Science: Lack of sleep is a lot like mental illness

For years I've been saying that the biggest problem with amphetamine of all ilk, and especially those commonly referred to as Ice & Speed, is the insomnia effect so often desired (god knows why, sleep is wonderful) by users which as the below results show can, with just one nights missed sleep, begin the rocky road to mental illness and psychosis.

I'm sure everyone hear can attest that missing 1-3 nights sleep (even without the use of drugs) really fucks one up. Hell I think the last time I went without 2 nights sleep I did have a psychosis (thousands of bugs everywhere, biting me). I can barely last a night without sleep these days and I'm not exactly old at 27.

But it boggles my mind whenever people come out, users especially, with the misplaced belief that that last shot, or smoke of ice "made me go real crazy like and I <insert criminally violent rampage story<". Of course preceding those sorts of statements is a note of how "like yeah we've been smoking ice for 3 days straight".

People, come on, not sleeping for 3 days, be it because you smoked ice or not is going to make you crazy anyway you look at it.

Hell it’s a common torture technique, several days of sleep depravation will break almost anyone and you idiots are doing it to yourself! Who needs Guantánamo Bay or roving CIA torture squads when western society has amphetamine users?

But I can accept users being too stupid to know better (ain't that half the problem). What is far worse and appalling is how the authorities, and even medical experts, consistently state amphetamine can directly cause schizophrenia, or in the usual bland media bite, "mental illness", and yes I don't believe in the excessive dopamine hypothesis. I'd say it’s a tired now discredit theory (its been shown that non-dopmaine bindings drugs have just as big affect) that survives purely because it conveniently justifies the demonising of a class of drugs, which in turn as we all note assists a wide specturm of groups, i.e. drug companies, law enforcement and politicians who are always keen to promote psudo (now) scientitific claims that support their funding producing, election winning campaigns.

But as a harm miminisation point, get some sleep and give your brain some time to itself coz ya know your brain does get sick to death of your nutter bullshit some days and just needs some alone time from your crap.

So if you must be a shot/smoke a day user, have it in the morning so by the end of day (say a good 12-15 hours) have lapsed and you can have a bit of a nights sleep. Stop going to night clubs and go to day ones. Don't dismantle a stolen mountain bike at 3am. Do it first thing in morning ( 9 AM), and above all rubbish my friends goes in the bin, and cannot, I repeat, be used as a new form of shag carpeting (though that last point isn't really got much to do with sleep).

Lack of sleep is a lot like mental illness

* 26 October 2007
* From New Scientist Print Edition. Subscribe and get 4 free issues.

Feeling cranky after a bad night's sleep? Now there could be an explanation. Brain activity associated with psychiatric illness has been observed in healthy people who missed a single night's sleep. As well as shedding light on why sleep deprivation makes us feel so bad, the study could change our thinking about mental illness.

Volunteers were asked to miss a night's sleep and stay up until 5 pm the following day. Next came a session in which their brains were scanned as they viewed gory images, such as mutilated bodies or children with tumours. Compared with controls, the sleep-deprived group showed increased activity in the amygdala, an area of the brain involved in processing fear and other emotions (Current Biology, vol 17, p R877).

The heightened activity is no surprise, since tiredness and emotion are known to be linked. But the reason the amygdala was more active appeared to be because connections with the prefrontal cortex - an area of the brain that normally damps the amygdala down - were disrupted. Similar disruption is seen in patients with depression and post-traumatic stress disorder, says Matthew Walker of the University of California, Berkeley, who led the study.

"It is thought that psychiatric conditions create sleep problems," he says. "We should entertain the possibility that it is a sleep disorder that is creating the condition."

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Nice rant. I agree

love the theme, must admit tho as ive watched people come off herion and not sleep for days and the resulting "bitterness" or "shittyness" im not surprised people fold and go and use again.

i know that when i do the occasional night shift i feel worse from memory than a big night out on CNS stimulants, sleeep dep what ever way you look at its not healthy.

Yep totally. My last boss worked crazy hours dealing with Americans in their timezone while trying to run things 9-5 here in Australia. He was totally fucked.

Totally illogical manic doosh. Couldnt make anything flow. Thought he was on drugs but i concluded it was his sleep patterns.

Thats what you get for working harder, not smarter.

I'd believe that... a good nights sleep can cure even the harshest come down

Great post chugs!

I'm with you on this theory.

I never miss a nights sleep these days but i'd hate to think how many nights i missed in years gone by. The memories of crazed mind states after speed and ice binges are flowing back to me...

These days i sleep for atleast 10 hours to feel any good the next day. I believe this is from over using stimulants as i used to feel great off 8 hours even when i was working 60 hour weeks of shift work.

I always tried (TRIED) to keep it to one night maximum and a few of my friends who pushed 3 nights+ over the years have been in the nut house on plenty of occasions.

I consider myself lucky

Play it safe peoples

I can't think of anywhere i am happier than in my big warm bed

Man i need some sleep