7 Medical Breakthroughs for Women

2. Better Sleep, Less Grogginess

The two out of three women who suffer from insomnia can now rest easy. Rozerem, a new prescription sleeping aid, can help them drift off faster without nasty side effects, such as rebound insomnia, grogginess, or the sleepwalking, amnesia, and binge-eating episodes reported by people using other sleeping pills.

Rozerem, which can be taken daily, stimulates entirely different receptors in the brain than conventional prescription sleeping medications do. It mimics the action of melatonin, a hormone the body produces to ease us into a deep slumber. In a recent study, volunteers given Rozerem fell asleep 50 percent faster than those who took a placebo, and they experienced no residual effects the next day.

"This is welcome news for women, who often have difficulty falling asleep because of hormonal changes," says Thomas Roth, PhD, a sleep researcher at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit.