Bad Night Who’s a perfect sleeper? Gaze in a mirror and you’re probably not looking at one. In Gallup polls, perhaps only 5% of the population says they sleep well every night. Yet lots of people have bad nights, with perhaps one third of Americans complaining of insomnia that goes on and on and on. […]
Is Intermezzo the right kind of sleep medicine? (11/29/11)
Music for the Sleepless, or Disharmony? It’s not every day the FDA approves a new drug – especially a new sleeping pill. Intermezzo is a term that refers to a separate piece that plays in between acts – especially in a musical performance like opera. And now it’s being repositioned to name a “new” kind […]
Booze and sleeping pills – the wrong combination (11/16/11)
Alcohol and Pills for Sleep “Beer and valium, that’s how I sleep. Works every time, a perfect night’s sleep.” So said an actor friend of mine, who often had trouble “coming down” after a play and used this cocktail three or four times a week. Yet often alcohol plus sleeping pills do not “work.” Thirty […]
Sleeping Beauty (10/26/11)
Is Sleep the Secret to Looking Good? Why sleep? people ask me. I give them a welter reasons starting with avoidance of death. Sleep deprive any animal and it dies – rather quickly. Yet fear of death does not seem to motivate people to take more time for rest, or to even pay attention to […]
Chronic Fatigue Syndrome – a treatable autoimmune disease (10/24/11)
Chronic Fatigue Syndrome – Finally Treatable? Chronic fatigue syndrome wrecks people’s lives. It does so physicially, socially, and economically. Looking normal yet not being able to think or work causes enormous hardship compounded by many doctors who think the illness does not really exist – a position health and disability insurance companies are more than […]