Older women twice as likely to take sleeping pills than men, research shows

Older women are more than twice as likely as men to take medication to help them sleep, broadcaster NOS said on Monday, quoting a major research project by the Erasmus teaching hospital in Rotterdam.

The researchers analysed research into sleep and sleeping problems carried out in the Netherlands over the past 25 years, with the aim of improving treatment for poor sleepers.

Lack of sleep can lead to anxiety, depression and dementia, as well as physical ailments such as obesity, heart problems and type 2 diabetes, the researchers said.

Although 90% of the Dutch do sleep enough ‘that does not mean we all sleep well,’ Eus van Someren of the Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience told NOS.

‘We have trouble falling asleep, use drugs and have difficulty waking up. We really have to tackle this.’

Women are more likely to have trouble falling asleep than men, they wake up more often and use more drugs. For example, 17.% of women over the age of 65 take medicine to help them sleep, compared with 6.1% of men. Just over one in 10 women aged 41 to 65 take medicine, more than double the rate for men.

Van Someren told NOS that action is needed to improve healthcare for people with sleeping issues, in particular via cognitive therapy and online coaching.