NBHC Sustainability
July 16, 2018
The website’s creator, who is also a professor in the department of psychiatry at Dalhousie University, says sleeping pills are costing the healthcare system money when there is an alternative. The website mysleepwell.ca aims to teach people how to use cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) instead of pills. Research shows that 16% of sleeping-pill users over the age of 65 in Nova Scotia are considered chronic users, while the national average is 10%. The website’s creator estimates Nova Scotia would have 80 fewer hip fractures each year if the number of chronic sleeping-pill users in the province matched the national average. The reduction would account for $5 million in savings for the province’s healthcare system.