Today I gave a presentation to four physicians and one pharmacist about insomnia and sleep medications. I think it was well received. I talked about the 'non medical' ways to improve sleep, the over the counter drugs people use and the the prescription medications for sleep problems.
There are a LOT of drugs out there used for sleep problems that people use all the time. The funny thing is that most of the medications work by changing the way people sleep and not always .in a good way The medications increase sleep but not necessarily the restorative type of sleep that is the best for people. The drugs increase the 'light sleep' which is why people have weird dreams or may even sleepwalk, sleepdrive, etc while on these meds because their bodies are still "up". Plus most meds should be maxed out at 2 weeks. Many times people start the sleep meds and do not get sleep without them or never learn how to get good restorative sleep. I do not truly believe that sleep medications are the best but instead believe that the placebo effect they provide is what really makes them great.
The ironic thing with all this is that I myself get poor sleep and wish there was some magic potion out there that could help. Well I may just have to invent one....or just work harder at good sleep hygiene (but that takes too much work....darn)!
2 comments:
Hello! I'm quite new to blogging so I am searching around for blogs to follow and I really enjoy what I have read of yours. Such an interesting post. I think most people don't get the right amount or kind of sleep... myself included! So true about the drugs thing. You can't depend on medication to fall asleep all of the time.
Alcohol always works, but the right dosage of course.
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