Plain English Meaning

Medications that calm you down or help you sleep by slowing the brain and nervous system. They make you slower to react and less sharp -- which is why pilots cannot fly while taking them.

Full Definition

Sedatives are drugs that depress activity in the central nervous system, producing calmness, drowsiness, reduced anxiety, or sleep. They slow reaction time, impair judgment, and degrade coordination, and are disqualifying for flight under FAA medical standards.

Context Anchor

Seen in aeromedical discussions about drugs, fitness to fly, and medications that can make a pilot unsafe to operate an aircraft.

Derivation

From the Latin sedare, meaning 'to settle' or 'to calm.' The same gives us 'sedate.' The word literally describes drugs that settle the and mind down.