It’s no breaking news there are millions of Americans suffering from sleep deprivation and other sleep disorders. And it’s also common news that for most the answer remains a sleeping pill. But, if you imagined sleeping pills have no risks, better reconsider. According to a recent study, sleeping pills are ruled to present the same risks as cigarettes.

The sleeping pill is the first thing pops into the minds of about 30 million Americans whenever they have troubles sleeping. And with today’s hectic lives, busy work agendas, stressful every day chores and concerns over so many things, relaxing enough to go to sleep has never been so difficult.

According to a study released by the National Sleep Foundation, in United States, about 20 percent of individuals enjoy less than six hours of sleep on average. And once this situation spans during several months, more serious situations can occur, such as driving accidents, low productivity, depression, anger surges and obviously relationship issues.

For most of these people the sleeping pill was the answer. Until a recent study that is. Researchers with the Scripps Institute in San Diego reached a staggering conclusion. After investigating over 10,000 records of patients prescribed with sleeping pills, researchers saw that the cancer risks spiked. Basically, people that were taking sleeping pills were more likely to die from cancer than people not on the sleeping pill. At the same time, those patients that took over 132 sleeping pills a year were seen to have an increased risk of being diagnosed with cancer.

Study leader Daniel F. Kripke, told WebMD: “We are not certain. But it looks like sleeping pills could be as risky as smoking cigarettes. It looks much more dangerous to take these pills than to treat insomnia another way”.

The study identified that the sleeping pills thought to be just as harmful as cigarettes are called hypnotics. It is a category of sleeping pills that includes zolpidem based Ambien drugs and temazepam based Restoril.  Eszopiclone, zaleplon, triazolam, flurazepam, barbiturates and diphenhydramine are all substances contained by today’s top sleeping pills and ruled to have a harmful effect on the body.