(version 26 September 2012)
It turns out that some people are insomniacs since years, but do not know much about sleeping pills -> therefore this 'quickguide', very practical as well.
An overview of sleeping pills with the generic name, you find under wikipedia, and then 'sedative' (very irritating when films and bands also call themselves insomnia): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sedative . The list has pretty much changed since 10 years, and as your docter probably studied 30 years ago, he/she is does not really know what to do. They just prescribe a name they know, the only thing thet make sure is that they do not exceed the quantities of the national pharma guide.
A national pharma guide is usually on the very conservative side, so made for people of 50 kilo and still then: very conservative, otherwise they are sued. The same counts for the sideeffects: all side effects someone can think of, are mentioned, in order not to be sued.
So if one kind of sleepingtablet does not work: print out the wikipedia and ask for another kind of pill. It is just trial and error which pill suits you. Most insomniacs are happy with most of the pills - in other words, regarding sleeping: most sorts of pills work on you.
Far more trial and error counts for antidepressants. There:
- most pills do NOT work for someone. Very frustrating, it is trial and error until maybe the 4th kind of pill work
- scientist, pharmacologists, usually very clever people, try to explain WHY a certain drug works.....but most of the times it is difficult to totally explained. A drug is found for example for epilepsy, and then someone thinks: 'Would it work for depression as well?'And yes, if 1 on 3 it works, and may be admitted as antidepressant in that country.
The pharm industry of course starts with trials on rats - those animals are usually not liked and almost no one will protest if they are taken for trial. But then, to be more humanlike, drugs are tested on apes. And when that works as well, on humans. The humans are of course volunteers, are paid for etc.
To come back to pills: if one kind does not work, take the wikipedia list to your doc and ask for another. Most will work.
However, there is a choice you DO have: that is the half-time of your pill. See your pill as a chemical product that has to be broken off by your body. If you take a 'shortsleeper' (informal term), be sure that 15 minutes after swallowing you are lying in bed and lights go out. But, it can be that after 2-3 hours you wake up.....not in a happy sleepy mood, but fully awake. Then you may prefer a 'mediumsleeper' (informal term) instead, or a 'longsleeper' (long half time). A 'longsleeper' may sound ideal, but is not. You can swallow then and not feel tired after 2-3 hours....you are anxious whether you can sleep.....turn out the lights...and lie awake. But usually you fall asleep better than you thought. BUT: it is difficult to wake you up in the middle of the night (for example, if you should be standbye for your profession) and in the morning, they may still work. You may have more little car accidents in the morning (which is not argument against pills, because without pills you have at least as much risk having a car accident).
So expert-users like to have 2 kinds of pills in parallel: a short sleeper to fall asleep, and then a longsleeper to make it through the night.
Unfortunately, we could not find a wikipedia table with half-times of pills. So per pill you will have to google on 'halftime wikipedia pill xyz'. On overview of as many as possible pills in the world you find on http://sleephacks.org/names-of-sleeping-pills-currently-in-use.
So, your doc should be prepared:
- to change pills till you found a brand that suits you
- go on prescribing after 2-3 weeks.
Some docters say that after 3 weeks you should stop, otherwise become dependent etc - fairy tales. If your life problems are not over, you need then. Find another doc who is more relaxed in prescribing. Or find two independent docs (for that reason: never agree to an electronic patient file). In the ultimate case, you can threaten your docter that you will go to the national complaints authority against docters, that it is irresponsible to stop at once, that it is irresponsible letting you driving car or performing work without pills, etc..
It may be you need - as quantity - 2 or 3 times the pharm guide quantity, because you are very heavy/tall/have big brains/you are very resistant etc. Then you have the choice either to sneaky find a second docter and second pharmacy, both not related to eachother, OR buy pills on internet.
On internet:
- pills cost 2 USD per pill instead of the 10-15 cents in the pharmacy on prescription- you order them on site A, you are redirected to site B for payment, what appears on your creditcard statement is C, and maybe 4 weeks later you get an envelope that seems to come from India......not mentioning what brand it is, and whether the delivery is related to site A. But some are quite good, on http://slaappillen.nl a good selection is made. The rest of the site is in Dutch, but it are the URL's that count, those suppliers are reliable. But a) you must have enough money to afford for example 200 USD per month on extra pills and b) ->
- you need a credit card, nearly always Visa. It used to be a problem when you were unemployed, or had a low wage, to have a credit card. But in fact you don't need credit, you just want to have a 'paying card'. Visa came with a brilliant invention for all of us: the 3V Visa card, see https://www.3vcard.nl/. That is the Dutch variation, but you will find one in your country. At first it is a bit complicated, make a good file, after a while it is brilliant. You can bankwire money from your bank account to 3V Visa, mentioning your client number, and 2 days later you can do as if it were a real Visa card and use it the same way. Your name is not typed on it, but just fill out your name, and now you finally can buy anything you want on the web. In these credit crisis times banks are very difficult about having a normal one.
Now alcohol. Quite often in life, everything that is forbidden, is good to do ;). So pills and a modest quantity of alcohol work fine. They say 'no alcohol' because it may work so fine that you drop dead and they are sued then. But alcohol has the disadvantage you wake up earlier. This is true with pills and without pills.
In the beginning of your insomnia period you maybe did not dare to go to a doc, or your boyfriend said no, or parents, but go. Timely reduction of insomnia prevents it becoming chronic. The doc, like a neurologist, knows nothing about sleep and therefore asks you (how stupid these docs can be...) but they will prescribe.
When you try alcohol to sleep and don't fetch pills, you have to take alcohol that your stomach can bear, for example white wine. Watch out with wodka, it is very agreeable to drink and you feel fresh in your mouth, almost as if you had brushed your teeth, so you don't feel like a 'dirty drunk', but wodka is the softest and most dangerous killer in the world. The average Russian man dies around 56 years (!!!) - in other developed countries around 76. That difference is explained by wodka. But ok, whine then, 1 bottle, then 2, you feel sick, you may doze away for 2 hours but after that: guaranteed you wake up. So a bit of alcohol, like a heavy (10%) Belgian beer, with a shortsleeper combined with a long sleeper is the ultimate enjoyment for the insomniac who can afford it.
But still then, pharm has disadvantages:
- you loose time, to get to sleep
- it erodes self confidence
- it costs extra money
- you have risk to 'shock' periods like 7-11 nights without supply- it means extra work for liver and kidneys (the 'poison' has to be broken off)
- what do you do when do when you become old? You may have less money to buy pills by then, if you go to an elderly home the nurse may open your thick envelopes and 'tell it to the doc' where after you need friends and 'prison tactics' like a friend bringing you cake, but you knowing that inside the cake are sleeping pills......and you have at night, in the dark, with other people in the room, to open the cake, the plastic with the tablets and take the right amount of tables and hide all this from everyone, especially the cleaners. OR: you may not be able to read a computer screen anymore, or to type anymore, or your Visa card is taken away because they think you have dementia......this all is not a nice end of life. Therefore: start to look for solutions actively, seek search centers, seek the Insomnia Clients Foundation etc before you get old.
All sleeping pills are 'sedative', they make your drowsy......active thinking slows down, you cannot really read a newspaper anymore.....and this all facilitates the 'handing over' of control from the 'central nervous system' to a 'decentral nervous system' without you actively initiating or preventing it. The decentral nervous system keeps your vital organs going on, like heart, breathing, blood circulation, but lets all other organs, and certainly the 5 senses, sleep and recover, so they feel 'fresh and reborn' the next morning. BUT: when there is a strong stimulus to 1 or more of the 5 senses (bright light, noise, smell, being pushed) then decentral 'wakes up' central nervous sytem that immediately takes over control.
When you sleep with sleeping pills, it is more difficult to wake someone up.
You can compare it in a way with a computer. A computer is programmed such that after x minutes no stimulus to its senses (being keyboard, mouse or touchscreen) it goes on 'standby'. To save energy and save lifetime of parts. When there is a sudden stimulus to one of the computer's senses, like a touch of the mouse, it wakes up again.
Unfortunately, the 'going standby' mechanism of a human being is far more complicated than that of a computer. The body is mainly organic, so the 'falling standby' had to be done with all kinds of natural chemicals. One of the following years, volunteers will have a chip implanted in order to fall asleep or wake up. The first chip implant was in 2011 in an eye, so pretty complicated, but worked perfectly. It may happen that 'wonder of life' lobbyists will oppose and will forbid it in the USA, but there will always be islands on planet that will make it their business to fully allow it.
But instead of a chip, other 'precise' electronic possibilities exist and will exist. For other purposes than insomnia, namely musckes respectively Parkinson, EMS respectively 'Deep Brain' techniques are already applied that work in a very precise way.
Electronic engineers enter the medical field, work together with physicists and biologists, and physicians/doctors loose their holy status and become standers-by of other, exact sciences that are not only more analytical and more precise, but have a more innovative basic attitude as well. Physicians worked a lot with statistics and guesses, and after their promotion tended to operate purely on grounds of their 'status'. These times will be over, the 'exact' sciences will take over the leadership over the body from the physicians. Physicians, for the first time in history, will fall in status and in authorisation level to intervene in the human body. Currently, doctors have monopoly over 2 things: 1) prescribing medicine 2) intervene in human bodies. I think doctors will loose both monopolies within 10-20 years - a historical victory of the exact sciences.
Philippe for Lisa - 26 september 2012
