Medicine to weariness

A 20-year study of old people in south-west France suggests a link between the use of popular sleeping pills & dementia. Diazepam & Temazepam are specifically name-checked in The Times report of the paper from Harvard which is published in today’s BMJ.

I feel I may have had a lucky escape.

I took my very first Temazepam almost 30 years ago (admittedly while I was still well under the age of 65, so not in any sense matching the population studied for this report).

It was my first night in hospital before a small exploratory operation. The Night Sister – an impressively statuesque but friendly woman, clearly proud to wear her old fashioned navy blue uniform &white lace cap - came round to introduce herself, ask if we had any problems & if we needed ‘anything to help with sleep.’

I asked for a hot water bottle.

You would think I had made an indecent remark.

But, recovering herself, Sister explained that they could not use hot water bottles in hospital because of safety concerns - something I could understand when I thought about it. So I accepted a Temazepam instead & was rather impressed to find that I did not feel obviously hungover in the morning.

Several years later – when suffering from the long-term after effects of (a different) hospital-acquired pneumonia & sleep problems were causing difficulty because dealing with them by just getting up later in the morning was not an option – I went back to Temazepam, but found that within a couple of weeks the hangover effect was definitely there.

So I stopped.

I still find a hot water bottle an invaluable aid to nodding off.