Pills offer help, danger

Having trouble sleeping?

Before you pop a pill, Melissa Ilnicki has a warning for you…. Having trouble sleeping?

Before you pop a pill, Melissa Ilnicki has a warning for you.

“Pills aren’t the way to go,” said Ilnicki, a pulmonary sleep technician at UPMC Montefiore Hospital Sleep Lab. While she acknowledged that sleeping pills are effective, she does not recommend them for anyone suffering from insomnia.

Young adults might have trouble sleeping because of their sleep patterns, Ilnicki said, pointing out that many college students do not go to bed until 4 a.m., and then get up at 7 a.m.

Mark Bordwell, a registered polysomnographic technician from University Services-Pottstown, also offered warnings about sleeping pills. Taking over-the-counter drugs such as Benadryl can cause drowsiness, Bordwell said, explaining that such sleep aids can cause lingering drowsiness into the next day.

Student Health offers both over-the-counter and prescription sleeping aids, including over-the-counter medicines Benadryl and Unisom, according to student health pharmacy worker Colin Tracy.

Sophomore Alicia Barnes often has problems getting to sleep, but she said she has never used sleeping pills.

“When I have trouble sleeping, I generally don’t get to sleep until around 5 a.m. I’ve just started staying up late because my schedule’s all out of whack now, anyway. I do want to go to try to go to bed early, it’s such a pain to fall asleep” Barnes said.

“Usually, I’ll just get on the computer and mess around until I feel tired,” Barnes said.

Other students, however, don’t feel they can get through school without getting enough sleep.

Pitt sophomore Kurt Esenwein has been using prescription Ambien since the beginning of the semester.

“I started on anti-depressants like a year and a half ago, which gave me a hard time sleeping, but I didn’t start with the Ambien until school started and I really needed a good night’s sleep,” Esenwein said.

Younger people need more sleep than middle-aged people, Bordwell said.

He suggested that people should get an average of seven to eight hours of sleep each night, but he stressed that everyone is different. Some people need nine to ten hours of sleep each night, while others are fine with only six hours.

“Not sleeping properly causes problems with short-term memory,” Bordwell said.

Ilnicki warned that not getting enough sleep can also create problems with falling asleep in class, eating disorders and trouble concentrating while driving.

According to Bordwell, long-term insomnia can even have an effect on the immune system.

There are thousands of types of sleep disorders, Bordwell said. While most cases of sleep disorders are related to psychological issues, such as tragedies in life, he said this is not always the case.

Sleep apnea, which occurs when a person repeatedly stops breathing during the course of his sleep, is the most common sleep disorder Bordwell sees. Although the person wakes up long enough to resume breathing each time, it can occur hundreds of times in a night, and long-term sleep apnea can increase a patient’s risk of stroke.

If a patient has sleep apnea, Bordwell said, surgeries can be done to cure the most severe cases.

For a person diagnosed with any type of insomnia, Bordwell said, there are two main methods of treating it: cognitive behavior modification and pharmaceuticals. Which method a physician chooses often depends on that physician’s school of thought, Bordwell said, adding that some physicians even use both.