In the Middle of the Night

Sleep is a natural recharger of physical and mental energies that is available to human beings even if some would prefer to ignore this God-given gift for whatever reason. A few still would have wanted to sleep sound like a baby who have forgotten their midnight crying routine, and cannot do so no matter what they do. Again, science tries to look for a solution, and somehow recently found one. And yet like many scientific solutions, a "cure" can be as easily considered a vector of a disease or disorder on account of their side effects alone. Here's a recent one on the matter.

SPANISH author Leon de Rotrou wrote in his work Vencelas: “What I take from my nights, I add to my days.” But what happens when night takes from your days, and adds it to your nights?

The United States Food and Drug Administration approved on Nov. 23 2011 a new sleeping pill called Intermezzo to help middle-of-the-night insomniacs to get back to sleep.

Transcept Pharmaceuticals designed this pill as a fast-acting, low-dose form of zoldipidem (its higher-dose form is best known as Ambien by Sanofi-Aventis). The decision has been backed up by clinical trials since 1991.

Zolpidem is a hypnotic drug that works usually within... [READ MORE]

This article appears in SunStar Cebu newspaper on 22 February 2012.

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