Former NFL LB Junior Seau Had Insomnia In Months Leading Up To Suicide

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Junior Seau took strong sleep aids and had insomnia in the months leading up to his suicide according to friends, David Leon Moore and Erik Brady of USA Today report. Seau's last days were filled with friends and flirting, beaches and bar-hopping, lifting weights and lifting spirits but his nights were different. His 11-year-old son, Hunter, told his mother, Seau's ex-wife Gina that he got up about 3 a.m. and his father's bedroom light was on, so Hunter peeked in, there was his dad, sitting up on his bed, wide awake, staring at the TV. But the TV wasn't on. He wasn't reading. He wasn't writing. He was just staring. "Dad, are you OK?" Hunter asked. "Yes, son," Seau said. "I'm fine." Friends say Seau had insomnia, and at least four of them say he often took Ambien, that's the best-known brand name for zolpidem, a prescription drug commonly prescribed for sleep disorders. Jack Cox, a spokesman for Sanofi, Ambien's maker, says 95% of zolpidem sold in the USA is generic. The FDA-approved prescribing information for Ambien warns that suicidal thoughts or actions have been reported by depressed patients using this class of drugs, the information also instructs users not to take it if they drink, which friends say Seau did, and also if they cannot get a full night's sleep while taking it. "He told me he usually woke up around 1 or 2 and couldn't go back to sleep," says Nancy Emsley, who often worked out with Seau at a local gym. She said she lectured Seau that he needed to sleep for eight hours after taking one.

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