Posted by laima on February 15, 2007, at 16:00:09
In reply to Sleep Ridiculous, posted by Phillipa on February 15, 2007, at 12:45:31
It's the stages 3 and 4 that are considered the deep/restorative stages, and ironically, the ones that benzos and sleep meds diminish. Each night a person goes through the cycles several times, and each cycle becomes deeper as the night goes on: 1, 2, 3, 4- then REM. Then back to 1... So on benzos or sleep meds, the sleeper rushes through 3 and 4, and these stages aren't as long or deep as they are supposed to be- and in some cases they almost disappear. You can't know for sure what's going on without a sleep study though- they can tell by looking at brain waves.There is some description of the sleep cycles on wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SleepThey've also got links to other places for more information. Wikipedia itself doesn't say much of anything specific about mental health and sleep.
> For many many years I've been on combos of meds for sleep doesn't matter how many or how strong but in 4-5hours always wake-up and even a redose of med and can't go back to sleep. When in the cycle is the restorative sleep. I do fall asleep right away. Been on xanax, valium, lunesta, ambien,chloral hydrate, klonopin, and combos of the above. Thanks me again Phillipa ps I think the lack of long sleep is keeping the anxiety alive and has lead to the depression.
poster:laima
thread:733048
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20070213/msgs/733101.html