New CDC data says the number of Americans taking medicine to get a good night's sleep is on the rise.

The latest study surveyed more than 30,000 American adults about their sleep medication use in 2020 both prescription and over the counter.

Nearly one in five said they had taken sleep medication during the previous 30 days.

8 percent of adults reported taking sleep medication every or most days in that period double what the CDC had found a decade earlier.

The report also found that women older adults and people with lower incomes were all more likely to use sleep medication.

Earlier I spoke with Dr. Karen Lee of Mass Eye and Ear.

She's a neurologist and a sleep specialist.

I asked her how the CDC is findings compare with what she sees in her practice.

DR. KAREN LEE, Mass Eye and Ear: How that survey is pretty much in line with what I've been seeing through the years and in my practice, unfortunately, there's been larger and larger amounts of materials coming, complaining about issues with sleep, difficulty falling asleep and difficulty staying asleep for the year.

So that's gotten there along with the trend of what we're seeing clinically.

JOHN YANG: The survey also found that women, older adults, and those with lower incomes were more likely to use sleeping medication.

Do you see that as well in your practice?

KAREN LEE: Yes, so that was not at all surprising to see.

Very commonly see that woman come in with insomnia issues.

And I think there's a couple of reasons for that can happen.

Through the years, the survey also looks at a difference between 2010 and 2020.

And women these days are going to the workforce a lot more but a lot of the duties that they have in their home or if they have with children have not been reduced, and a lot of their sleep schedule, especially when they have younger children become fragmented.

And so very commonly when I have women that have children, I will ask them right from the beginning did your issues with sleep start when you had children but with your first child and that's usually the scenario because sleep becomes fragmented, their circadian rhythm is abnormal.

And then that issue just continues throughout time.

Other individuals that I have seen that that are in a lower socioeconomic status will come in at their wit's end.

Not usually what I want to talk about other treatments that are longer term that take to get benefit.

They want pills, immediately.

They're asking I need medication I have you know, children, I'm taking care of her I have this many jobs and I just need a quicker fix.

JOHN YANG: Are Americans overusing sleep medication?

KAREN LEE: I would say the issue is that they are jumping faster maybe than they have in the past for sleep aids.

There's a lot of sleep aids out there are FDA approved and non-FDA approved.

And the issue is the way they are indicated to be used is not being used appropriately.

It's supposed to be a quick ban in a situation until we can get to the point for longer term solutions to fix the underlying sleep issues.

And what we see that's happening is they start on these pills, which really should be for a short period, like two weeks.

And they're just getting them refilled for years and years and years, right.

It's difficult for a variety of reasons, especially for an individual but struggled with sleep for years.

And suddenly, they're sleeping great, and it's completely impacts their life in a positive way.

And they're not seeing the negative impacts.

Now, we have several individuals that are dependent on these medications that keep wanting to use them moving forward.

JOHN YANG: What are some of the negative impacts of using sleep medication?

KAREN LEE: There can be a lot of side effects on your daytime functioning, you can be sleepy and be in a fog, you can have a lot of morning hangover from these medications.

Some of them have anticholinergic side effects where you can have like blurred vision, or dry mouth or urinary retention.

The concern also is at nighttime, especially with elderly patients, we have different recommendations for dosing, for example, for several medications, because there are a lot of accidents that happen with falls, people need to get up and use the restroom.

And it's all these side effects that can happen during wait time.

And nighttime and individuals that are already predisposed to cognitive issues.

Patients with dementia, or mild cognitive impairment are even impacted more often from these medications.

JOHN YANG: What would be your advice for viewers who may be having trouble sleeping?

What would you tell them if they were a patient coming into your office for a first visit and saying, Doctor, I'm having trouble sleeping.

KAREN LEE: So the first thing I would say is, it's great that they recognize that that's an important issue, us having a good quality and quantity of sleep is really critical.

But I need to start with a full sleep evaluation to see if there's any sleep disorders that you have, such as obstructive sleep apnea, restless leg syndrome, certain things or sleep diseases that are contributing to or exacerbating insomnia, right.

And then once they break down, what's the root cause of the insomnia, and I address it, if what's left is what we call psychophysiological insomnia, which is, there is no specific sleep disorder or specific other medical condition that's contributing to your sleep.

Your sleep is poor just because you are under stress, or you have poor relationship with your mind, body and sleep.

The gold standard for treating that is cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia, called CBTI.

And that has been very effective in the short and long term to fix insomnia issues, whether falling asleep or staying asleep.

Now in certain individuals, they may need sleep aids in conjunction with that, or if the effects aren't happening fast enough, but are at a rate that it needs to happen for an individual we can use sleep aids, in addition to this with a goal of always taper down the sleep phase after and that is the issue is when you start the base.

The first one always isn't the one that you would stick with.

We have to see if you can tolerate it.

Number one, there's not side effects that are too bothersome, and that you're getting benefit from it.

And then we have to figure out how we're going to take it away in the future.

JOHN YANG: OK, then what is it sleep medications should be a band aid is a short term.

KAREN LEE: Yes, and the appropriate individuals, right.

And we have to make sure there's not something else that's going on.

Right.

And another concern is that sleep aids can make underlying sleep disorders worse.

So for example, a lot of sleep aids are muscle relaxes, and can collapse the airway more cause more difficulty breathing with sleeping.

So if someone has an underlying disease, such as sleep apnea, which very commonly causes insomnia, we want to be safe and make sure we're not actually making the issue worse and more unsafe by giving them a sleep aid for the wrong reason instead of treating another issue that's causing their insomnia.

JOHN YANG: Dr. Karen Lee of Mass Eye and Ear, thank you very much.

KAREN LEE: Thank you.

Good luck everybody.