Emphysema is a common respiratory disease in the elderly, often due to coughing and chest tightness and shortness of breath affecting daily work, quality of life, unsatisfactory treatment, prone to anxiety or depression, and also often insomnia. Insomnia seriously affects the quality of life and the recovery from the disease, so insomniacs usually need to take sleeping pills to treat it. However, all sleeping pills have inhibitory effects on the cerebral cortex and respiratory center. Taking a small amount can promote sleep, improve quality of life and facilitate recovery from illness, but overdose can cause poisoning, inhibit breathing and even lead to death, so sleeping pills should be taken with caution. The ideal sleeping pill should have the characteristics of leading sleep quickly, ensuring sleep quality, waking up refreshed, and not causing drug dependence, but there is not yet an ideal sleeping pill that is both safe and effective. Currently, the drugs commonly used to treat insomnia are mainly sedative-hypnotics, which have sedative, hypnotic and anti-anxiety effects. Commonly used drugs are second-generation sedative-hypnotics, such as Valium, Librium, Eszopiclone and Lorazepam, which have a high therapeutic index and are relatively safe to use; third-generation sedative-hypnotics, such as Zaleplon and Zopiclone, which have a high therapeutic index and are safe and basically do not change the normal physiological sleep structure and do not produce tolerance and dependence, and have been widely used to treat insomnia. Elderly people with emphysema have reduced organ function and poor respiratory function, and they are particularly sensitive to sleeping drugs, so if they take too much or choose improperly, drug poisoning can easily occur. Therefore, it is recommended to choose short-acting and safe drugs, such as eszopiclone, zaleplon, zopiclone, etc., to be used at night before bedtime, starting with a small dose and adjusting the drug dose according to the sleep condition, avoiding increasing the dose and the number of doses at will.