Insomnia

BOSTON -- Contradicting an earlier statement from the Orioles, left-hander Doug Johns said yesterday that his failure to accompany the club to Anaheim, Calif., for a three-game series last week was provoked by a "family matter," and not a recurrence of the insomnia that cost him part of the 1998 season.Johns, dressing in the cramped visitors' clubhouse at Fenway Park before last night's game, said he flew home to Plantation, Fla., to be with his mother. He showed up at the team hotel in Arlington, Texas, on Monday before returning to Florida.

Q. I saw a story on television about a person who fell into a coma after combining kava with Xanax. I am very concerned about this because my niece's doctor recently prescribed Xanax for her nerves. She occasionally takes kava to help her get to sleep. I have asked her to stop taking the kava for now, and she has, but her insomnia is back. How serious is this combination?A. Kava is a root from the South Pacific that has been used for centuries to induce relaxation. This herb has become very popular in this country for relieving anxiety and insomnia.

ANAHEIM, Calif. -- Orioles pitcher Doug Johns did not accompany the club on its nine-game road trip because of "personal reasons" related to a recurrence of the insomnia that also cost the left-hander part of the 1998 season, general manager Frank Wren said yesterday.Johns is receiving treatment in the Baltimore area, according to Wren. His status for the rest of the season is uncertain. The Employee Assistance Program, designed to aid players and other organization employees with personal and medical problems, also has been notified of Johns' situation.

WASHINGTON -- Before the opening statements got under way in the impeachment trial of President Clinton yesterday, Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist delivered an important message to the Senate chamber. It had nothing to do with the Constitution, or the impeachment of Andrew Johnson or the future of the U.S. presidency. No, it was about something else:His bad back."I would like to inform members of the Senate and the parties in this case of my need to stand on occasion to stretch my back," he said solemnly.

It can be great musical fun.Take a tune, then slow it down, speed it up, fiddle with its harmonies, fool with its mood and change its key. Even play it backward if you want, and see what you get.Mozart did it. Listen to his "Variations on 'Ah, vous dirais-je maman,' " for example, and hear how the genius took the familiar "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" melody and turned it every which way but loose.But the theme and variations format, as it is called, is often far more than musical parlor tricks.

To sleep, perchance to dream? That is the quest of millions of people, but it's often unfulfilled.Insomnia and sleep deprivation are common afflictions. Many people have a hard time falling asleep, while others wake too early. Others find that travel to other time zones results in jet lag.We've had our own experiences with sleep deprivation. When we are finishing a book, the work always seems to take more time than we planned. The result is many late nights and early mornings.Toward the end of a project, we sometimes get only a few hours of sleep at a time, perhaps at five o'clock in the afternoon when hit by an uncontrollable urge to nap.While a brief nap may allow us to keep going, chronically depriving our bodies of sleep is not a good idea.

NEW YORK -- In the second full day after suffering a paralyzing stroke, former President Richard M. Nixon remained in critical condition last night, with swelling in his brain continuing to threaten his life, officials of New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center said.The swelling, a potentially fatal complication of a stroke, results when damaged arteries begin to break down and fluid leaks into the brain. This leakage further damages cells already harmed by lack of oxygen when the stroke occurred.

Has anyone noticed that Stephen King is becoming one of the most interesting writers around?I'm serious. It's not that the man needs attention. After all, he sells novels the way McDonald's sells hamburgers. The point is that Mr. King -- master of horror, author of 33 books, and practically a genre unto himself -- has become a writer who takes chances and sticks his neck out. In "Misery" and "The Dark Half," he grappled with some of the metaphysical, novelist's dilemmas that Philip Roth has been chewing his cud over for years, but with far more brio and showmanship.

Halcyon, a new gallery in Fells Point, was opened this month by art writer Megan Hamilton, artist Dan Schiavone and Margaret Footner, who owns the cafe on the first floor of the building that houses the upstairs gallery. Gallery and cafe, says Hamilton, are separate entities -- no food service upstairs and no art shows downstairs.The gallery's single room is not a large space, but it's bright, neat and spare, and it will serve as a welcoming background for tTC works of small to moderate size.

A deadly combination and quantity of over-the-counter drugs -- medications commonly used for colds, allergy symptoms and insomnia -- killed a College Park student found dead in her sorority house dormitory last week, the state medical examiner said.Jennifer Lynn Jones, 21, who expected to graduate this spring from the University of Maryland, took "an excessive amount" of the drugs diphenhydramine and doxylamine, according to Dr. John Smialek, the chief medical examiner, who announced yesterday the results of an autopsy.

Sunday, we'll have to "spring forward" by setting our clocks ahead one hour for daylight saving time. For many of us, resetting our clocks is a simple matter. But for those who struggle with insomnia, daylight saving time can add to the difficulty of getting enough sleep, says Charlene E. Gamaldo, assistant professor in the department of neurology at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and assistant director of the Johns Hopkins Sleep Disorders Center. Many of us have trouble falling asleep every now and then.

WASHINGTON -- Vanda Pharmaceuticals Inc.'s stock soared 52.7 percent yesterday after the Rockville company said its experimental insomnia drug successfully treats jet lag and sleep disturbed by odd work shifts. The shares finished the trading session up $5.14 to $14.90 after earlier surging 74 percent to $17, the most since Vanda went public in April. They had fallen 2.4 percent through Monday. People taking the drug, VEC-162, showed statistically significant improvement on several measures of sleep, compared with patients taking a placebo, Vanda said.

I would like to share an acupressure tip that helps me sleep. Tape a dried kidney bean to the inside of your right wrist. This point is between the two tendons by measuring the width of three fingers up the arm from the wrist crease. This gives me about eight hours of very sound sleep. If I have to get up to go to the bathroom, I still go right back to sleep. This is cheap, safe and better than anything I have used in the past. You are describing a traditional acupressure point called the "Inner Gate."

Sleepless hours are transformed into artistic expression in Insomnia: Landscapes of the Night, on display at Washington's National Museum of Women in the Arts. The exhibit, on display through November, includes paintings, drawings, sculptures and prints -- all of which explore the thoughts and emotions that caused 30 artists to lie awake. Some, such as Mirella Bentivoglio's sculpture, are melancholy pieces that serve as visual representations of sleep-disturbing thoughts. The dark marble sculpture of a book bound by a lock, Cercare la chiave nel sogno (Search for a Key to a Dream)

Q. I have strong chocolate cravings right before my periods. Every time I go to the health food store, I have to fight the urge to buy a chocolate bar (which the store keeps at the checkout aisle). I have always assumed that chocolate is high in fat, high in sugar and bad for my complexion. But I recently heard on the radio that chocolate is a health food and that it is actually good for my heart. Have I been depriving myself needlessly? A. Perhaps. Chocolate is high in sugar and fat, and eating too much could contribute to problems with weight control but not your complexion.

You don't have a problem going to sleep. You sleep like a baby. Then your wife goes on a business trip, you become anxious about a meeting, or your mother is hospitalized. You try to sleep, but there you are -- wide awake, tossing and turning. Night after night, the same thing. The next day you feel awful, you can't think and everything is getting on your nerves. What is the matter with you? It's insomnia. In the middle of the night, it may feel as if you're the only person awake, but you're not. Last year, a whopping 51 percent of adult Americans reported in a National Sleep Foundation poll that they have insomnia a few nights a week or more.

Q. I was shocked to read in your column the suggestion that a person taking Zoloft might consider Saint Johnswort for sleeping problems. Although you told the person with insomnia to check with his physician, recommending Saint Johnswort was a big mistake. This herb can interact dangerously with antidepressants like Zoloft. Please correct this error. A. Thanks for pointing out the dangers of mixing herbs and prescription drugs. You are right that Saint Johnswort in combination with antidepressants such as Prozac, Paxil or Zoloft could be hazardous, leading to a buildup of the brain chemical serotonin.

Dean Carter knows every inch of the ceiling above his bed. Long after the workday is done, he lies sleepless for hours, mesmerized by a revolving ceiling fan, captive to a brain that won't stop thinking of work. "You're trying to sleep, but in your head you're trying to connect the dots," said Carter, chief technology officer and co-founder of Alexander and Tom, a Baltimore company that designs Web sites and multimedia products. And when the right idea comes at 3 a.m., sometimes the only solution is to get up and log onto the computer, or maybe even drive to the office.

SOUTH POLE -- At the world's coldest and most isolated construction site, workers slog along six days a week, with no overtime and below-average wages. Welding torches crack. Metal freezes to bare skin. Twenty-four hours of sunlight causes "big eye," chronic insomnia. And the 9,300-foot altitude leaves recent arrivals gasping for breath. But all this scarcely matters to many building a new research station at the South Pole, who talk rapturously about pulling double shifts at the bottom of the world.

BOSTON -- Contradicting an earlier statement from the Orioles, left-hander Doug Johns said yesterday that his failure to accompany the club to Anaheim, Calif., for a three-game series last week was provoked by a "family matter," and not a recurrence of the insomnia that cost him part of the 1998 season.Johns, dressing in the cramped visitors' clubhouse at Fenway Park before last night's game, said he flew home to Plantation, Fla., to be with his mother. He showed up at the team hotel in Arlington, Texas, on Monday before returning to Florida.