Importantly, the effectiveness for inducing sleep wears off after a few weeks. It can be very hard to stop taking benzodiazepines as insomnia and often anxiety returns. A: Lorazepam used in small dosage are used to treat sleep disorders. This medication can become addicting is used over a long period of time but can be easily stopped by the proper tapering dose. Ativan can cause mild or serious side effects. The following list contains some of the key side effects that may occur while taking Ativan. This list doesn’t include all possible side effects. It is a cold. Everyone at my work is sick and I caught it. I was told by my doctor that since my dose is so low.05 and I have only been taking it since December every 12 hours that I can quit taking the Ativan cold turkey but I have heard there are horrible side effects doing this. Yes, you certainly can be prescribed both Ativan and Xanax, although IMO it doesn't make much sense. They both fall into a category of drugs called benzodiazepines, which work similarly by binding to the GABAa receptor site in the brain. The Big Sleep. Your guide to getting a good night’s sleep. by Christiane Northrup, M.D. Ativan (lorazepam) and Xanax (alprazolam) are both used to treat anxiety and other psychiatric disorders. They are in the benzodiazapine family of drugs, which help inhibit excess nerve stimulation in the brain. I have a teacher who takes Ativan and she says its addicting and she has taken it for years that she can't tamper off it because her Doc said it can cause memory loss? What is Ativan? Ativan (lorazepam) is a sedative medication that is most generally used to treat anxiety. Other accepted uses include treating insomnia, symptoms of severe alcohol withdrawal, relieving serial seizures in children (sublingual form), as a muscle relaxant, and reducing the suffering of chemotherapy patients who. What is sleep? What causes the body to sleep? What are the stages of sleep? How long does it take to get REM sleep? Why is REM sleep important? What percentage of sleep should be deep sleep?.