Knowledge Center

Mayo Clinic phasing out Ambien because of study findings.

The sleep drug Ambien (zolpidem) greatly increases hospital patients’ risk of falling, a new study finds.

Researchers from the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., looked at data on more than 16,000 hospitalized patients and found that the fall rate for those who took Ambien was more than four times higher than for those who did not take the drug — just over 3 percent compared with 0.7 percent.

Ambien is a commonly used sleep ...

These devices endanger babies’ lives and should not be used, U.S. agencies warn.

Parents should not use commercially available “infant sleep positioners” unless they are prescribed by their pediatrician. The devices have been associated with suffocation deaths, U.S. health officials warn.

The U.S. Centers of Disease and Prevention released a report detailing one such case and including findings from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, which has documented 13 deaths linked to infant sleep positioners in a 13-year period.

“Infant sleep positioners pose ...

Researchers linked the class of sleeping pills that includes Ambien, Lunesta, and Sonata to a higher risk for hip fractures in a new study, but experts say insomnia and a poor sleep environment may be to blame, not the sleep drugs.

Some sleep-inducing medications may be tied to an increased risk of hip fractures, according to a study published today in the the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).

A research team led by Sarah D. Berry, M.D., M.P.H., of Harvard ...

Is waste-removal system at work during slumber?

Why do humans need sleep? That age-old question may have an answer, with scientists finding that slumber seems to help the brain clear away potentially harmful waste that builds up during the day.

The new study of mice found that by “taking out the trash” during sleep, the brain clears away toxins thought to be responsible for brain disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease.

“This study shows that the brain has different functional states when asleep and ...

Meanwhile, sleep deprivation appeared to harm brain cells

The reproduction of cells involved in brain repair is boosted during sleep, according to a new study of mice.

Researchers from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, found that sleep increases the process by which certain cells, known as oligodendrocytes, form myelin. Myelin is the insulation on nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord that allows electrical impulses to move rapidly from one cell to another.

In conducting the study, published in the Sept. 4 ...