Masjids.in

They say the inability to sleep results from changing sleeping habits in Ramadan, during which people stay awake the whole night and sleep during the day.

The doctors particularly warned students and employees against the dangers of sleeping pills to adjust their biological clock. They said sleeping pills and sedatives should not be taken without prescription from medical specialists because of their hazardous side effects.

Family medicine consultant Dr. Nahla Ismail said sleeping pills might be very perilous for young men and women as well as working mothers. “The excessive use of these pills might cause liver problems and adversely affect the nerves,” she said. She also warned that the use of sleeping pills might lead to mental disturbances and whimsical fluctuations, which could in turn cause drug addition.

Dr. Abdul Aziz Abdullah, an internal medicine specialist, said there were rules and regulations preventing the issuance of sleeping pills without medical prescriptions. Therefore, people tended to use other permissible medicines with the same effect, like medicines for coughing, allergy, or influenza.

He accused pharmacists of selling these medicines without any prescriptions and said the best way to help people go back to normal sleep patterns is to do this gradually and not to worry about staying awake for long hours at night.

Talking to Arab News, a number of pharmacists denied that they gave out sleeping medicines without proper medical prescriptions. They, however, admitted that the demand for cough medicines had gone up these days.

Psychiatrist Youssef Ibrahim said there was a number of methods people could resort to in order to get back to their normal sleeping habits.  “Taking lettuce, apricots and milk will help release the tension and assist people to sleep normally,” Ibrahim said. He also advised people to boil mint and drink it before going to bed.

- Arab News