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Sleep Deprivation, Disorders, and Drugs Tunsghen Anderson PSY / 240 July 15, 2012 Diane Pascoe

Some people have no issues falling asleep; while it is quite a struggle for some to even feel sleepy much less actually go to sleep. I will attempt to discuss the effects that having a lack of sleep has on a person, me included. I will discuss how it has affected my cognitive skills, moods, and behaviors along the long term effects that come from drug remedies. Shortly after we got married my wife suffered a pretty bad miscarriage, that was the start of my insomnia, before that I had always preferred the night. On several occasions I had to make myself fall asleep, no matter how long or hard I worked that day. When we lost our baby I could not sleep, my wife cried for the first week, I felt like I did not need sleep, I did not want to face it. As my wife cried, I would lay next to her trying to console her without success, it pained me that I could not stop her from hurting. I roamed around our house at night doing everything on that infamous honey do list that was taped to the refrigerator, just so I would not have to deal with it. In the beginning I did not want to sleep because I did not want to see our lives with our baby, I was afraid to dream, I was afraid of what I would see, and what I would miss, and it was too painful. Soon I did not sleep because I just could not, no matter how often I closed my eyes and kept them closed. My lack of sleep at this point was a result of the stresses from the miscarriage and it started to take its toll on my life. Going without sleep for several days, started to affect my mood and behavior drastically. Previously when I had been sleeping properly, I was in a good mood, even tempered, and fun to be around. After that I was cranky, had a nasty altitude, and not pleasant to be around. It became

hard for me to stay focused, and stay on task where I used to be on top of things, and I got very frustrated. My school and work responsibilities began to suffer due to my motor and cognitive skills not being at their best, I was having trouble paying attention to detail, grasping simple concepts, my hands would shake, my eyes would be blurry, and my mind would be fuzzy, and not all there. I was constantly getting called into my bosss office, because of my work performance or rather the lack of. Not only did my mind suffer but my body did as well, I was getting frequent headaches due to lack of sleep, my body would ache from being up at all hours and my energy level was nowhere to be found. I resorted to 5 Hour Energy shots and Red Bull energy drinks out of desperation. My personal experience had all the aspects of classic sleep deprivation. Some long-term consequences of those who are sleep deprived would be a decrease in alertness when wake, being sleepy in the daytime, or a shorter length of time to fall asleep. When dealing with sleep deprivation, sleep disorders usually

develop, followed by drug remedies designed to help people sleep when it does not accrue naturally. Sleep disorders fall under the two categories; insomnia and

hypersomnia. Insomnia is when you have difficulty falling and staying asleep, sleep apnea is a common cause of insomnia. Sleep apnea happens when a person stops breathing in their sleep several times a night. Hypersomnia is several episodes of excessive daytime sleepiness with narcolepsy as the most common form. Narcolepsy is defined as extreme drowsiness where you are subject to fall asleep at anytime, anywhere. To assist those with sleeping disorders there are several medications a person can consider. There are three classes of drugs that can coincide with sleep

disorders; Antihypnotic drugs, Hypnotic drugs, and melatonin. For people who cannot fall asleep and stay there (an insomniac), there are hypnotic drugs, usually benzodiazepines; designed to reduce awakenings and increase drowsiness. For people who have trouble staying awake ( a hypersomniac) there are two classes of drugs that fall under antihypnotic; a stimulant such as cocaine and a tricyclic antidepressant; prescribed by a physician. Either drug class is designed to stop the reuptake or increase the release of dopamine to the synapses. No matter how we look at it, we need sleep in order to function properly; it causes more harm than good hurt when we miss out on it. Our physical and mental

well being depends on the quality of sleep from the previous evening and if we do not get it, then it will have a trickle down affect everything around us.

References

Van Dongen HA et al. (2002). "The cumulative cost of additional wakefulness: dose-response effects on neurobehavioral functions and sleep physiology from chronic sleep restriction and total sleep deprivation". Sleep 26 (2): 11726. PMID 12683469.

Coren, Stanley (March 1998). Sleep Deprivation, Psychosis and Mental Efficiency" Psychiatric Times 15 (3). Retrieved 2009-11-25.