Millions of older Americans suffering from insomnia regularly use prescription sleep medications, despite the risk of serious side effects—such as falls, broken bones, cognitive impairment and dependence—and warnings from leading medical societies against their use.

A new study from the USC Schaeffer Center for Health Policy & Economics finds that reducing prescriptions of sleep medication in older adults could provide substantial health and economic benefits.

Avoiding use of these medications among older adults would reduce lifetime incidence of falls by 8.5% and cognitive impairment by 2.1%, researchers found. It would also increase life expectancy by 1.3 months, which translates to 1.7 million life-years gained across the population-most of which would be spent in good health.

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