Notes in the process of taking drugs to treat sleep disorders

This is an automatically translated article.

The article was professionally consulted by MSc Nguyen Thanh Long - Consultant Psychologist, Vinmec Times City International General Hospital.

Drugs to treat sleep disorders often have to be used for a long time, which can cause many side effects. Therefore, drug users need to pay close attention to ensure health and improve treatment effectiveness.

1. What is a sleep disorder?

Sleep disorder is one of the neurological disorders that causes discomfort and leaves many serious consequences for the health and spirit of the patient. Treatment of sleep disorders takes a long time, the disease is easy to recur, so it is necessary to have a specific and clear treatment course.
In modern life there is a lot of stress and fatigue that can make people worry, worry, have trouble sleeping, not sleep well, not sleep deeply... but that is not called insomnia or disorder. sleep. Insomnia is considered a medical condition if it occurs more than 3 times in a week and persists for more than a month.
Sleep is a prolonged activity to help the body balance endogenous and exogenous factors, fluctuate day-night rhythm, ensure brain activity in the waking state.
On average, each person will sleep about 6-9 hours/night. Sleep is associated with changes in breathing, heart, hormones, body temperature..., which is a normal physiological process of the body.
There are many causes of sleep disorders, divided into 2 main causes, including:
Secondary causes: sleep disturbances as a result of another illness such as depression, heart disease, illness kidney... Primary cause : sleep disorder of unknown cause However, sleep disorder is not always considered a pathology. There are also many cases of insomnia which is a normal manifestation in a certain period of human life such as: perimenopause in women, menopause in men...

2. Symptoms of sleep disorder

People with sleep disorders may lose sleep or sleep a lot, affecting social and work activities.
People with insomnia often have difficulty falling asleep, waking up in the middle of the night, losing sleep in the middle, waking up early. Primary insomnia can continue for at least a month and on average lasts up to 1 year, there are cases of patients with primary insomnia lasting for decades.
People with primary insomnia are often awake at night but always feel tired, depressed, and moody during the day. Prolonged inadequate sleep leads to impaired health, reduced mental health, reduced ability to work, study, even behavioral disorders, hallucinations and paranoia.
People who sleep a lot can sleep from 8 to 12 hours / night, it is very difficult to wake up in the morning. This has been going on for at least 1 month. Patients always feel sleepy, not alert, difficult to concentrate, absent-minded.
Primary insomnia is common in the elderly, especially women. Young people often lose sleep at the end and in the middle of sleep. Elderly people often have trouble falling asleep.

3. Causes of sleep disorders

Many studies on sleep disorders have shown that modern life makes people's sleep less and less. Psychological pressures, stress, fatigue produce countless free radicals. Free radicals strongly attack brain artery walls leading to serious damage, forming atherosclerotic plaques and blood clots causing narrowing of arteries, obstructing blood circulation, transporting oxygen and nutrients essential substances to the brain. Brain cells do not receive enough nutrients to function, affecting the structure of the nervous system for a long time, leading to sleep disturbances.
Not only that, free radicals also directly affect brain cells. Brain cells are both attacked by free radicals and are not supplied with enough nutrients and oxygen, leading to brain dysfunction. Areas of the brain that govern sleep are affected, unable to coordinate smoothly, neurotransmitters are interrupted, causing sleep to be disrupted, difficult to fall asleep, not sleeping deeply, dozing off. ..
Long-term sleep disorder can affect the brain, causing nerve cell damage, brain degeneration. People with long-term sleep disorders can lose more than 20% of their brain volume, leading to memory impairment, forgetfulness, language disorders, movement disorders, and depression... , the medical condition becomes more and more severe and persistent. If not treated in time, it can lead to chronic sleep disorders.
Sleep disorders also increase the risk of diabetes, high blood pressure, heart failure, arrhythmia, stroke, sudden death...

4. Note when using drugs to treat sleep disorders

Some people, because of insomnia at night, are sleepy during the day, doze off, can't stay awake to work, so they use strong tea and coffee to dispel drowsiness. While it can make people more alert, the effects of caffeine can have negative effects on health.
Some people choose tranquilizers, known in folklore as sleeping pills to make it easier to fall asleep. Sleeping pills have the ability to inhibit brain activity, if used regularly, sleeping pills can cause drug dependence, movement disorders and many other bad effects on health.
In the past, the treatment of primary insomnia often used benzodiazepines. Long-term use of benzodiazepines will make the patient forgetful, the drug can also cause muscle relaxation and easy falls in the elderly. In addition, benzodiazepines can cause drug dependence, so this drug is rarely used today.
Tricyclic antidepressants and new generation antidepressant drugs with sedative properties have the ability to treat primary and secondary sleep disorders associated with anxiety and depressive disorders. However, this drug also has a few side effects such as: fatigue, increased appetite causing overweight ...... so it is necessary to use the drug when prescribed by a doctor. Antidepressants can cause strong sedation, so machine operators and drivers need to be very careful when using them.
Some other antidepressant drugs also have sedative effects causing sleep such as Mirtazapine, Fluvoxamine, Fluoxetin ...
Some neuroleptic drugs such as Olanzapine, Quetiapine at low doses have sedative effects causing sleep. However, since these drugs have an effect on metabolism, obese patients should not take olanzapine.
It is important when using drugs to treat sleep disorders that you must follow your doctor's instructions, take the correct dose and take the correct dose. Do not arbitrarily use drugs indiscriminately, do not abuse sleeping pills and sedatives. When there are signs of sleep disorders, it is necessary to go to psychological clinics, psychiatrists for timely examination and treatment.

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