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Restless nights: Why my sleep disorder novel stars an intrepid pharmacist
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Sleep researcher Adrian Zacher has written a book in which an intrepid pharmacist helps his patients suffering from a “silent epidemic” of sleep disorders
I believe community pharmacy is absolutely at the coalface of healthcare. But as with all of primary care there is significant room for improvement when it comes to sleep – the education just doesn’t exist.
A survey I ran with colleagues from the British Society of Pharmacy Sleep Services (BSPSS) found that half of 120 pharmacists had no training in sleep as part of their undergraduate degree. Remember, one in three adults struggle with insomnia. And if you have type 2 diabetes you should be screened for obstructive sleep apnoea, but does it happen?
That was part of the inspiration for my recently published book, Doze and Die. It has four main characters: Sarah, Robert, Troy and Ahmed, four strangers bound by a common affliction. Each of the characters has a chronic disease like obesity and cardiovascular disease, and they are all exacerbated by an undiagnosed sleep disorder.
Fiction gave me licence to join the dots. Sarah keeps falling asleep because of her obstructive apnoea, and then she kills someone – it happens all the time. The person she kills happens to be the partner of someone with type two diabetes. Hearing his wife has been rushed to hospital and having skipped breakfast, he goes into a hypoglycaemic coma. Community pharmacist Ahmed calls the ambulance and then the whole story goes from there.
I’ve used a story to make this accessible to the general public – but I’ve encountered all these scenarios in my 30 years in this industry. Our hero is a vigilant community pharmacist, which again is true to life. BSPSS president Gareth Evans is a weight management pharmacist.
Writing the book has been a good exercise in direct communication and simplifying the message. I’m doing a PhD and it’s the complete opposite of that. Previously I’ve self-published quite dry books, but this is the most successful book I’ve ever put out. I’ve written a sequel dealing with the impact of counterfeit medicines, which is a real problem.
It’s a bit of fun, but it’s meant to make you realise the consequences of the chances we take all the time. It’s equally applicable in community pharmacy and general practice because this is just everywhere.
I’m actually at King’s College London delivering sleep workshops to MPharm Year Four students. If it works we want to scale it to other universities.
The Doze and Die e-book can be ordered on Amazon