Management of Insomnia

The sleep cycle comprises multiple stages, progressing from wakefulness to light sleep and finally into deep sleep, concluding with the Rapid Eye Movement phase.

Insomnia a common sleep disorder, is characterized by difficulty falling asleep, staying asleep, or both. This results in daytime sleepiness, mood disturbances, and impaired performance. Insomnia can be transient, short-term, or long-term.

Its management involves behavioral techniques, lifestyle modifications like regular exercise, good sleep hygiene, cognitive-behavioral therapy, and pharmacotherapy, if needed.

Hypnotics aid in inducing or maintaining sleep and are suitable for short-term management of severe insomnia under medical supervision.

Benzodiazepines are a class of sedative-hypnotics that enhance GABA's inhibitory actions to induce sleep.

Barbiturates, another class of hypnotics, are less frequently used due to their high abuse risk.

Non-benzodiazepines and melatonin receptor agonists offer therapeutic efficacy with fewer adverse effects compared to conventional hypnotics.