[caption id="attachment_4832" align="alignleft" width="300"] Nancy A. Palermo MD[/caption]
Getting quality sleep is foundational for optimal health yet one out of every three Americans is not getting sufficient sleep.
This reduction in sleep quantity and quality is leading to an array of health issues including obesity, diabetes, heart disease, Alzheimer’s, and mental disease.
The conventional approach to sleep issues is a pill but this is not without side effects. Prescription sleep aids are associated with reduced sleep quality and even worse they pose a 5 times greater risk of memory and concentration problems, 2 times increased risk of falls and fractures, and 2 times the great risk of motor vehicle accidents. Long-term use is also associated with parasomnias-abnormal behaviors like sleepwalking, sleep eating, and sleep-driving. Recent data has shown...