Jackson, like Joker, suffer from chronic sleep deprivation in last days

SHOOT: As soon as you start using drugs to calm you and put you to sleep, you start to interfere with two of the most important systems in the body - the brain and nervous system. And this obviously can have an impact on other systems, which are more delicate than we know. Like the heart. Heath Ledger also suffered from chronic insomnia in his last days. When you are desperate to rest, but with huge amounts of inspiration going through you, trying to sleep can be a horrible, panic-filled malaise.
When I was treated for exhaustion earlier this year, I was given just 4 tablets to help me sleep. They worked so well I wanted more. That's how it starts to become a problem. For these stars with so much more at stake, the risks they take will obviously be much greater. Sadly.

clipped from new.music.yahoo.com Michael Jackson was so distraught over persistent insomnia in recent months that he pleaded for a powerful sedative despite warnings it could be harmful, says a nutritionist who was working with the singer as he prepared his comeback bid. Cherilyn Lee, a registered nurse whose specialty includes nutritional counseling, said Tuesday that she repeatedly rejected his demands for the drug, Diprivan, which is given intravenously. But a frantic phone call she received from Jackson four days before his death made her fear that he somehow obtained Diprivan or another drug to induce sleep, Lee said. "At that point, I knew that somebody had given him something that hit the central nervous system," she said, adding, "He was in trouble Sunday and he was crying out." "I don't know what happened there. The only thing I can say is he was adamant about this drug," Lee said.