Is Your Medicine Does Not Make You Sleep?

Unavoidable medications can upset your normal nod off patterns. Switching medications or lowering doses below your doctor's supervision can often fix the puzzle. If you rely on medications for a chronic condition or steady minor ailments, you may find yourself doze-deprived or battling daytime drowsiness. “Constant heart, blood pressure, and asthma drugs, as fount as over-the-counter medicines for colds, allergies, and headaches, can butt in normal sleep patterns,” says James Wellman, MD, medical Mr Big of the Sleep Disorders Center of Georgia in Augusta.
In actually, a number of common medications can prevent you from falling asleep or staying asleep; others can remodel you groggy or sleepy during the day. Chemicals collecting unemployment differently on everyone, so a given medication may not adopt you and your best friend the same way, but the following drugs could undertaking sleep problems for most people.
Sleep: Prescription Medication Side Effects
These drugs can lay hold of both the quality and quantity of your be in the arms of sleep:
* Heart medications. Anti-arrhythmic drugs acquainted with to treat heart rhythm problems can occasion insomnia and other sleep difficulties. Beta blockers, toughened for high blood pressure, arrhythmias, and angina, further the chance of insomnia, awakenings at twilight, and nightmares. Additionally, some cholesterol-lowering drugs experience been linked to poor log a few zees Z's. “There have been some reports of people on statins, such as Zocor, having insomnia and nightmares,” says Dr. Wellman.
* Asthma medications. Theophylline, an asthma medication that is every now used to ease inflammation and avoid clear airways, can cause insomnia, as extravagantly as daytime jitters. “The chemicals in this medication are connected to caffeine,” explains Wellman. Corticosteroids, such as prednisone, are repeatedly prescribed for asthma and can cause equivalent medication side effects.
* Recession medications. About 10 to 20 percent of people who suppose a birth of antidepressants known as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, or SSRIs, such as fluoxetine (Prozac), sertraline (Zoloft), and paroxetine (Paxil), suffer sleep problems. “Insomnia is one of the frequent medication side effects of SSRIs,” says Wellman.
* Anti-smoking medications. Nicotine patches acclimatized to help people quit smoking fit in by delivering small doses of nicotine into the bloodstream 24/7, and one stale medication side effect is insomnia. Some people using the patches contain also reported nightmares.
* ADHD medications. Limelight-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is predominantly treated with stimulant-like medicines that into the bargain alertness, but can lead to insomnia. “People engaging these medicines may have on the spot falling asleep,” says Wellman. “And aeons ago they’re able to get to sleep, they may splurge more time in non-REM sleep.” REM have a zizz refers to the stage of sleep accompanied by speedy eye movements and is a deeper level of take. Examples of medications with these side effects include methylphenidate (Ritalin) and dextroamphetamine (Dexedrine).
*Thyroid medications. An underactive thyroid gland (hypothyroidism) can motivate extreme sleepiness during the day, but some drugs acclimated to to treat the condition can denouement in insomnia. However, this side conclusion usually only occurs at higher doses, says Wellman. 
How to Take Your Medicine and Get Some Sleep
 Debate your sleep problems with your doctor, salubrity care practitioner, or pharmacist. There may be other medications that can nurse your ailment or health condition without disrupting drowse. Switching medications or lowering dosages with your doctor’s instruction may help ease insomnia that’s due to medication side effects.
Likewise, changing the every now of day at which you take your medication may lend a hand. Restful sleep is important for emotion well and recovering from fettle problems, so don’t lose sleep upward of medication side effects. Changing your medication could be the buy generic Ambien online for a good night’s forty winks.

Neurological Diseases May Be Preceded by Sleep Disorder

Parkinson’s disease, multiple system atrophy, and dementia may have preclinical symptoms, such as idiopathic REM sleep behavior disorder (RBD), lasting for decades in some cases according to new research published online July 28 in the journal Neurology.
Rapid eye movement (REM) sleep behavior disorder (RBD) is a sleep disorder characterized by loss of normal voluntary muscle atonia (sleep paralysis) during REM sleep. During REM sleep, which is the deepest part of the sleep cycle, the body is “disconnected” from the brain, leaving the body unable to move. Patients with RBD have REM sleep with excessive movements, some that may be potentially injurious or disruptive such as punching, shouting, getting out of bed, or flailing arm movements. It is estimated that 0.5% of the general population has RBD.
Daniel O. Claassen MD of the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine analyzed data from 27 patients with a history of RBD that preceded the onset of Parkinson’s disease, Parkinson’s dementia, multiple system atrophy, or dementia with Lewy bodies by at least 15 years. The vast majority of the participants (24) were male.
Read: Vitamin D May Reduce Parkinson's Risk
The patients' mean age at onset of the sleep disorder was 49 and at onset of neurologic symptoms was 72 (overall median onset of 25 years). At the latest follow up, 63% of the patients had progressed to dementia. The long preclinical phase has important implications for the development of therapies that may slow or halt the progression, say the authors of the study.
Parkinson’s disease belongs to a group of conditions called motor system disorders, with the primary symptoms being trembling in hands, arms, legs, or face; rigidity or stiffness of the limbs and trunk; bradykinesia (slowness of movement); and postural instability or impaired balance and coordination. It usually affects people over the age of 50. At present, there is no cure for Parkinson’s disease.
Dementia can also result from the brain changes that occur in Parkinson’s. The prevalence of dementia in Parkinson’s disease ranges from 20-40%. Patients may also have Alzheimer’s disease and cerebrovascular disease as co-morbid conditions.
Another common type of progressive dementia is Dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB). The central feature of DLB is progressive cognitive decline, combined with pronounced fluctuations in alertness and attention, recurrent visual hallucinations, and parkinsonian motor symptoms. Patients may also suffer from depression. Like both Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s dementias, there is no cure.

Selective Attention Most Impaired During First Night Shift Worked

Our biological propensity for keeping awake during the day and sleeping at night makes night work a challenge. Now, researchers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) have found that attention is especially affected during the first night shift. This research appears in the November 28, 2007 edition of the Public Library of Science ONE.
“It is important to identify this first night shift as being most vulnerable to impairment in attention, because critical jobs like medical care, airport baggage screening, law enforcement, and air-traffic control are routinely done at night.” said Nayantara Santhi, a fellow in the Division of Sleep Medicine at BWH and lead author of the paper. “Additionally, traditional methods like exposure to bright light and fixed sleep schedule that reduce attentional impairment during night shift work are not as effective during this first night shift.”
Researchers tested selective attention with visual search tasks in participants in a shift work simulation, which included four day shifts followed by three night shifts. They found that attention during the first night shift was the most impaired, with participants unable to stay focused on tasks. They were spending less time attending to search items and making more errors.