About 70 million Americans suffer from sleep problems, according to the National Center for Sleep Disorder Research. Each year, sleep disorders, sleep deprivation, and sleepiness add an estimated $15.9 billion to the national health care bill. Additional costs to society for related health problems, lost worker productivity, and accidents have not been calculated. But help seems to be on the way.

Recently, Sepracor won FDA approval for it's new anti-insomnia drug, Estorra while Neurocrine Biosciences expects to apply for approval this year and bring Indiplon to market in the second half of next year.

While many might argue that there is a strong profit motive behind "medicalizing sleep," Carl Hunt, director of the federal government's National Center on Sleep Disorders Research, said the opposite problem is still true: "The issue is not over-diagnosing. The issue at this point in time is still under-diagnosing."

If you are having trouble sleeping you might consider testing your sleep I.Q., checking out these basic tips for a better nights sleep, or if you are an animal lover, then you might look to blame them.

Update: The U.S. market for prescription sleep products, not including off-label (not indicated for the treatment of insomnia) use of central nervous system agents for the treatment of insomnia, was approximately $1.5 billion in 2002. The U.S. prescription sleep agent market grew at a rate of almost 25 percent for the past two years, according to IMS Health information.