Need Some Sleep? Slumber Time With Renovating Your Mind

By rkutchjm on April 16, 2013

Addictive Meds That Increase Problems

It may have been what you ate, thoughts about work, budgetary shortcoming and the myriad of other annoyances that result in your lack of shuteye. Pharmaceutical “miracle men” have resolved all your problems. The easy solution is all in a little pill. Drug companies want you to believe that they have solution to your insomnia. Not one of these medications give you the same sleep patterns that the brain-body complex produces normally.

Dreams Where You Have Control of The Playing Field

Sleep is necessary but we don’t fully understand why? Your body needs down time to recuperate from the waking day. Researchers found that during our repose memories get consolidated and stored for long-term access. Our dreams are ways we experience life virtually without playing a video game. Actually it’s a game of R.E.M. (rapid eye movement) occurring in the most restful period of sleep where your most likely to remember your dreams. The eyes go up and down and all around behind those eyelids. It’s like you’re constantly evaluating your cranial scenario while accessing memory files necessary for survival during your sleep “game”.

The Pharmacist, Always Trying To Make Light Of Things 🙂

Thank you John McPherson for that cartoon.

With advances in chemical technology, medications have improved with regards to side effects. Drugs have gotten more selective for sitting in areas of the brain receptors that cause drowsiness. You will notice this with the decreasing strengths of prescription drugs over the decades. That usually means more drug selectivity. What drug companies haven’t resolved is getting the comparable quality of sleep bestowed on us by Mother Nature from their medications.

Now We’re Talking Barbecue

One prescription medication that is entirely different from the rest is Rozerem. It sits in the same areas of the brain as melatonin to induce drowsiness. Melatonin is a hormone produced by our body. It functions as part of the wake/sleep cycle. It is inhibited by light, especially the blue portion of light. Hundreds of years ago, fires for cooking and illumination primarily gave off yellow light. With most current lighting systems we are being hit with more blue color from within the lights. This suppresses melatonin production making it harder to fall asleep. Foods natural in serotonin will boost blood levels of melatonin. They are pineapples, cherries, bananas, grapes and oranges. They all are high in carbohydrate which boost the absorption of serotonin into the brain thereby increasing the production of melatonin.

So Rozerem either works well or not at all. The problem with the medication is that everyone needs a slightly different dose. There is only one strength, 8 mg available from the manufacturer. The pineal gland naturally squirts out varying amounts of melatonin throughout the day. The quantities made depend on food, light, darkness, stress and other factors. Rozerem’s attempted replication of melatonin through this 8 mg dose will never match a “normal” quality of sleep.

From a poll including almost 2 million participants rating best overall solutions to insomnia:

Liquid Version For Flexible Dosing

Number One Choice: melatonin (over the counter)

Company Should Make More Than One Strength

Number Two Choice: Rozerem (Rx)

Flexible Dosing For Adults, Labeled For Children

Number Three Choice: Benadryl (diphenhydramine) (OTC)

Addictive, The Lower The Dose The Better

Number Three Choice: Ambien (zolpidem) (Rx)

Benadryl tied with Ambien for third place.

As a pharmacist, I agree with their selections except for one point on Ambien. I would try Benadryl instead of Ambien with your healthcare professional in agreement. Benadryl is not addicting. If an adult purchases the children’s liquid formulation the dosing becomes very flexible. 2 teaspoonfuls of the liquid is equivalent to 1 adult dose of 25 mg. Also Ambien has a number of side effects and some very strange ones like retrograde amnesia.