Insomnia not only affects sleep at night, but also affects daytime life and work or study, and even causes various accidents such as traffic accidents and machinery. When there is some kind of physical disease in the body, insomnia can also affect the recovery of the disease. Long-term insomnia also makes people prone to anxiety, irritability, depression and other mental symptoms. For insomnia, in addition to the insomniacs should change the bad sleep environment and develop good sleep habits, avoid doing excitatory exercise before bed and drinking drinks that interfere with night sleep (such as coffee, tea) and the application of drugs with excitatory effects, if necessary, also the application of sleeping pills. At present, as many as dozens of sleeping pills are used to treat insomnia, more than forty kinds abroad and more than twenty kinds at home. Any sleeping drug has more or less certain side effects, and some of them may even have drug dependence and withdrawal reactions when used for a long time, so insomniacs should have an understanding of sleeping drugs. Sedative-hypnotic drugs have been used for a hundred years, and now, depending on the age and chemical structure of their use, doctors usually classify sleeping pills into three main categories, which can also be called three generations. The first category or first generation of sleeping drugs refers to the barbiturates, which are phenobarbital (luminal), isopentobarbital (amytal), pentobarbital, scombobarbital (quick sleep), and sodium thiopental. In the 1930s to 1950s, barbiturates were popular as sleeping pills, and they did have a good effect. However, after the 1960s, the emergence and widespread use of benzodiazepines and the serious side effects of barbiturates themselves, such as addiction and side effects such as liver, kidney, bone marrow suppression and rash, led to the elimination of barbiturates from the national list of essential drugs in 2000. Barbiturates are now used only for the control of epilepsy, and no longer use sleeping pills for the treatment of symptoms or diseases such as insomnia or anxiety. The second class or second generation of sedative-hypnotics, benzodiazepines, were used in the 1960s and quickly gained acceptance by clinicians and patients, and they are still the dominant product in the Ambien class. There are many different types of benzodiazepines, and not all of them can be used as sleeping pills, depending on the length of the clear half-life of each drug (the time it takes for blood levels to decrease by half is called the half-life). Now the clearance half-life of benzodiazepines has been basically figured out, such as clonazepam (clonidine) 19-30 hours, diazepam (Valium) 35-50 hours, lorazepam (lorazepam, clorazepam) 10-18 hours, fludrocortisone (Toumadan) 75 hours, nitrazepam ( Nitrozepam) 21-30 hours, Eszopiclone (Sulezepam) 17 hours, Alprazolam (Jalapenem, Jalapenem) 12-15 hours, Triazolam (Soundlaxin) 2.7 hours, Metazolam (Speedy Sleep) 2 hours, etc. The third generation of hypnotic drugs have been listed one after another, and now there are three kinds listed in China, namely Zopiclone (Amnesia), Zolpidem (Synthroid) and Zaleplon. These three drugs have different chemical structures and are different from barbiturates and benzodiazepines, but they all have obvious hypnotic effects, and are characterized by a small chance of addiction and withdrawal reactions (some information says that these drugs do not become addicted and do not form dependence), do not inhibit breathing, and have a short half-life, so they do not produce the next day’s “hangover “It is suitable for those who have difficulty in sleeping and insomnia with pathological basis and for those who should have acute insomnia before examinations. Zopiclone is rapidly absorbed after administration, starting to work after 1.5 hours, with a half-life of only 1.5-8 hours. Zolpidem is absorbed more quickly after oral administration, and it takes effect 0.5 hours after administration, with a half-life of only 1.4-1.8 hours, so it is said that “zolpidem should be used in bed, otherwise you will fall asleep”. Zaleplon also has the characteristic of fast action, with a half-life of only 0.9-1.1 hours. Because these three drugs have very little side effects, addiction and withdrawal reactions are rare, so they have become the first-line drugs for the treatment of insomnia in Europe and the United States and other countries, there is a trend to replace the benzodiazepines, the disadvantage is that the price is expensive. According to the length of half-life anxiolytic drugs can be divided into three categories: short-acting, medium-acting and long-acting. Short-acting anxiolytic drugs: zopiclone, zolpidem, zaleplon, triazolam, quick sleep, this type of drug is mainly used for sleepy insomnia patients, insomnia characterized by early awakening is not effective; medium-acting anxiolytic drugs: Scholastin, alprazolam, lorazepam, suitable to help patients increase the depth of sleep, reduce the number of night waking and dreaming frequency, while using to relieve the patient’s anxiety and nervous anxiety; long-acting Anti-anxiety drugs: diazepam, clonazepam, fludiazepam, nitro valium are suitable for patients suffering from early awakening, and are also commonly used to relieve patients’ anxiety and nervousness; but in any case, drugs with a long half-life should not be used as hypnotic drugs, otherwise they are prone to the next day’s “hangover” effect, such as feeling dizzy, inattentive, active, and unresponsive. The next day’s “hangover” effects, such as dizziness, lack of concentration, poor motivation, and unresponsiveness, may occur. Any benzodiazepine has the pharmacological effects of anxiolytic, sedative, hypnotic, anticonvulsant and muscle relaxant, while benzodiazepines play a certain pharmacological role that we expect, other pharmacological effects are bound to become side effects. When benzodiazepines such as diazepam are used to relax the muscles of surgical patients before surgery to facilitate open surgery, the muscle relaxation effect of the drug itself can make the elderly unstable in walking and walking up and down stairs, making it easy to fall and even cause fractures. Benzodiazepines also have the side effect of slightly inhibiting respiration, so they can inhibit respiration in people with pathological bases (such as bronchitis, emphysema, heart failure, etc.) and should be used with caution, and some of them can aggravate the original physical disease and even cause death. Therefore, benzodiazepines should be used with caution or disabled in those with pathological basis, when third-generation anxiolytic drugs become the best choice. Long-term use of benzodiazepines can lead to psychiatric and somatic dependence, and sudden discontinuation can lead to anxiety, insomnia, agitation, headache, nausea, excessive sweating, photophobia, and even seizures, so benzodiazepines should be discontinued in a gradual manner. In general, those with short half-lives are prone to dependence and withdrawal reactions, while those with long half-lives are less likely to become dependent and have less withdrawal reactions. Generally speaking, short-acting sleeping pills should not be used continuously for more than 2 weeks, and long-acting sleeping pills should not be used continuously for more than 3 months. For persistent insomniacs, short-term, intermittent and alternating use of benzodiazepines is currently advocated to avoid drug dependence and other adverse effects associated with long-term benzodiazepine use. In addition, some antidepressants have significant sedative-hypnotic effects, such as tricyclic amitriptyline and doxepin, while the new antidepressants alphameratine or trazodone are not only effective sedative-hypnotics, but also can significantly reduce excessive dreaming, thus greatly improving the sleep quality of patients suffering from excessive dreaming.