Chicago
Do you work in customer service? Health care? The restaurant industry? You might be suffering from shift work sleep disorder (SWSD) says a new ad campaign from Frazer, PA-based Cephalon who makes the Schedule IV stimulants Provigil and Nuvigil. One out of four people working nontraditional schedules suffers from this hitherto unrecognized epidemic say radio ads which broke this week in Chicago.
SWSD is characterized by trouble focusing, increased irritability and poor work performance -- think ADHD -- an accompanying web site, wakeupsquad.com, explains. But don't think the answer is renegotiating with your alarm clock. "Just improving your sleep may not improve your ability to cope with shift work," says the site which offers a self-assessment quiz and chance to "take action" and "tell a friend" without saying what that action might be or what you are telling your friend. No drugs are mentioned.
Of course shift work sleep disorder is only one reason for the national epidemic of excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS). Other reasons are obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) and narcolepsy -- Wink Wink -- for which Cephalon's drugs are also approved, non-restful sleep (NRS), restless legs syndrome (RLS) and middle-of-the-night insomnia (MOTN). You might also suffer from late night TV addiction syndrome (LNTVAS) or experience daytime sleepiness because --surprise -- what you are doing and the people you are with are Boring. (The reason they say speed makes people more interesting.)
Then there's all the people with sleepiness-from-treating-their-insomnia and insomnia-from-treating-their-sleepiness in a kind of pharmaceutical jet lag that began when insomnia meds like Ambien, Lunesta, Sonata and Rozerem first appeared on TV. Late night TV.
Sleeping pill hangovers are nothing new. In the 1960's, barbiturates, immortalized in the movie the Valley of the Dolls and by Marilyn Monroe's death, spawned a "bennie" or Benzedrine subculture to offset their effects. In 1993 the sleeping pill Halcion was banned in the UK and other countries for causing amnesia, paranoia, depression, hallucinations and violence in users. And in 2001, the related pill, Dalmane, was said to "increase the risk of an injurious accident more than five times normal," at FDA/National Transportation Safety Board hearings.
And who can forget Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D-Rhode Island) driving to Capitol Hill to "vote" at 2:45 AM on Ambien and crashing his Ford Mustang in 2006?
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).