We don't care about sleeping like babies no more. Part deux.

In a previous entry, I mentionned how bad it would be to build a business around better sleeping facilities since most people were willing to go the chemical route anyway. This article from Forbes (thanks Cable), shows that it will become actually worse that than:

For the first time, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved a sleeping pill without restrictions warning doctors not to prescribe the medicine for long-term use. Lunesta, formerly referred to as Estorra, will be available in pharmacies in January. It will be marketed with a $60 million direct-to-consumer advertising campaign.

A $60 million ad campaign, uh ? What are the chances the average doctor will resist the pressure of his customers to prescribe the medicine for long-term use ? My take is: very few will. Don't worry though, if you have any apnea and your heart stops beating, you just need to have one of these defibrillators from amazon.com next to your bed and expect somebody to use it properly.