Long term effect of sleeping pills

snamvar · Post by **snamvar** » Sun Jun 26, 2005 9:20 pm

I am curious as if there has been any formal study about the long term effects of sleeping pills. I am also so much interested to hear about your personal experiences.
My worst insomnia started at age of 27 when I started my career as a computer programmer. I overwhelmed myself and got terrified I also thought that my sleep pattern of 4-12 am would normalize to normal hours. Boy, was I wrong.
The anxiety, lack of alertness and the wrong job/company gave me the worst insomnia that I could not sleep for days. They closed the division and laid-off everyone after 5 months. God, that was such a relief.
I got the right job/company next time around and it felt great. However, I still had sleepless nights at time and my doctor prescribed 30mg of Dalmane. It was great. I could sleep and feel relaxed the next day. I took Dalmane for the next 18 years and reduced the dose to 8 mg.
My new physician simply refused to prescribe it to me, saying that benzo on a daily basis could cause real addiction issues and he could lose his license. Dalmane was also not helping me much more, but I could not get any sleep without it. Talk about addiction, physical or psychological.
I had my sleep test done 3 years ago and was diagnosed with Moderate OSA and Delayed Sleep Phase Syndrome (DSPS). I have been using CPAP and feel much better, but still need my sleep med to be able to sleep. I recently switched to Lunesta!
I since have researched a lot about DSPS and read about severe cased where people sleep (8am to 4 pm). It is a biological clock disorder and could be improved with Light exposure in the mornings and Melatonin in the evenings. But it is genetic and does not have a cure. I know that many DSPSers adjust their work/lifestyle to adhere to their biological clock.
Looking back, I did achieve a fairly "successful" career, but I am thinking as what the mind fog and lack of alertness did to me because of the sleep pills and not really dealing with the real issues.
I am so much wanting to stop taking the sleeping pills, but with DSPS, I don't know if I can do it.
Sorry to be so long winded. What has your experience been like with the sleeping pills?
Cheers.

ozij · Post by **ozij** » Sun Jun 26, 2005 11:38 pm

I have no personal experience with sleeping pills. But about 18 months ago it dawned on me that a close relative is addicted to benzos, and while searching the net I discovered this excelent site.

http://www.benzo.org.uk

O.

sharonious · Post by **sharonious** » Mon Jun 27, 2005 3:51 am

You must research this yourself since I don't have the reference. I read online that sleeping pills and pain pills, having an effect of relaxing one's muscles, also relax the muscles in the throat and may be a cause of osa. It seems reasonable to me. Good luck to you.

Swordz · Post by **Swordz** » Mon Jun 27, 2005 1:28 pm

snamvar:

I"m starting to think myself that I may have DSPS. Its takes me until about 3 AM to get to sleep, and I can sleep in until like 12-2 PM. It's crazy to think that's just 1 more thing that people may have but don't know, like apnea.

As far as the meds go, I don't take any that often becuase I've got that whole mentality of "It may help me, but the side effects are to overwhelming." But if it helps you, then that's all that matters. If i do take something its over the counter cuz I'm the poor college student without insurance.

Lunesta.... I remember the initial buzz about that. I think i had read about them having no signs of addiction after 6 months.. But we all know that 6 months is just that... 6 months, and not years like the average user would experience. Is it just me, or am i hearing as negative stuff about Lunesta as I am Ambien?

I go to my doc tomorrow for my insomnia, and I'm afraid all he's gonna do is just give me the paper and make me get pills. Am I wrong, but don't sleeping pills disturb your natural sleep sequence??? Such as going into all 4 stages and then REM?

snamvar · Post by **snamvar** » Mon Jun 27, 2005 6:38 pm

Hi Swords,
Do ask your doctor about DSPS and get informed on it. It would save you a lot of aggrevation along the way. I was quite good as a college student, but not as good at work trying to conform to a 9-5 schedule. Getting to work later and later got me labelled as "lazy"
Read my earlier posts on some web resources for knowing more about DSPS"
viewtopic.php?t=846
Best wishes.