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Sleep Disorders in Selected Psychiatric Settings pp 33–41Cite as

When Counting Sheep Doesn’t Help: The Effects of Cocaine on Sleep

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Abstract

Cocaine addiction is a fairly prevalent disorder. Cocaine is a stimulant that affects monoamine neurotransmitters. Substance-induced sleep disorders are diagnosed when sleep is significantly impaired following substance use and in the absence of other potentially causative factors. Substance-induced sleep disorders are further specified into insomnia type, daytime sleepiness type, parasomnia type, and mixed type. Sleep disturbances may be associated with poorer cognitive function and increased cravings for the drug and hence risk for relapse. In the case of cocaine, the most common sleep disturbances include acute insomnia and decreased sleep during intoxication, hypersomnia during cocaine withdrawal, and a phenomenon known as occult insomnia, associated with a subjective improvement in sleep without concomitant improvement in cognitive function. No approved treatment for cocaine-induced insomnia exists yet though several agents, discussed in this chapter, have promising effects.

Keywords

  • Cocaine
  • Sleep disorders
  • Occult insomnia
  • Cocaine-induced insomnia
  • Cocaine cravings

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, USA

    Nidal Moukaddam

  2. Menninger Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, USA

    Asim A. Shah

Authors
  1. Nidal Moukaddam
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  2. Asim A. Shah
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Nidal Moukaddam .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. MD TruCare PA, Grapevine, TX, USA

    Dr. Imran S. Khawaja

  2. Minneapolis VA Health Care System, Hennepin County Medical Center, University of Minnesota Medical School, Minneapolis, MN, USA

    MD Thomas D. Hurwitz

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Moukaddam, N., Shah, A.A. (2021). When Counting Sheep Doesn’t Help: The Effects of Cocaine on Sleep. In: Khawaja, I.S., Hurwitz, T.D. (eds) Sleep Disorders in Selected Psychiatric Settings. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-59309-4_5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-59309-4_5

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