Sleep Drugs Found Only Mildly Effective, but Wildly Popular

[quiet storm]

Just an excerpt, click link for whole article.

Sleep Drugs Found Only Mildly Effective, but Wildly Popular

Your dreams miss you. Or so says a television commercial for Rozerem, the sleeping pill. In the commercial, the dreams involve [link=http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/l/abraham_lincoln/index.html?inline=nyt-per" target="_blank]Abraham Lincoln[/link], a beaver and a deep-sea diver. Not the stuff most dreams are made of. But if the unusual pitch makes you want to try Rozerem, consider that it costs about $3.50 a pill; gets you to sleep 7 to 16 minutes faster than a placebo, or fake pill; and increases total sleep time 11 to 19 minutes, according to an analysis last year.

If those numbers send you out to buy another brand, consider this, as well: Sleeping pills in general do not greatly improve sleep for the average person.

American consumers spend $4.5 billion a year for sleep medications. Their popularity may lie in a mystery that confounds researchers. Many people who take them think they work far better than laboratory measurements show they do.

An analysis of sleeping pill studies found that when people were monitored in the lab, newer drugs like Ambien, Lunesta and Sonata worked better than fake pills. But the results were not overwhelming, said the analysis, which was published this year and financed by the [link=http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/n/national_institutes_of_health/index.html?inline=nyt-org" target="_blank]National Institutes of Health[/link].

The analysis said that viewed as a group, the pills reduced the average time to go to sleep 12.8 minutes compared with fake pills, and increased total sleep time 11.4 minutes. The drug makers point to individual studies with better results..........

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/23/health/2...amp;oref=slogin

[Rabbit37]

I can understand the only vague increase in sleep time... but it doesn't really address the quality of sleep. Luckily, my meds knock me out anyway, so I don't have a need for them, but I was a Halcion taker many years ago. It's frightening, I woke up doing odd things, like standing in front of an open fridge, and once standing over my daughter's crib. THAT scared the hell out of me, and I stopped taking it. Still, an interesting article, just goes to show the publicity campaigns of big pharmaceuticals.

[quiet storm]

Actually, with the benzos and non benzo hypnotics, if I remember right they actually have a negative impact on sleep quality. They increase stage 2 sleep and decrease time spent in the refreshing and restorative stages 3 and 4. I do remember reading that trazodone actually increases stage 3 and 4 sleep time.

[r.mcmurphy]

i have found that my brilliant, effective p-doc's insistance to cease the use of non benzo hypnotics as well as benzos for sleep is well founded. his take is that they drive depression. i was terrified of losing the only refuge from depression (sleep) that i had at the time. it took a couple of visits for me to trust him to get me sleep w/o the use of ambien.

he had me substitue seroquel for ambien which i had taken for years. the switch brought a nearly immediate break out from the pit which i had inhabited for six months. all those sleeping pills bear warning that they are for short term use.

that warning perhaps goes to what quiet storm had to say: "Actually, with the benzos and non benzo hypnotics, if I remember right they actually have a negative impact on sleep quality."

rx list provides "This selective binding of zolpidem on the (ω1) receptor is not absolute, but it may explain the relative absence of myorelaxant and anticonvulsant effects in animal studies as well as the preservation of deep sleep (stages 3 and 4) in human studies of zolpidem at hypnotic doses. "

also stated was "Ambien has generally been shown to preserve sleep stages. Sleep time spent in stages 3 and 4 (deep sleep) was found comparable to placebo with only inconsistent, minor changes in REM (paradoxical) sleep at the recommended dose. WTF, is this not a contradiction to the above?

depression was stated as a side effect but was statisticaly, practically absent in testing. i have got to gather that either i am a freak or that report was not based on guinea pigs that hadn't taken it for years without let up.

all apologys for windy post.

[quiet storm]

I think they are both saying that it preserves the sleep stages. That first paragraph is worded a litte funny. I couldve swore I read that they decrease deep sleep time. Maybe it was just the regular benzos I was reading about.

I was absolutey more depressed when took Ambien r.c., so you are not alone. It is listed as a side effect on the ambien and lunesta PI sheets. It's a small percentage(like 2-4% if I remember correctly) but it is there. I take lunesta now and it is much kinder to my mood. But lunesta isnt as strong as ambien either. Ambien is like a 10 pound sledge hammer and lunesta is more like a rubber mallet.

[r.mcmurphy]

lunesta=copper mouth. certainly a tolerable side effect.

agreed that ambien=sledge and lunesta=rubber mallet! using same metaphor, seroquel=dead blow hammer.

[Thomas]

I take Restoril and Klonopin to help me fall asleep faster and sleep better; for me, they seem to work quite well.

Tommy

[Maceo]

I don't understand that because I know if I take say 20mg Ambien-CR I will sleep all night. If I don't take anything I won't sleep at all. This isn't because I'm addicted to the drugs either. I don't use them ATM. I just can't sleep and when I've used sleeping pills they work really well the first couple of nights.