Prescribing in Northern Ireland. Study no. 1: Sleeping tablets.

THE VALUE OF HYPNOTICS The value of all medication for sleep has been called into question. Although current research is adding to our knowledge of what happens to the brain, the circulation and the endocrine system during sleep, we are ignorant of how much sleep is needed and what processes need to go on during sleep. There is evidence (Oswald 1973) that hypnotics interfere with the physiological features of normal sleep and that their effects on the performance of skilled tasks persist during the following day and possibly for several days. It has been shown that some patients who take a hypnotic at night are abnormally restless in the early hours of the following morning and that nocturnal restlessness is common for many nights after stopping sleeping tablets after more than a few days of regular use. This restlessness may convince patients, and doctors, that medication should be restarted and is a major factor in perpetuating the use of hypnotics.