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Pulling back the curtains on wage-theft enforcement in MN; Trump's latest attack is on RFK, Jr; NM LGBTQ+ equality group endorses 2024 'Rock Star' candidates; Michigan's youth justice reforms: Expanded diversion, no fees.

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Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg says rebuilding Baltimore's Key Bridge will be challenging and expensive. An Alabama Democrat flips a state legislature seat and former Connecticut senator Joe Lieberman dies at 82.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Science Makes Progress on Insomnia As Fans Bid Farewell to Jackson

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Tuesday, July 7, 2009   

LAS VEGAS - As fans and family bid farewell to Michael Jackson, a new study shows promise in treating insomnia, the sleeping disorder that plagued the pop icon and reportedly had him searching for drugs to help.

Diaz Dixon, chief of the Step 2 Substance Abuse Treatment Center in Reno, says that just as with prescription painkillers, abuse of powerful sleep-inducing drugs has doubled in recent years. And, he says, you don't have to be a rock star with plenty of enablers to get caught up in the kind of thinking that fuels a prescription drug addiction.

"'If I can get enough sleep I can catch back up to myself;' it becomes a regular part of their lives and then it's that quick fix, 'OK, let me feel better right away' — which is the exact same component for all drugs and all addiction. "

Now there is hope for insomnia sufferers to get help using the Internet instead of drugs. A new study says Internet intervention using a series of therapeutic exercises has the potential to help many of the one-third of adults who suffer from insomnia.

Some ten percent of Americans suffer from full-blown sleeping disorders, according to Dr. Francis Thorndike, assistant professor at the University of Virginia Health System and study co-author. She says the Internet is now proven to be an effective way to deliver behavior therapy, using online exercises.

"They decreased the severity of their insomnia, they awoke fewer times at night, so there were a number of sleep variables in which participants improved who used the intervention."

Experts say therapy often has more long-lasting benefits than drugs to combat sleeping disorders. They say prescription drug addicts often fool themselves, because the drugs they are taking are legal, but when abused they can be just as damaging as cocaine or heroin. While powerful prescription drugs were found in Jackson's residence, no official cause has been determined in his death.

The study appears in the July issue of the "Archives of General Psychiatry."

There's more on it at consensus.nih.gov





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