• Sleep Medicine and Psychophysiology
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.5-18
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• 1999

A growing number of people are concerned about their sleep. There are many people with chronic sleep disorders. Sedativehypnotics including benzodiazepine and non-benzodiazepine have been widely used in chronic insomniacs. It is widely accepted that current hypnotics are efficient in alleviating subjective symptoms of insomnia. Non-benzodiazepine hypnotics include zolpidem, zopiclone, and melatonin. These novel non-benzodiazepine hypnotics that have efficacy comparable to benzodiazepines were developed with more understanding of benzodiazepine receptor pharmacology. Their unique pharmacologic profiles may offer few significant advantages in terms of adverse effects of benzodiazepines. However, most of hypnotics including non-benzodiazepine have some of dependence, tolerance, impaired daytime function and rebound insomnia. Currently, it is accepted that combination therapy with pharmacologic and behavioral intervention is the most effective for chronic insomniacs.