By Lubna Abdel-Aziz Ah, for that magic pill to cure our ills! How long have we yearned for it. Science has obliged....not with a single pill, but with millions of them. There is a pill to relieve aches and pains, a pill to compensate foods we neglect, a pill to relax, a pill to energise, a pill to put us to sleep, a pill to wake us up. Pills of every shape, size and colour, help us sail smoothly, through life's rough journey. Indeed, we are so indebted to Science and to scientists we never stop to question the compatibility of those pills. Do they fight within our systems? Are they happy to meet and mingle? If such questions cross your mind, do not seek answers from your prescribing physician. Your pharmacist is more likely to enlighten you. The essential point is are those pills capable of performing their duties, no more, no less. Among the most desirable of all pills, is the sleeping pill. It is bedtime. You have listened to your soothing music, read your favourite book, dimmed the lights and closed your eyes, but sleep eludes you. Tired and frustrated, you reach for that tiny magic pill that will softly close your eyes, and tenderly murmur sweet lullabies. One third of the human race suffers from the lack of Nature's divine gift to weary mortals.....sleeplessness, the dreaded curse of man and beast. Insomnia is the inability to sleep naturally, and we have all experienced such periods, riddled by one or more reasons. Once the reasons disappear, welcome sleep returns, driving away the horrors that overtake our long dark nights. If the reasons persist, a wound of silence, a depression of spirits, close the door to relaxation and rest, creativity and tranquility on one third of our lives our time for sleep. Without our 7 to 8 hours sleep we are a wreck. We need help. "To sleep, perchance to dream", can be induced by your cherished sedatives, Xanax, Valium, Ativan, or their stronger brethren, Lunesta, Sonata, Ambien and others; those miracles of scientific skill. But no!...STOP! You can no longer trust those darling little morsels. Recent studies affirm that rather than help you, they can kill you. In his book, "the Dark Side of Sleeping Pills" psychiatrist Daniel F. Kripke of the University of California at San Diego, describes how sleeping pills shorten lives, causing several maladies including heart disease and cancer. His life-long study conducted with the Scriptts Clinic , the Viturbi Sleep Centre and the Jackson Hole Centre for Preventative Medicine, has been acknowledged by the American National Institute of Health, as well as other prestigious medical institutions. A few days after his book's revised edition, the 'British Medical Journal' presented the study in its February 28th edition, warning against the link between hypnotic pills and cancer. Disastrous! Calamitous! Catastrophic! No words can describe the shock to frequent pill-users. Was it not only yesterday that the Harvard School of Medicine warned against the perils of sleeplessness? The venerable scientists reported that lack of sleep can cause diabetes, hypertension, heart disease and cancer which can also kill us. "Confusion now hath wrought its masterpiece". The most desolating thing of all is that it took our heartless scientists decades to discover that they kill the very souls they wish to save. The use of sleeping pills has been prescribed freely since the 1960s. Could not the research for the benefits of a certain medication be conducted simultaneously with a counter research on its underlying dangers? Yes, they do mention certain side-effects, but nothing as drastic as what surfaces years later. Is there no medication, however ideal, which does not end badly when its secret is finally discovered? Who stands to benefit from the sale of millions of pills to millions of trusting patients? Who reaps the rewards of incomplete data or thorough research, while victims suffer and die? Does the case of the hazards of cigarette smoking come to mind? Since ancient times mankind has sought means of inducing sleep during times of stress and pain. Man found medicinal plants and herbs to help him reach that rapturous state that transported him from pitiless reality, to visions of fancy and glimpses of the towers and palaces of the city of God. How could man have survived, if deprived of that sweet sleep! Sleep is "that common currency that buys all things; the balance of weight that equalizes the shepherd and the king", as was so wisely expressed by that nobleman Don Quixote, in Cervantes' masterpiece. Many a poet and a philosopher have contemplated the pleasures of sleep. It is Nature's gift that soothes our hearts, heavy with daily toil and trouble. When sleep appears, all care disappears, and peace is here at last. When a problem preys on your mind, you are often advised to 'sleep on it'. That is not merely a figure of speech. Sleep is a 'tour de force', providing mental and physical energy, renewal and survival. We remain at the mercy of scientists, who invented those million pills, but have yet to find answers to a million questions about the mysteries of that dark wilderness we roam through nightly. When we awake, we find that the sun shines brighter, the birds sing sweeter, the skies are bluer and we are born anew, alive and happy, all because we had a good night's sleep. "To all, to each, a fair goodnight, And sleeping dreams, and slumbers light." Sir Walter Scott (1771-1823).
