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ABSTRACT
Sleeping is a periodic and temporal interruption of consciousness during the circadian rhythm of a human being, which lasts for 24.5 hours and is the result of various activating and inhibitory brain processes. Sleep-awake circadian rhythm disorders are important and frequent medical problems of a modern man. The etiology of primary sleep disorders is not well understood, but secondary insomnia is caused by a range of psychiatric as well as neurologic, internal, infectious, surgical and other problems. Hypnotics are the drugs that cause or prolong the sleeping time. As insomnia and shortening of the sleeping time are among the most frequent clinical problems, hypnotics are very present drugs today. Before introducing hypnotics, a physician should find the cause of insomnia and remove it, if possible. Regardless of the drug, its efficiency is lost during continuous treatment, usually after 1-2 weeks. Therefore, it is recommended to limit the use of hypnotics for the maximum of 7 days.The most popular hypnotics today are benzodiazepines (nitrazepam, flurazepam, temazepam and diazepam), zolpidem, zopiclone, chloral hydrate and clomethiazole. Once the barbiturates were used as hypnotics regularly, but in modern practice they are almost completely withdrawn because of prominent abuse potential and high mortality in a case of overdose.
Key words: insomnia, hypnotics, benzodiazepines, zolpidem, zopiclone, chloral hydrate, clormethiazole
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