Somnolence in the Republic

Chaos has long considered the citizens of the Empire to be rather, shall we say, sleepy regarding some of the most pressing issues of the day. Apparently, though, waking unconsciousness is quite common, but actually falling asleep is less so. In today's paper of record we find that 42 million prescriptions for sleeping pills were written last year. Could it be that the stress and strain of having to "run in place," economically speaking, contributes to the sleeplessness, or is it just that Big Pharma spends so much money on convincing the sheep that there is in fact, a pill which covers every ailment? Chaos observes that a drugged citizenry, while it may be a happy citizenry, is not a particularly well-informed one.