Go to Sleep

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A blog in Scientific American reviews sleep’s role in “Obesity, Schizophrenia, Diabetes… Everything”.  The article notes  a tight link between depression and sleep apnea, including the fact that surgery to correct enlarged adenoids and tonsils (the usual cause of sleep apnea in children) causes a greater reduction in ADHD symptoms than Ritalin. The author notes his recent paper on the connection between sleep cycle irregularities and positive symptoms of schizophrenia.

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Kermit Cole
Kermit Cole, MFT, founding editor of Mad in America, works in Santa Fe, New Mexico as a couples and family therapist. Inspired by Open Dialogue, he works as part of a team and consults with couples and families that have members identified as patients. His work in residential treatment — largely with severely traumatized and/or "psychotic" clients — led to an appreciation of the power and beauty of systemic philosophy and practice, as the alternative to the prevailing focus on individual pathology. A former film-maker, he has undergraduate and master's degrees in psychology from Harvard University, as well as an MFT degree from the Council for Relationships in Philadelphia. He is a doctoral candidate with the Taos Institute and the Free University of Brussels. You can reach him at [email protected].

5 COMMENTS

  1. “sleep cycle irregularities”

    It must have been nice when all humans could sleep and wake when ever they just felt like it, before quartz clocks , electric lights and everything else that came with the industrial revolution .

    I could never get the sleep wake “on time” thing right, Drinking/ taking pills trying to get it right almost killed me.

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  2. “positive symptoms of schizophrenia”
    To separate unwanted behaviour into descriptions of “positive” and “negative” is quackery.
    The psychiatrist is selling legal drugs (a physical object) for problems that are not physical in nature.
    After the patient is on mind altering drugs, no one can say where the symptoms are originating from, but the patient definitely has symptoms. Symptoms MUST be medicated/drugged, NOT. It only leads to more drugs, like any drug addiction.
    Control comes from the inside not the outside, unless you are talking criminal behaviour. Criminals belong in jail.

    Some one judging someone else’s emotions as too small or too large is not medicine and reminds me of “Goldilocks and the Three Bears” story.

    “I sure am hungry,” Goldilocks said. “I’ll just have one bite.”

    First, she tried a spoonful from Papa Bear’s great big bowl. “OW!” she yelled, “TOO HOT!”

    Next, she tried a spoonful from Mama Bear’s medium-sized bowl. “Brrrrr! TOO COLD!” she complained.

    “I need to sit down for a little while to rest my sore feet!” she thought.

    First, she sat in Papa Bear’s great big armchair. “TOO HARD!” she screamed. Goldilocks stomped to the next chair.

    Next she sat in Mama Bear’s medium-sized chair. It was so soft that she sunk in! “TOO SOFT!” she complained, as she pulled herself out of the cushions.

    She tried Papa Bear’s great big bed. “TOO HIGH!” she yelled.

    Then, she tried Mama Bear’s medium-sized bed. “TOO LOW!” she screamed.

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  3. The study referenced was supported by Sunovion which makes lunesta, the study drug. The effects were after 2 days of treatment. What about effects after 100 or 300 days of treatment? Although these drugs are nominally marketed for short term use, many people who start them do not want to stop. I would be interested in seeing the impacts of CBT for insomnia on these parameters.

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