To Sleep or not to Sleep?

[Guest fountainhall]

Yet another study - and yet another habit that seems to increase our risk of succumbing to an early death. This time - sleeping pills.

 

This study was carried out in the US where it is estimated up to 10% of the adult population took sleeping pills in 2010. It’s further estimated that these pills “may have been associated” with from 320,000 to 507,000 extra deaths in the country last year.

 

Over a two-and-a-half-year period, they compared the death rates among more than 10,500 people who received sleeping pill prescriptions with those of more than 23,600 others – matched for age, state of health and other factors – who had not received such medication. The average age of the study group was 54.

 

The scientists in the study found that even at a relatively low rate of prescription – fewer than 18 doses a year – those who were given the pills had a 3.5 times greater risk of death compared with those who were not prescribed them. Individuals who were given pills more frequently – between 18 and 132 doses in a year – were more than four times more likely to be dead at the end of the study. The risk of death for those on the most pills – 132 doses or more a year – was more than five times that of those on no pills.

 

Those who had taken the most pills were also 35% more likely to be diagnosed with cancer – although they had not been at greater risk of cancer than the control group before the study began. The risk was greatest for temazepam, one of the benzodiazepines. A link between sleeping pill use and cancer has also been found in previous studies.

 

http://www.guardian....isk-death-study

 

If the study’s findings are anything like accurate, then I’d better put my things in order pretty quick! I admit that I have taken quite a number of sleeping pills over the course of my adult life, mostly when flying and in the days following when I had to work, and again for a few days after returning home. In fact, I don’t think I could have coped without them.

 

Whilst on a long-haul flight, I’ll take a pill to get me at least six hours sleep. After a time change of 8 – 12 hours, I usually find no difficulty getting to sleep. It’s the waking up after about three hours feeling wide awake that ‘kills’ me. Half a pill will send me back to sleep for another few hours.

 

I like some of the comments generated by the article in today’s Guardian.

 

- “Isn't there an already 100% risk of death?”

- “Oh for God's sake ...”

- “Just about everything one does in life nowadays seems to come with some sort of ‘risk of death’ as assessed by some expert or other!”

- “I find flying, especially 747s has a soporific effect, and so does my co-pilot.”

[kokopelli]

From my experience, zolpidem/Ambien is a nasty type of sleeping pill with adverse effects. I can easily believe it can lead to death. One time, after using it at night, I made several serious driving errors that morning such as driving through a STOP sign at a dangerous intersection where people had previously been killed for not stopping.

[Guest fountainhall]

From my experience, zolpidem/Ambien is a nasty type of sleeping pill with adverse effects.

 

I used to have it prescribed by a doctor at Bumrungrad. Prior to one long 3-week trip away, I called in advance and he said he'd have the pharmacy have 14 tablets for me (the maximum they prescribed at any one time). When I got there, I was informed they had run out of this particular pill but they would give me another in its place. This turned out to be Rohypnol!

 

Known as the 'date-rape' drug, this has been banned in many countries for many years. Since I was travelling, I refused to accept them. I got another sleeping aid in Canada instead. But I could not believe that one of the major hospitals here would be prescribing this drug when the doctor knew the user would be travelling across several international borders!

[Guest thaiworthy]

I took Ambien (generic Zolpidem Tartrate) one time just prior to boarding a flight to Thailand. I am a bariatric patient, and took a 10 mg tablet on an empty stomach while seated in the terminal. Medicine acts very, very quickly with bariatric patients and I was completely knocked out in less than 2 minutes. Eventually everyone was already on board the plane and they were about to close the door when they noticed me asleep. They woke me, but as I tried to walk, I staggered quite a bit and couldn't walk straight. So they put me in a wheelchair to board the plane! Embarrassing, I think since I don't normally need a wheelchair!

 

I don't take this very often, as I had ten pills in the prescription and still have 5 left. Several other times after I had eaten, I took a pill and then I enter a sort of twilight time before going to sleep. I am able to function and walk without hobbling, but the next day I forgot things I had done during that twilight time. One was a phone conversation I had no recollection of, another is an email I had sent, but could't remember having sent it. Weird.

 

Apart from sleeping pills, if you use prescription medicine to stay alive, I would highly recommend this site:

 

http://www.healthwarehouse.com/

 

They are not Canadian, but are cheaper than Canadian pharmacies. Often times they are cheaper than the co-pay I have from my insurance company. For example, a box of pen needle syringes has a co-pay of $135 from my insurance company. The entire medicine from healthwarehouse for the same item costs only $16. That's quite a difference, but alas they only ship within the US. However, Thailand is even cheaper than that!

 

The pharmacy I use in Bangkok is called Jurapaysutt Pharmacy on Rama IV at Silom near the Saladaeng BTS station. It is right next to the Crown Plaza Hotel. The address is 942/25 Rama IV. Phone: 0-2234-1297; 0-2233-5105; 0-2235-3134; fax 0-2233-2081. I highly recommend them. Some US-made medicine may not be so substantially cheaper, it depends on what it is, but overall they are definitely worth it.

 

Everyone has to use their own judgement when taking drugs. I also avoid buying medications that were made in India, because only a few of them are actually approved by the FDA. So there is a risk with anything you ingest or inject, but why increase the odds against you? Medicine is there for a purpose, so you can survive. But like illegal drugs, they can be abused.

[Guest]

I sometimes use the herbal sleeping aids such as Nytol, or equivalent. Particularly for a few days after arrival in Asia, when they do seem to help me to adjust to the new timezone.

 

Two years ago I tried Diphenhydramine Hydrochloride (Boots Sleepeaze) for the first time on a flight to Thailand. These didn't seem to perform any better than the herbal variety & certainly don't guarantee me 6~8 hours sleep on the plane. Identifying something that does achieve that sleep target with negligible risk would be nice.

 

I have read stories of people taking pills in the airport and missing the flight, so waiting until you are on the plane seems like a better strategy.

[Guest fountainhall]

I have read stories of people taking pills in the airport and missing the flight, so waiting until you are on the plane seems like a better strategy.

 

Better still, wait till you are actually in the air! I have had two 'incidents' with pills on planes. At London Gatwick, I took a pill as the plane was taxiing to the runway. I woke up shortly before we arrived in Dubai and noticed we were about 90 minutes behind schedule. One of the cabin staff then told me there had been a technical hitch before taking off, the plane had to return to the terminal, the passengers deplaned for an hour and then returned. I remembered none of it!

 

Some years later, my company wanted me for meetings in New York. As it had a deal with Northwest, I had to take that airline. I wangled a long week-end in Honolulu en route. Tanned and relaxed, I boarded the evening flight for MSP and on to JFK. After take-off, I had my usual vodka tonic, ate part of the meal and popped whatever sleeping aid I had been given at the time.

 

Again I woke a couple of hours before landing. Except we kept on flying. This time there had been another longish problem. A passenger had had a heart attack and the plane wad diverted for an unscheduled stop in San Francisco to get him to hospital. Once again, I was oblivious to it all.

 

Concerned, I told my doctor who then gave me different medication for future travels!

[kokopelli]

A much safer sleeping aid is Sonata/Zaleplon 10mg for both air travel and elsewhere. It is good for a few hours such as on a plane and no after effects. Also quite inexpensive for the generic Zaleplon.

 

For longer lasting relief try Lunesta which is much more expensive.