Can’t sleep? Nor can an increasing number of Portuguese whose increased consumption of tranquilizers and sleeping pills indicates a growing dependency.In 2017, an additional 97,000 packages of sleeping pills and tranquilizers were sold than in the year before.
This equates to 1.11 million packages purchased in the year at a cost of €13 million.
According to neurologist, Teresa Paiva, of the Centre for Medicines for Sleep, the indicators show that the Portuguese, "are sleeping late and little."
"The statistics point to a very large and excessive consumption of sleeping pills, both prescription and over-the-counter, and that there is an increase in the number of people who are dependent on sleeping pills," said the neurologist.
According to Paiva, the fundamental reasons for lack of sleep are "social pressures, cultural convictions, changes in habits, plus technological and environmental causes."
"In Portugal, we live in an era in which sleep is considered useless, in which sleep is considered unused time, in which we try to counteract the body," commented the president of the Portuguese Association of Sleep, Joaquim Moita.
The latest data from a Europe-wide study shows that about 10% of the continent's population suffers from chronic insomnia.
