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Sleeping pill choices a tossup

Lisa Ryckman, Rocky Mountain News

Published December 20, 2005 at midnight

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A sleeping pill can help you snooze, but which one should you take?

Apparently, it doesn't matter.

Consumers have been bombarded with new choices lately, but researchers at Oregon Health and Science University have concluded that none of them is better than any other.

The Oregon Evidence-based Practice Center, which compares the efficacy and safety of different drugs, looked at 141 studies of Sonata, Ambien, Lunesta and Imovane, a Canadian brand.

The results showed that although sleeping pills are better than placebos at helping someone fall asleep and stay asleep, no single pill appeared to be better than any other overall.

There were some differences, public health specialist Susan Carson said. Some studies showed that Sonata was better than Ambien at putting people to sleep quickly, while patients on Ambien slept longer and reported having a better quality sleep than those taking Sonata.

More than 70 million Americans have trouble sleeping, with the likelihood of insomnia increasing with age, according to the National Institutes of Health. Studies have shown that Americans over 65 are the largest users of prescription sleeping pills, and the number of prescriptions for those ages 10 to 19 jumped 85 percent between 2000 and 2004.