Sleep Deprivation, Disorders, & Drugs

“I try to elude you for you sleep are the close cousin of death, but no matter how I try and escape the grasp of the two of you, I know soon I will fall prey to your seductive charms and my only reward will be to dream of his beautiful face”- Anneke Wilson

Sleep! Some of us have no problem getting there, while others have to fight just to get an appointment with the sandman. During this paper I will talk about the effects that lack of sleep has on people, including myself. I will talk about how it has affected my mood, behavior, and cognitive skills, as well as the long term effects that rise from it warranting plausible drug remedies.

When my son died on January 4, 2011 it was the beginning of my descent into darkness. Before my son died I was always a night owl. On more occasions than one I had to force myself into sleep just so I would be ready to face the next day that lay ahead of me, which were filled with running after a little person that had enough energy to power eight suns plus one moon. When Adonys passed I didn’t want to sleep anymore, I felt like I didn’t need it, I thought sleep was my enemy and I would do anything to avoid it. So, for the first week that my son was gone I lay awake, I wandered around the house doing random things just so I would not meet sleep. At first it was only because I dint want to close my eyes for fear of seeing my son, then opening them and he not be there, that was scary.

After awhile I didn’t sleep, because I just couldn’t, no matter how often I closed my eyes sleep was elusive, I guess you should be careful what you wish for. At this point my lack of sleep was a direct result of the stress from Adonys’ death and as a result of that my life started to suffer. After not sleeping for several days my moods and behavior started to change drastically. Before when I was getting enough sleep, I was always happy, very fun loving and expressive. Afterwards, I was very crabby and had a nasty tone to my voice, I started to find it hard to concentrate on everyday tasks and where I used to be very expressive, and I was at a loss for words.

My motor and cognitive skills also suffered because where I used to be able to pay close attention to detail in my school and work life, I no longer was able to grasp certain easy concepts because my hands would shake or my eyes would be blurry and my mind just wasn’t there. I was reprimanded at my job because I would fall asleep for a couple of seconds (micro sleep) at my computer. My mind was not the only thing that suffered however my body also took a beating. Because I was not sleeping I developed headaches, my body would be stiff from all the hours of being up and my energy to do anything was at an all time low. My experience has completely coincided with all aspects of sleep deprivation.

There are consequences to a lack of sleep in a person’s life. Some long-term consequences are decreased alertness during wakefulness, day-time sleepiness, or a decrease in the amount of time it takes to fall asleep (John P.J. Pinel, 2009). Along with the consequences of sleep reduction are sleep disorders and drug remedies to help us sleep at night when we can’t get the job done on our own. There are many sleep disorders many of which fall under the two categories of insomnia and hypersomnia. Insomnia is the difficulty of falling asleep and staying asleep, it is thought that insomnia is iatrogenic (physician created); sleep apnea is a cause of insomnia. Sleep apnea occurs when a person stops breathing several times during their sleep at night. Hypersomnia is defined as several reoccurring episodes of excessive daytime sleepiness with narcolepsy being the most common form of it. Narcolepsy is a period of extreme drowsiness where you can fall asleep at anytime, anywhere. To help remedy these sleep disorders there are certain pharmaceutical options to take in to consideration. There are three drug classes that can accompany sleep disorders; Hypnotic drugs, antihypnotic drugs, and melatonin. (John P.J. Pinel, 2009)

For those who have trouble falling asleep and staying there (insomniacs), there are hypnotic drugs, mainly benzodiazepines which are designed to reduce awakenings and increase drowsiness. For those who have trouble staying awake (hypersomniacs) there are two classes of drugs that fall under antihypnotic; the stimulants such as cocaine and the tricyclic antidepressants which are prescribed by a doctor. Both of these drug classes are designed to stop the reuptake or increase the release of dopamine to the synapses. (John P.J. Pinel, 2009)

Sleep! Either way we look at it we need it to function properly in our everyday lives. As much as some of us would like to avoid it all together, it would hurt us more than benefit us to miss it. Physically and mentally we depend on sleep from the night before to prepare us for the day after and if we do not take advantage of it then it will certainly at some point take advantage of us.