Hypnotic

For the state of mind see Hypnosis.

For other uses, see Hypnotic (disambiguation).

Hypnotic drugs induce sleep (which differentiates them from the sedative category), used in the treatment of insomnia and in surgical anesthesia. Often the treatment of insomnia will not begin with drugs at all. Since many hypnotic drugs are habit-forming, a physician will usually recommend alternative sleeping patterns and exercise before prescribing medication for sleep, due to a large number of factors known to disturb the human sleep pattern.

These drugs include:

• barbiturates
• opioids
• benzodiazepines
  • estazolam
  • flunitrazepam
  • midazolam
  • nitrazepam
  • temazepam
  • triazolam
• nonbenzodiazepines
  • zolpidem
  • zaleplon
  • zopiclone
  • eszopiclone
• antihistamines
  • diphenhydramine
  • doxylamine
  • promethazine
• gamma-hydroxybutyric acid (Xyrem®)
• glutethimide
• chloral hydrate
• ethchlorvynol
• levomepromazine
• chlormethiazole
• Alcohol is also used as a hypnotic drug, though not medically. To quote the BNF: "Alcohol is a poor hypnotic because it\'s diuretic action interferes with sleep during the latter part of the night. Alcohol also disturbs sleep patterns, and so can worsen sleep disorders"

This pharmacology-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from Wikipedia