Captain's Readings

This weeks readings were about sleep medicines and how the U.S. military is doing everything in their power to make sure that our soldiers are fully functional 24/7 with out hardly any sleep. The article by Wells, The Sleep Racket, shows just how much money companies that focus on sleep medications are making. The number was like $465million, it's not a bad business to get into. People will buy anything, just so they can have a good night's sleep no matter the cost. And the article written by Saletan, Night of the Living Meds, tells about the military's efforts into making our soldiers not require that much sleep. Our soldiers are exposed and tested on with so many drugs, drugs that maybe some doctors can't even prescribe to us. A lot of these drugs are suppose to help our soldiers fall asleep when they need to and stay awake when necessary, which is most of the time. The scary part is that most of those drugs can cause long term damage when taken large amounts and once the soldiers build immunity to one drug, then what? Maybe another drug, who knows, but it's some pretty dangerous stuff.

- Kirk out

http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/human_nature/2008/07/night_of_the_living_meds.html

http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2006/0227/080.html