I read in the paper a couple of weeks ago that recently deceased Junior Seau (All-Pro Linebacker with the San Diego Chargers) was taking Ambien for his horrendous insomnia. One of the known side effects of Ambien is suicidal thoughts. This, in combination with the multiple head trauma’s he must have experienced as an NFL player must have contributed to the suicide. This would be a tragedy all by itself, but it’s not “all by itself”. Countless people have died due to some insomnia relationship, and several more are famous insomniacs. Here are just a few: Michael Jackson died from an overdose of propofol – the drug used to put you to sleep for surgery in the hospital. He was taking it because nothing else seemed to work for his insomnia. Heath Ledger died from an overdose of prescription drugs. Some of those drugs must have been for sleep – he told a New York Times reporter that he often got 2 hours of sleep a night. Madonna has reported that she often gets less than 4 hours sleep a night. Unfortunately, this isn’t a short list. In fact, these are only a handful of sufferers. If you were to count the rest of us, the list would be unending. Here’s just a few names of confirmed insomniacs in the news:
- Matthew Perry
- Mariah Carey
- Eminem
- Drew Barrymore
- Colin Farrell
- Winona Ryder
- Winston Churchill
- Julia Roberts
- Ozzie Osbourne
- Brittany Spears
- John Travolta
- Hale Berry
- Jennifer Aniston
- Moby
- Scarlett Johansson
- Margaret Thatcher
Search on any one of them (Google “name” + insomnia) to see the whole story. This shows you that our problem is shared by millions of people and that it should be taken far more seriously than it generally is. Insomnia kills. Sometimes directly.
