Return to Sleep
Thoughts
June 15th, 2010
Alcohol Dependent
Sleep Disorder
Many years ago I was told by an elderly doctor that I might want
to try a glass of wine before bedtime. He suggested a hearty
burgundy. He told me this after my 4th or 5th visit to him for
my insomnia. My visits were more obligatory then necessary as I
was on the sleeping pill Halcion (triazolam) and had to
repeatedly go back for an routine exam to get my prescription
refilled. This doctor (a very nice fellow, BTW) also recommended
that I go to neurologist as he suggested that my insomnia was
one of the worst he had ever seen. I went to a neurologist who
put me in a sleep study. I wrote about it in
The Sleep Lab from Hell.
But
I digress.
A
month passed and I called once again to set up my obligatory
doctor's appointment for my fix of Halcion. Big problem: the old
doctor had passed away. A sudden heart attack. This was a
turning point for me (and obviously for him, too) as I did not
want to find a new old doc to prescribe my powerful
sleeping pills. I did not want sleeping pills at all. Like most
insomniacs I wanted answers.
When the Halcion ran out I high-tailed it to the local Piggly
Wiggly and bought a bottle of hearty burgundy. That night , just
a few minutes before bedtime, I drank a glass. It did not work.
So, I drank another... and another. Finally results came. I fell
asleep. That was the beginning of a process that would lead me
into a very dark and negative place. Through the years, when I
wasn't on any sleeping pills (which was rare) I would resort to
drinking alcohol to get drowsy. It was wine at first but I soon
graduated to vodka. During a particularly stressful time in Las
Vegas (my significant other was dealing with a life or death
health issue) my alcohol intake increased dramatically. So much
so that I gained forty pounds in four months. Keep in mind that
I was still drinking alcohol to sleep but instead of a few
glasses of red wine my intake had increased to pint or more of
vodka. There was a period that I was taking the sleeping pill
Ambien and drinking vodka. Those were scary times.
I
did not know it at the time but I was caught up in a syndrome
called Alcohol Dependent Sleep Disorder. Basically the vodka
took the place of a sleeping pill. I
am not saying a glass or two of wine is necessarily a bad thing
before bedtime... if you have the willpower. I am saying that if
you are a chronic insomniac drinking alcohol will not, over the
long run, help your situation. It certainly did not help mine.
Just like any drug I needed more and more of it to achieve the
desired effect. It is also well known that alcohol is a
depressant. Depression adds to insomnia. It is a vicious and
unforgiving cycle.
Simple math.
I
shook off my dependency on alcohol and sleeping pills years ago.
I did it using my own research on the sleep process. It was when
I realized that the medical community mainly dealt with
occasional generic insomnia that I became motivated to
strike out on my own for the answers. This site is a result of
that research.
Dream good dreams!
Brad McBride
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