Study objectives: Taking hypnotic agents 30 min before bedtime is the usual suggested administration time, but some patients report dissatisfaction with their sleeping pills. We investigated whether the timing of sleeping pill administration influences patient subjective satisfaction with these drugs.
Methods: One hundred twelve patients with primary insomnia currently taking benzodiazepine or nonbenzodiazepine gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) agonists as sleeping pills were selected. The time of administration for their sleeping pills, bedtime, sleep onset time, and wake up time were obtained from their medical records. Subjects were also categorized into satisfied or dissatisfied groups.
Results: Hypnotic agents administration time (p < 0.001) and bedtime (p < 0.001), but not sleep onset or wake up time, occurred later in the night in the satisfied group. The durations from administration of pills to sleep onset (33.6 ± 20.7 min) and to wake up time (7.2 ± 1.2 h) were significantly shorter in the satisfied group when compared to the dissatisfied group (135.9 ± 73.4 min and 9.3 ± 1.5 h for time to sleep onset and wake up, respectively). Logistic regression analysis revealed that patient subjective satisfaction with hypnotic agents could be predicted by a short duration from administration of pills to sleep onset (odds ratio = 0.01; 95% confidence interval [0.001-0.09]) and a short duration from administration of pills to wake up time (0.53; [0.31-0.89], F = 49.9, p < 0.001).
Conclusions: Taking sleeping pills at a later time and a shorter interval between pill administration and wake up time may increase patient subjective satisfaction with hypnotic agents. We propose that physicians advise patients to take sleeping pills approximately 7 h before their usual getting-out-of-bed time instead of the current standard of 30 min before bedtime.
Keywords: hypnotics; insomnia; patient satisfaction; sleep.
© 2016 American Academy of Sleep Medicine.