A netizen said, ” After having anesthesia once several years ago, I felt poor sleep, and it has been getting worse recently.”
Another netizen asserted that his insomnia after anesthesia was due to “anesthetic allergy.
However, clinically, anesthetic drugs can make people sleep peacefully, and even become a good way to deal with insomnia.
So, is anesthesia a “bogeyman” or a “pusher” for insomniacs? Is it feasible to use anesthesia to help you sleep?
Insomnia, anesthesia is a “pusher” or a “bogeyman”
Mr. Zhang had a lobectomy a few days ago, after which he often had insomnia. The doctor found that the lung that was removed during the surgery was what disturbed Mr. Zhang’s sleep. In addition, the anesthesia problem also bothered him – after “sleeping” in the operating room, he couldn’t sleep at home.
Can anesthesia cause insomnia? Actually, objectively speaking, it is not certain.
On the one hand, there are many studies that support the idea that anesthesia can cause neurological disorders, some lasting only a few days and some lasting several years. For short periods of time, there is “postoperative impaired consciousness”; for weeks or even years, there is “post-anesthesia cognitive dysfunction”, which is commonly referred to as “brain problems”. On the other hand, no comparative observational study has been done so far on whether anesthesia can cause insomnia. Therefore, it cannot be denied, nor can it be confirmed.
However, some users mentioned that “anesthesia allergy” causes insomnia, but it is too speculative. In fact, allergy is a serious complication of anesthesia and requires resuscitation, which is usually recorded in hospitals.
Can anesthesia help you sleep?
Before gastroscopy, colonoscopy, fiberoptic bronchoscopy and other examinations, the doctor injects several milliliters of anesthesia into the patient, and then the patient slowly falls asleep, and after about 20 minutes, the patient wakes up and the examination is over. This is the most commonly used method of anesthesia “hypnosis”.
In people with chronic insomnia, ordinary sleeping pills are no longer effective for some people. How do these people pay their sleep debt? Can their desire for a good night’s sleep be met with the help of anesthetics that put people to sleep immediately?
In recent years, foreign studies have found that general anesthesia and natural sleep are behaviorally similar, and the mechanism of anesthesia sleep and natural sleep may have common physiological mechanisms. And in China, a hospital has carried out clinical observation with good results and will provide a new sleep aid service for people with chronic insomnia.
Generally speaking, sleeping pills are taken by patients at home before going to bed, eating less may not work, and eating more may sleep too long. In contrast, when anesthesia is used to help sleep, it is done in a hospital room. The duration of sleep can be completely controlled as needed, and the person can be woken up as long as he or she wants, ten minutes after stopping the medication.
Propofol is the most desirable anesthetic sleep aid available. It produces a sedated sleep state that is closest to the natural human sleep state, and some users have very pleasant dreams, such as promotions, winning prizes, and sexual pleasure. In addition, the drug has a fast onset of action and metabolism, and patients are guided into natural sleep after using the drug at bedtime. A few minutes after stopping the drug, patients can be woken up, and if not, they can also sleep until dawn, and wake up quiet and comfortable, with very few adverse reactions.
Normative and rational utilization is the key Michael? Jackson was suffering from insomnia, and his personal physician, Dr. Murray, began giving Jackson propofol anesthesia to help him sleep. For more than a month after that, Jackson had good dreams every night.
Sadly, on June 25, 2009, Jackson never woke up again. Because of the illegal overdose of propofol, Murray was eventually convicted of manslaughter.
As you can see, self-administration of propofol is dangerous. Under the laws of many countries, this drug is prescribed by a specialist such as an anesthesia professional and requires appropriate monitoring before it can be used. Because many anesthetic drugs (such as midazolam and propofol mentioned above) differ in their sedative, sleep-aiding, and anesthetic effects only due to differences in dose size, small amounts of sedation, moderate amounts of sleep-aiding, and large amounts are general anesthesia. In addition, due to wide individual differences, some people will have a general anesthetic effect at moderate amounts.
The present and future of anesthesia for sleep aid Currently, insomniacs who volunteer for anesthesia for sleep aid sign the relevant medical documents after examination by a physician and consent by a medical ethics committee. The doctor uses the Targeted Concentration Controlled Infusion (TCI) technique, where a monitoring device is attached to the patient, the drug is injected, and the patient can fall asleep peacefully.
Safety issues are addressed, during which devices to detect vital signs, such as oxygen saturation meters for respiratory function, blood pressure, etc., are available, and the monitoring data is transmitted to a monitoring station, or to the physician’s cell phone. Depending on the required sleep time, the patient then gets a satisfying sleep. In general, TCI injects drugs for an average of one hour, automatically stops, and the client enters a natural sleep state.
It is envisioned that in the future, after the clinic has accumulated a large amount of clinical safety experience data, while changing the dosage form of propofol from intravenous to oral, and then incorporating the release control technology into oral release control propofol, the patient can use it at home.
(Tip: The Ethics Committee (EC) is the body responsible for approving clinical trials of new drugs and treatments. The composition and work of the EC is independent and not influenced by any of the participants in the trial. The work of the Ethics Committee is guided by the Declaration of Helsinki and governed by relevant Chinese laws and regulations.)