Insomnia | If you take medications, then why?

Insomnia is the scourge of the modern world. Due to stress, intensity of life, excess information, noise and light levels, availability of entertainment, excess of stimulants and many other reasons, insomnia occurs in every tenth adult on a regular basis and every second adult periodically.

The three main areas of work with insomnia are sleep hygiene, psychotherapy and pharmacology. Today I propose to talk about the third option — pharmacology.

For insomnia, a variety of drugs are prescribed — sleeping pills, tranquilizers, antidepressants, nootropics with tranquilizer effects. I take into account that the vast majority of those who suffer from insomnia suffer from it chronically (that is, for more than 4 weeks), and medications used for insomnia are recommended to be used for no longer than 4 weeks (with the exception of antidepressants), the question inevitably arises:

Why do you even need to take medications for insomnia? What is their purpose?

The first goal is current relief.

In some ways, the pharmacology for insomnia is similar to antipyretics for colds. There is no cure for the condition, but it provides relief. Why so pessimistic? For the reason that there are many triggers for insomnia and there is simply no drug that would stop them all at once. And a mechanical decrease in the activity of certain parts of the brain is just about relief, nothing more.

The second goal is to form a certain attitude towards insomnia — as a condition that can be influenced.

This is especially important for anxiety disorders and hypochondria, when insomnia “feels” like a huge problem that can end in “something terrible” (more often there is a concentration on harm to health, madness, death). Therefore, the presence of a certain instrument of influence can positively influence the psychological mechanisms of these disorders.

Goal three — breaking current hypercontrol and negative expectations

Many people with insomnia fear that they will not be able to sleep without medication. And in the same way they are afraid that they will not fall asleep at all. They also get very stressed when they can’t fall asleep, and consider themselves to have to fall asleep by a certain time. All these (and some other) forms of hypercontrol are a bottleneck in insomnia. However, taking sleeping pills can reduce the degree of such psychological mechanisms. If you initially set this strategy as a goal. Or supplement it with psychocorrection, directing it specifically at hypercontrol reactions and spontaneous negative expectations.

Yes, the downside of taking pharmacology is the fear of loss of control (the same hypercontrol, only in the other direction) during the period of drug withdrawal and learned helplessness (without drugs I will not fall asleep). And here it is important to either take other drugs (tranquilizers, antidepressants) or engage in psychocorrection.