Drugs and sleep.

I hesitated before writing this as a blog entry. It qualifies as a diary entry, but I wonder if it has any interest at all to others. Then I figured: this thing is about me, not what’s interesting for others: its for them to make that decision, so off we go.

Always a nervy child, after teenagerism and the time when I learned that I had to pay for things myself, the rest of life has been a fairly constant effort to keep the taxman satisfied and the rent paid. Hence a fair bit of worry wort ism, to a fairly worry wort type of character.

Add the police force as a job: whose insane shift system turns sane recruits into zombies in about three years is still in practice and we get to the point that sleep is something I have been a stranger to most of my life. The problem with that is that if you don’t sleep well enough, and I can get by with about five hours or so: any less and you are not effective at what you do. Always falling asleep at the wheel. That in itself is a dreadful hamsters wheel, because you sleep/nap in the day, and the wheel starts again……….

One particular drug that was particularly successful at giving one nights sleep and no comebacks, was one of the early barbiturates that you can’t get now, (unless you have a sleepless pet:))…….

Then since the eighties, they were prescribing the pams, (Temazepam) all of which didn’t send you off to sleep, but kept you half awake all the following day. Horribly worthless.

Since coming to America, there is something that works wonderfully well, called Alprazolam/Zanax, which one isn’t supposed to take because its addictive, but a few days on it definitely leaves one calm and relaxed. It makes my arthritis worse and works on the asthma too, so best avoided, but quite good.

Lastly: after a particularly rotten period of late: when I’m forever waking up at 0230hours and unable to get back to sleep: I yelled for help from the doctor and in a knee jerk reaction: she prescribed Lunesta. Not the 1 mg of the past, but a full 3 megaton version which bopped me upside the head and worked a treat.

So far: I did wake at 0220 hours, (there must be something happening at that time, which is getting me awake) but it allowed me to roll over and go back to sleep…hooray!