Posted by laima on October 7, 2006, at 9:54:47
In reply to Re: Benzo Sleep, posted by notfred on October 7, 2006, at 1:12:26
Yes, I have heard and experienced the same thing. Whenever I've tapered away from klonopin, the quality of my sleep developes into something that feels more genuine and restful after a couple of weeks. But anxiety often brings the klonopin back, and the yo-yo goes on. There's a lot of info out there, indeed, about how benzos interfere with the deepest stages of sleep, which are the crucial "restorative" stages. I heard a psychiatrist say once, half in jest, "If you want to make someone insane, all you need to do is deprive them of Stage 4 long term.."
Interestingly, I went to a sleep lab before, and they were very, very enthused to bring on the stimulants rather than the sleep meds. Ie, if I took them in the AM, they would be largely cleared out by bedtime...is how I understood. Also interestingly, I was using klonopin and lamictal during that study, and the doctors were pretty ruffled to see that I had almost no Stage 4 and very, very little Stage 3 at the time. I also woke 39 times! I had no idea of any of it- I just thought I slept alright, thanks to klonopin. And guess what- I was a miserable, moody mess those days. They would like me to take another study now, but I had the 24 hour version, and am kind of dodging it. (Brutal.)Maybe we should be careful. I'm using some klonopin nowadays again, but I am wary to keep that up long term. (Sometimes imperfect sleep is better than no sleep or evenings of anxiety.)
Oh- and there is something interesting in Time recently about current speculations about imperfect sleep, mostly the sort associated with FREQUENT AWAKENINGS due to breathing problems, possibly CAUSING depression. How about that? (Oct 2, 2006, p87)
And as for ambien, etc- I read a Consumer Reports article recently (over the summer if anyone wants to go hunting) which claimed that they too keep a person almost exclusively in light stages of sleep- and in fact, work in part by causing the sleeper to forget their frequent awakenings. In other words, they don't remember waking up- and believe they don't, so are more satisfied. That class of drugs is famous for amnesia, of course. Now I have no idea if this is all actually true- but distressing if it is. "Not for long-term use" indeed. Sorry-threw the article away because mom gave it to me, complete with several colors of highlighters highlighting her favorite parts!
This stuff isn't easy. In an almost sickly humourous way, it kind of reminds me of those environmental interventions gone awry- ie- bring in a wild weed because it's a good crop or feeds catttle- whatever- then bring in rabbits to eat the weed when it goes out of control, then bring in something to eat the rampant rabbits, etc. Stories like that.
> http://www.tranx.org.au/benzodiaz.html :
>
> Studies have shown that long term use of the benzodiazepines for sleep increases the number of times a person wakes in the night and decreases the amount of time spent in deep sleep.
>
> /endquote
>
> Benzos cause one to stay in the lighter stages of sleep longer and not get as much restful sleep, stage III and IV.
>
poster:laima
thread:692495
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20061003/msgs/692675.html