Sleep Deprivation: The Great American Myth

[varkam]

Robin Lloyd
Fox News (I'm sorry)
March 23, 2006
Link

-----------

Wake up, says psychiatry professor Daniel Kripke of the University of California, San Diego. The pill-taking is real, but the refrain that Americans are sleep-deprived originates largely from people funded by the drug industry or with financial interests in sleep-research clinics.

"They think that scaring people about sleep increases their income," Kripke told LiveScience.

Thanks to the marketing of less addictive drugs directly to consumers, sleeping pills have become a hot commodity, especially in the past five years.

People worldwide spent $2 billion on the most popular sleeping pill, Ambien (zolpidem), in 2004, according to the BioMarket, a biotech research company.

Earlier this month, it was reported that some Ambien users were susceptible to amnesia and walking in their sleep. Some even ate in the middle of the night without realizing it.

Global sales for all sleeping pills, called hypnotics, will top $5 billion in the next several years.

<snip>

-----

[Der Blaue Engel]

1. I don't know about the rest of America, but I'm sleep deprived

It's not due to insomnia, though. I've never taken a sleeping pill. I'm good at sleeping; it's going to bed I have trouble with.

(Right now being a case in point.)

[montana_hazeleyes]

2. Must be wealthy or well insured folks taking

Ambien. About $100 for 30.

[PetraPooh]

3. Yep, I agree. The idea that healthy adults need 8 hrs or more???

Nonsense! I get about five a night for decades now and I am fine. I have also made sure my kids don't stress over sleepless or light sleep nights. I think that before anyone is given pills for sleeping, they should have to learn to take walks after dinner for at least 2 miles preferably more like 5. And if a person lays quietly but has a "restless" mind, so be it; probably they spent too much time being distracted by tv or nintendo or the puter to have the quiet time needed to think about the day, the week, and the life. Just lay reasonably still while you think. Too many pill ads. They should take drug ads off the air again like it was when I was growing up. They are so BAAAAD.

[cornermouse]

6. Not everyone is like you.

I wish people would get over the notion that if it works for them, it'll work for everyone else.

[PetraPooh]

7. Fair enough, but they should be trying something besides pills

AND they shouldn't be advertised into believing that they have a problem. Many folks don't think they have a problem till they hear things like "should get 8 hours of sleep," or the one they seem to use all the time now, "a recognized medical condition," as though inconvenience and occasional discomfort should be rid from our lives with little expensive pills.

[smirkymonkey]

29. I agree - so many people believe their PERSONAL experience

is universal. I believe this is where most of the problems of the world stem from - the inability of human beings to accept ways of being (eating, sleeping, worshipping, not-worshipping, etc.) other than their own.

[cornermouse]

4. Do I think there is too much pill pushing in this country?

Yes.

Do I think sleep deprivation is a myth? Not when I consistently wake up about two to three hours short of sleep every night and have to drag myself around the next day, I don't.

[PetraPooh]

8. Question. . . Do you drag because of lack of sleep

or because of lack of optimism, lack of enjoyment, lack of anticipation. Seems to me many people who don't get much sleep and seem to not mind, simply have more to enjoy when they are awake. And those that can't seem to get up and go, don't think they have reason to get up and go and wish they could enjoy the disconnect of sleep longer.

[cornermouse]

10. Lack of sleep.

When you get to a certain age, some little switch turns on...or off. Its nature's joke on you. My eyes pop open and night is over. Then I drag myself through the rest of the day.

[PetraPooh]

11. I'm old too, and go through the same, but I guess

I just have a different attitude about it. I guess that may be because before old age started playing that trick on me, I was a true insomniac and simply had to find a way to not let it ruin my days. Now I just sleep about five nights a week and fully stay up for two (not usually in a row) and do stuff without the intent of going to sleep at all. I have to admit it can drive me way crazier to TRY to sleep and not be able to; but not trying seems to have a less negative effect. And I don't take pills; sleeping or otherwise. With that being my primary decision, it forced/forces me to adapt my agenda to my body rather than have my body adapt to my agenda.

[cornermouse]

13. Unfortunately my work agenda won't adapt to my body's agenda

and I don't take pills either, so I feel like Charlie Brown's Lucy far too much.

[Warpy]

21. How nice to be such a happy, peppy person on no sleep

Unfortunately, the rest of us fragile mortals are not like that. I am useless on fewer than 5 hours and foggy on less than 8, a real disadvantage when I was working critical care night shifts.

Benadryl was my friend. Nobody ever had a Benadryl Jones, it allowed me a quick drift to sleep, and the hangover was minimal. Plus it stopped the sniffles during allergy season.

I can't imagine needing anything stronger or more expensive than generic, OTC Benadryl.

[undergroundpanther]

5. Sleep Apnea is real.

A real problem.
And PSTD can cause insomnia And trauma effects alot of people.Trauma interferes with sleep.Alot of stuff that people have as health problems hormonal problems ect ect,all of it can interfere with sleep.Sleep is how the body heals itself and processes events.
This jackass is just in a roundabout way defending the swing shift body destroying workaholic mentality that is making drowsy driving more common than drunk driving.
Fuck this guy I wonder who funded this shit. Lack of restorative sleep can hurt you.and sometimes others too.
http://www.alertnessmatters.com/?s_kwcid=sleep%20disorders|378405746
http://www.sleepnet.com/

[PetraPooh]

9. Well I don't think Ambien is for Sleep Apnea, that is a breathing

issue. And the guy didn't say sleep was un-necessary, just that so much sleep is over-rated in order to sell pills.

[acmejack]

14. I had sleep apnea and it almost killed me!

It is no joke, it damn sur edestroyed my health. I was waking my self up over 160 times a night, needless to say it impacted every facet of my life & it went on for years.

[PetraPooh]

12. An observation I've made as an outsider to pharmacology is that

I have been losing friends right and left to chronic pill taking. Right now I know four that have gotten on the Ambien regimine. Some of them take other chronic pills like prozac or wellbutrin or cholesterol drugs, etc. But just looking at the Ambien aspect. . . first they start taking it and truth be told, for about a month they are thrilled. Their lives seem dramatically better, finally they are getting the sleep they think was interfering with their happiness, productivity, etc. Unfortunately, shortly after that first month. . . . . . .all of the discussions with them begin to slide back into the depressed, I hate my life, why me, everything is rotten. Seems that in the long run, their lives aren't really improved because they are getting better sleep. Now as mentioned above by someone; sleep apnea (wherein I fear someone with sleep apnea and a sleeping pill might be a deadly combination) or night terrors may fall into a special category, but these folks I'm discussing have none of that, they were just getting older and wanted to fall asleep when their head hit the pillow and stay asleep till the alarm went off in the morning.

[varkam]

15. I just got home from watching people sleep

And I'm really tired myself - but I will say that Ambien is contraindicated for sleep apnea, as there is evidence it can exacerbate sleep apnea. That being said, the newer non-benzodiazepine hypnotics such as Ambien don't have the respiratory depressant effects like older hypnotics such as benzos or barbiturates (and especially alcohol - if there's one thing I can hope to convince people of it's not to use alcohol to get to sleep).

[BadgerKid]

16. chemical alternatives to Ambien?

Melatonin may help. No script needed and is presumably less expensive.

[cornermouse]

18. Melatonin doesn't work.

[varkam]

20. Mixed results

It's been my experience that melatonin works for some people, but definitely not for all (it sure as hell doesn't work for me). According to the data though, probably the most efficacious treatment for insomnia is behavioral intervention - teaching things like good sleep hygeine and relaxation techniques. But they certainly take longer than popping a pill.

[BuddhaGirl]

23. a naturopathic doctor friend

once recommended the following to me to help with sleep deprivation:

in the morning, 5000mcg of sublingual B-12

at night before bed, 3mg of melatonin

I did this daily for several weeks and it worked for me. Melatonin on it's own wasn't doing the trick.

[TallahasseeGrannie]

17. I strongly disagree with this

I had undiagnosed obstructive sleep apnea for years and was too stupid to understand that my constant yawning and falling asleep during the day was a sign of a problem. I ended up with an enlarged heart, arrhythmia, and high blood pressure because of it.

A sleep study identified it and I got treatment (medication and a CPAP machine) and I now sleep 8+ hours a night. It took me almost two years to make up the deficit with 10+ hours a night and REM rebound and the most vivid dreams you could ever imagine.

Sleep apnea is a killer. I lost a good friend to it when he was only 48. His wife made him sleep in a recliner because his snoring kept her awake. She found him there dead one morning.

Sleep is vital, restorative to our minds and bodies.

[varkam]

19. I couldn't agree more

Sleep apnea is a big problem. I wouldn't say that you were too stupid to understand that your fatigue was a sign of a problem - sleep apnea happens when you're asleep. Lots of people just don't make the connection. People who wake up in the middle of the night, people who wake up gasping for air, people who wake with headaches, high blood pressure, snoring, heart disease etc. - all of those are signs of obstructive sleep apnea, but most people either aren't even aware of what sleep apnea is or if they are, just don't make the connection.

What is important though is that you got treatment and that it works for you. I work at a sleep lab, and every now and then I'll get someone who comes back in for a repeat study after they got put on CPAP and they'll tell me that it made an incredible difference in their life. Stuff like that makes my day. Those people also tend to be advocates for it and sleep in general, which is so important because I think it's one of the most underrated and underreported area of health out there relative to how essential it is. It sounds like that's where you're at, and I just want to say thank you.

[Warpy]

22. Yeah, you're right about that and the OP is another good reason

to delete Pox News from that remote's programming. Anybody who denies the need for sleep is a QUACK.

An occasional sleepless night is an opportunity to get up and go out on the porch and listen to the night for a change of pace, to enjoy solitude while the rest of the world sleeps. A whole string of 'em needs to get checked out. Sleeping pills are a bandaid on a gushing artery.

[benEzra]

24. Americans are some of the most sleep deprived people in the world

because we are among the busiest people in the world. Americans work considerably longer hours than people in any other industrialized nation, including Japan.

I'm a bit sleep deprived, not because I can't sleep when I get to bed, but because I am so busy that I don't always get to bed on time...I suspect I'm not alone...

[oscar111]

25. overwork, overworry.. all can get cured with a progressive government

which gives us labor conditions like Norway, and security in all financial areas to end most of our great worries.

so much of our health problems can be traced to the GOP caveapes.

[HuckleB]

26. Sleep Deprivation and Insomnia are not necessarily the same thing.

More piss poor reporting by Fox.

[redwitch]

27. I am exhausted. Haven't had a good night's sleep in a week or more.

Just made an appointment with my doctor to figure out how to fix this. I am in sales and I drive great distances. I am afraid of becoming a hazard to myself and others on the road.
Menopause has destroyed my sleep. I really don't want to go on medication but I can't take much more of this. I am stumbling through my days in a complete fog. I have had insomnia before, but once I got to sleep, I was OK. Now I can't get to sleep until very late, then I wake up 3 or 4 times a night. Partly it is hormonal, partly it is general anxiety.

I have done lots of things to improve my chances of a good night's sleep including quitting smoking last November, starting an exercise program, am about to start shopping for a new mattress.

I can no longer cope on sleep in small batches.

[varkam]

28. I'm no doc, but...

I do know a little bit about sleep. Driving while drowsy is a definite hazard. A study, which I have not read except through reports in the media, says that driving without sleep for 24 hours is equivalent to driving drunk (from a cognitive perspective). It's definitely right that you should speak with a doc about fixing your sleep.

I can understand your hesitation regarding hypnotics, too. Some of the recent reports in the media about zolpidem's (Ambien) adverse reactions are kind of spooky (Psychotic symptoms? Sleep Eating? Sleep Driving? Amnesia?) - and it's been around the longest of all the non-benzodiazepine hypnotics, Sonata has only been around since 1999 and Lunesta since December of 04.

But there are some other avenues you could explore. Limiting stimulant intake before bed is good, exercising is also a plus. It sounds like you're already on the right track, but here's a few other ideas you might want to ask your doc about:

Light therapy / Circadian Rhythm Entrainment - You say that you can't get to sleep until very late. Utilizing bright light therapy might help reset your biological clock so that you feel tired at appropriate times.

Stimulus control - don't use your bed for anything except sleep and sex. Don't watch movies in bed, read in bed, etc. The idea is to associate the bedroom environment with sleep - not scary movies, page-turning novels, or anything else that gets you awake. Also, if you're laying in bed for 30 minutes or so and can't fall asleep you should get up, go to another room, and do something quiet until you feel tired again - repeat as needed. It's the same idea here, you don't want to associate the bed with worrying or thinking about how little sleep you're going to get.

Sleep restriction - Spend a set amount of time in bed, regardless of how much or how little you sleep. E.X. If you plan on spending four hours in bed, but only get to sleep after the first hour, get up in 3 anyway.

No daytime naps.

Biofeedback - I don't really know much about biofeedback except that it involves looking at your physiological activity (such as heart-rate) and learning to control them to an extent. I'm sure it's more involved than that, but I've heard it helps with insomnia.

DON'T USE ALCOHOL TO FACILITATE SLEEP - This is one that a lot of people I know do, and it's one of the worst things you can do for your sleep. Yes, you'll get to sleep faster but after about three hours the alcohol is converted into sugar which stimulates your CNS (thus fragmenting your sleep). Also if you have obstructive sleep apnea, the booze makes it worse - it relaxes your muscles, including the ones in the airway. It could cause longer periods of breathlessness, lower oxygen levels and a higher stress on your heart than otherwise. It's hypothesized that this combination could actually be fatal in some cases, but I've yet to see any solid research to support that notion.


Hope some of that helps you give an idea of what might be helpful to you. And again, I stress, if your sleep (or lack thereof) is becoming a problem with you - see a physician trained in sleep medicine.

[philb]

30. the state of your health and immune systems makes a difference

in how much sleep you need. There are a lot of people(most) with significantly impacted immune and cardiovascular systems
who need more sleep or rest than they would otherwise.
But I think there are a lot of sleep deprived people also, I tend to stay up trying to do more than I have time to do and can
get run down also.