The assessment and management of insomnia in primary care

Insomnia affects about a third of the general population according to a recent longitudinal study in the UK1 and cross sectional studies estimate the prevalence in patients attending primary care to be between 10% and 50%.2 3 According to the American Sleep Disorders Association International Classification of Sleep Disorders coding manual, insomnia refers to “a repeated difficulty with sleep initiation, duration, consolidation, or quality that occurs despite adequate time and opportunity for sleep and results in some form of daytime impairment and lasting for at least one month.”4 Although some patients who have this problem may not report it as such, inadequate sleep has been associated with reduced physical health3 4 5 6 and mental health.7 8 9 The continued widespread use of sedative medication to treat insomnia raises concern about the potential for long term tolerance and addiction, particularly where insomnia is the presenting complaint of missed diagnoses such as depression, or when adverse effects might be a problem—for example, falls in older adults.10 11 12 The normal range of sleep is seven to nine hours per night,13 although some individuals claim they can function on as little as four hours, whereas others need up to …