Popular sleep medicine linked to falls

BOULDER, Colo., Jan. 20 (UPI) -- A U.S. researcher says a common sleep drug, zolpidem, may put adults at greater risk for falls.

Lead author Kenneth Wright of Colorado University-Boulder suggests taking hypnotic-type sleep medications affects balance -- especially in older adults -- increasing the risk of falls.

Wright finds 58 percent of the older adults and 27 percent of the young adults taking zolpidem, a hypnotic, sleep-inducing drug, vs. placebo had a significant loss of balance when awakened after 2 hours of sleep.

The study, published in the Journal of the American Geriatric Society, indicates waking up following 2 hours of sleep after taking zolpidem vs. placebo enhances sleep inertia -- grogginess -- a state that temporarily impairs working memory.

Cognitive impairment -- previously linked to sleep inertia without medication -- doubled in those who took zolpidem vs. placebo, the study says.

"The balance impairments of older adults taking zolpidem were clinically significant and the cognitive impairments were more than twice as large compared to the same older adults taking placebos," Wright says in a statement. "This suggests to us that sleep medication produces significant safety risks."

Wright and colleagues measured both the walking stability and cognition in 25 healthy adults taking sleep medicines or placebos. Study participants also took computerized cognition tests.