Karen

“One peculiarity of REM sleep is that, unlike every other moment of our lives, the mechanisms that regulate our body temperature fail us. While for the rest of the time our body temperature is kept absolutely stable, in REM, it drops. This is actually a highly dangerous state for us to be in. Even small fluctuations in temperature can result in our brains not working properly, or heart rhythm abnormalities. I will occasionally see patients in the intensive-care”
― Guy Leschziner, The Nocturnal Brain: Nightmares, Neuroscience, and the Secret World of Sleep

“Whatever the true nature of this relationship, it highlights the need for psychiatrists and sleep physicians to think holistically, to not simply focus on the problem that they are most familiar with, to approach these patients without the blinkers of having been trained in one particular specialty.”
― Guy Leschziner, The Nocturnal Brain: Nightmares, Neuroscience, and the Secret World of Sleep

“In fact, a widely used drug in nightmares associated with PTSD, prazosin, acts mainly as a blocker of noradrenaline in the brain. Although a recent study suggests prazosin is no more effective than a placebo, I and my colleagues have seen several patients successfully treated with this drug.”
― Guy Leschziner, The Nocturnal Brain: Nightmares, Neuroscience, and the Secret World of Sleep

“Most alarmingly, there is growing evidence that points to hypnotic drugs, particularly benzodiazepines and related drugs, increasing the risk of subsequent dementia.”
― Guy Leschziner, The Nocturnal Brain: Nightmares, Neuroscience, and the Secret World of Sleep