![]() In the case of the widely marketed hypnotics, the minimal dose to induce sleep also resulted in cognitive deficits. The researchers showed that the minimum effective dose of DORA-22 to induce sleep had no effect on the animals’ attention and memory performance after it was administered. They found that, compared with rats and rhesus monkeys administered the sleep medications zolpidem (the generic name for Ambien), eszopiclone (Lunesta), or the sleep-inducing anti-anxiety drug diazepam (better known by its commercial name, Valium), those taking the experimental sleep drug had improved sleep without impairment of their cognitive performance. In a study released Wednesday in the journal Science Translational Medicine, a team from Merck, the pharmaceutical company developing the new medication, demonstrated its effectiveness in inducing sleep in rats and rhesus monkeys. Those effects prompted the FDA recently to order changes to the recommended dosing of Ambien, particularly for women and the elderly, among whom lingering cognitive effects have proved to be common. That makes them a relative blunderbuss in inducing sleep and often results in residual effects. Existing hypnotic sedatives work on so-called GABA receptors, which are found throughout the brain. The medication, dubbed DORA-22, suppresses the activity of orexins in the lateral hypothalamus, allowing the consumer to drop off to sleep. ![]() The investigational drug works on receptors in a region of the brain that’s key for allowing us to fall into slumber: the lateral hypothalamus, where molecules called orexins are released throughout the day to keep us alert and awake. An experimental medication may help induce sleep without the hangover of impaired attention, memory and learning that is common with so-called hypnotic sedatives now available to consumers. If it is considered necessary, then it should be used at the lowest possible dose and for a limited time.Prescription sleep medications can be balm for the insomniac, but for many who take medications marketed as Ambien, Restoril and Lunesta, they can come with a cost: fogginess that can last into the next day. ![]() But your health care provider should watch you carefully to make sure that the drug is helping and not causing bad side effects.
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