Research Discovered Something Unsettling About Sleeping Pills

You’ve probably heard of your body’s lymphatic system, but what about the glymphatic system? As the authors of a 2022 paper in Nature Reviews Drug Discovery phrased it, it’s “a fluid clearance pathway in the central nervous system” — in other words, something that clears out old fluids and replaces them with fresh versions on a regular basis. However, a recent study published in the journal Cell shows evidence that sleeping pills can interfere with this system.

As Jacek Krywko reports for Ars Technica, the study involved observing the bodies of mice that had been given the sleeping medication Zolpidem. Oxford University scientist Natalie L. Hauglund, the lead author of the study, observed that sleeping pills interrupted the glymphatic system’s normal behavior.

“[W]e saw those slow fluctuations in norepinephrine, blood volume, and cerebrospinal fluid almost completely stopped,” Hauglund told Ars Technica.

This could have larger implications for long-term health. As Krywko points out, one of the glymphatic system’s tasks is removing amyloid beta from the brain and nervous system. The buildup of too much amyloid beta can put people at a higher risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease.

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It’s a troubling scenario for insomniacs and anyone who might make regular use of sleeping pills. After all, getting enough sleep every night is important for staying healthy — but so is the body’s own system for clearing out waste byproducts in the brain and nervous system. Based on what Hauglund told Ars Technica, there’s more research to be done on this subject — including observing this behavior in human subjects. But it might well give you pause the next time you think about turning to a pill for better sleep.