![]() Jacqueline Susanne’s 1966 novel ‘The Valley of the Dolls’, one of the most successful books in publishing history, and the later movie depicted aspiring Hollywood actresses who took ‘dolls’ (barbiturates) to sleep, then other pills to wake up. Their mis-use and abuse was often reflected in popular culture. ![]() Among others, there was reduced effectiveness across time (tolerance), and the development of dependence, with medically serious withdrawal syndromes. As time went on, though, their many drawbacks also became evident. Each in turn was lauded as potent inducers of sleep, and indeed they were. Others, including the later methaqualone and glutethimide (no longer available), became popular as sleeping pills. The relatively more recent history of sleeping pills began with the discovery of chloral hydrate in the mid-nineteenth century and the clinical development of barbiturates as sedatives at the beginning of the twentieth. Difficult Beginnings: Early Sleeping Pills Most persons who are dependent on opiates complain of sleep disturbance, and about half say that they continue to use drugs in a (futile) effort to improve it. In persons with past histories of addiction, sleep after taking opiates is often shorter, with more awakenings, and greatly reduced slow-wave sleep and REM sleep (sometimes called ‘morphine insomnia’). In persons who have not taken opiates before, when sleep does occur, it is characterized by up to 50 percent reduction in slow-wave sleep (Stage N3, or ‘deep sleep’). It may be fitting, then, that morphine is named after Morpeus, one of the Greek gods of dreams, rather than Hypnos, the god of sleep. In addition to being painkillers, they are sedatives, and produce a drowsy euphoric state, which looks like quiet wakefulness physiologically. Even upon stopping drinking, the effects of alcohol on the nervous system are such that sleep will continue to be disturbed for up to two years.ĭerivatives of the poppy-morphine and heroin-are also no friends of sleep. In the short term this may happen-they will fall asleep more quickly-but in the long term their sleep difficulties will be perpetuated. Persons who abuse alcohol in the long term also have very poor sleep, and often drink in hopes of improvement. The result is usually a disturbed night’s sleep, from which one awakens unrefreshed. Alcohol can indeed help one to fall asleep sooner, but it is broken down by the body very quickly, so that in the second half of the night there is a kind of ‘mini-withdrawal’ process in which sleep is interrupted by many awakenings. In terms of sleep, though, they have turned out to be false friends. Among those going back to ancient times have been alcohol and opiates. People have used various substances to aid sleep from the earliest days of recorded history. The below is an excerpt from Mendelson’s new book Understanding Sleeping Pills and is reprinted with permission. A sleep researcher outlines the various substances that have been used to aid sleep, ranging from alcohol, barbiturates, benzodiazepines, and many others.
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