From A to ZZZZZ

Press, 27 June 1983, Page 17

From A to ZZZZZ

Do you drag yourself out of bed in the morning? Do you spend the day struggling to stay away? If you do, you are suffering from “morning drunkenness” or what sleep scientists are now calling excessive daytime sleepiness (E.D.S.). “Sleep From A to ZZZZZ,” screening in the Tuesday Documentary slot on Two tomorrow night, will tell you everything you even wanted to know about sleep but were too tired to ask. The programme, hosted by Tony Randall, uncovers dramatic breakthroughs in the new science of sleep — and shows the connection between sleep and dreams, drugs and impotence. Insomniacs can now be cured. They are going to Dr Elliot Weitzman, chairman of the Department of Neu-

rology at Montefiore Hospital, Albert Einstein College of Medicine. Dr Weitzman is successfully treating insomnia by resetting the body clock. “Our sleep-wake cycle is governed by biological forces,” he says, “clocks within our own bodies that strike the tempo for when we wake, sleep and dream.” In his laboratory of human chronobiology, patients are placed in a controlled time capsule. All the time signals — clocks, radios, TVs — are eliminated. Once inside, there is no way for the insomniac to tell if it is night or day. Dr Weitzman calls his facility the Montefiore Apartments. He has created a friendly, comfortable atmosphere. Patients check in at 8 p.m. and the “sleepin” can take several weeks.

When a patient leaves Montefiore he knows that his body clock is reset and that he will get a good night’s sleep that night. Excessive daytime sleepiness can seriously impair an individual’s alertness and co-ordination, making driving a car or working with machinery hazardous. “It’s a serious problem,” says Dr Weitzman. “People who suffer from E.D.S. are not getting good, restorative sleep and as a result they feel constantly tired.” Many who have E.D.S., desperate for a good night’s sleep, turn to sleeping pills. In 1979, physicians in the United States wrote over 33 million prescriptions for “hypnotics.” There is a growing public and professional concern about the; misuse of these sleeping medications.