DEAR DR. GOTT: My 4-year-old granddaughter has been given medication to help her “enter REM sleep” at night for more than two years. It was recently increased to 0.1 mg/5 ml or 3/4 teaspoon clonidine at bedtime and 0.5 mg/1 ml clonazepam at bedtime.
What would be the side effects and long-term concerns of taking these? The way she seems drugged and the very deep sleep she falls into concerns me.
DEAR READER: Prior guidelines suggested that we experience five phases of sleep known as stages 1, 2, 3, 4 and REM, or rapid eye movement, with one-fifth the sleep time for adults in REM and the remainder in the other stages.
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