Posted by laima on January 24, 2007, at 10:41:02
In reply to Re: Klonopin/sleep » laima, posted by falconman on January 24, 2007, at 9:59:51
Roughly speaking, I've been told by both sleep doctor and psychiatrist that stages 3-4 are the very resorative stages of sleep, crucial for good mental health. Psychiatrist even quipped, "If you want to make someone go totally insane, just deprive them of stage 4 for awhile". That said, I am bewildered why benzos are so commonly used for sleep. Sure, they make a person sleepy and fall asleep...it's just the QUALITY of sleep that is suspect. For daytime tiredness, the sleep doctor I saw actualy advocated stimulants by day rather than benzos by night. She wasn't even a fan of ambien or that sort of medication, on grounds that long term they were no good due to this very same sleep architecture problem. Oh, by the way, I used short acting benzos like ativan for sleep before (sleep architecture problems and all), buit the problem was I'd bolt awake in the wee hours of the morning when they wore off. Klonopin lasts through the night. Overall, a frustrating situation.
> > Thanks loads for helping me. I thought it must mess with cycles 3+4 as essentially it is a benzo. Because it seems to be used more than most other benzo's for sleep(probably due to anticonvulsant properties as you said), I thought maybe it didn't mess with sleep architecture quite as much. Now I want to work out what I might be missing out on. In other words, what the purpose of cycle 3+4 are.
> Thanks again
>
> > I understand it DOES act like the other benzos in terms of sleep. Another thing about it, it lasts all night. As an anticonvulsant, it can calm restless legs, stuff like that- but the trade off is sleep cycles are messed up. I had a couple of sleep studies while on klonopin, and showed very, very, very little stage 3 or 4.
> >
> >
> > > Hi,
> > > I've read that benzo's affect your sleep cycle. Typically stage 2 is increased whilst the deep sleep of stages 3 and 4 are decreased. Not good. However I've got the impression from somewhere that clonazepam does not behave like the other benzo's in this regard? Isn't it the benzo of choice for insomnia? Does it affect deep sleep?
> > > Can somebody help me out here?
> > > Thanks
> >
> >
>
>
poster:laima
thread:725866
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20070119/msgs/725920.html