivatives (source: „Yearbook addiction 2010“). Although benzodiazepines prolong sleep, they are often over-charged: users complain of drowsiness and tiredness the next day. The consequences of this are an impairment of everyday safety, an accumulation of traffic accidents and in the elderly also an increased risk of dangerous falls.

Well-studied herbal extracts of valerian, lemon balm or hops are known to exert their sleep-inducing and soothing effects, especially via gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) in the brain. Unlike benzodiazepines, they do not affect the ability to concentrate the next day. The results of eight randomized controlled trials that document it are now available. Like Dr. Martin Burkart, Karlsruhe, recently reported in Munich, found in none of these studies, an indication of a deterioration in the concentration, reaction rate, perception or alertness (vigilance) on the day after taking any of the investigated herbal sleeping pills. Even the subjective feeling of alertness was not felt differently after taking the herbal sleep aids than under treatment with a dummy treatment (placebo). In contrast, the sedative hangover of the synthetic agents used in some of the studies for comparison was regularly confirmed. The sources for the studies and further information can be found at www.phytotherapie-komitee.de (KFN 08/2010)