Chemotherapy is an important treatment for malignant tumors, but the toxic side effects associated with chemotherapy aggravate patients’ mental and psychological fear of chemotherapy and affect the compliance with chemotherapy. Recent studies have found that the incidence of sleep disorders or insomnia syndrome in cancer chemotherapy patients is significantly higher than that in the general population, which has actual as well as potentially serious effects on patients’ quality of life and has become a common problem for somatic and psychological factors related to cancer and cancer treatment. Thalidomide, a derivative of glutamate, was originally introduced as a sedative drug and is being widely investigated for the treatment of various tumors because of its immunomodulatory, anti-tumor angiogenic, and tumor cell growth inhibitory effects. In this study, we initially evaluated the studies related to the use of thalidomide for the treatment of insomnia during peri-chemotherapy in cancer patients, and laid the experimental foundation for further expansion of clinical antitumor therapeutic indications of thalidomide.