Insomnia
5 medicines
Insomnia is trouble falling asleep, staying asleep, or waking too early. Good sleep habits come first, with medicines such as melatonin and short-acting sleep aids used when extra help is needed.
Key facts
- Insomnia means trouble falling asleep, staying asleep, or waking too early and being unable to drift off again.
- It's treated as a long-term problem once poor sleep lasts three nights a week for three months or more, especially once daytime focus, mood, and energy start to suffer.
- Stress, irregular schedules, screen time, caffeine, alcohol, and shift work are common triggers; pain, anxiety, depression, and an overactive thyroid can also keep sleep broken.
- Good sleep habits come first. Where extra help is needed, melatonin, eszopiclone, or zaleplon may be used, listed under sleeping pills.
What causes insomnia
Stress, irregular schedules, and screen time late at night are the usual triggers. Shift work and long-haul travel disrupt the body clock, a frequent issue for shift workers and frequent travellers who cross time zones often. Caffeine, alcohol, and afternoon naps all make it harder to settle. Pain, anxiety, depression, and an overactive thyroid can keep sleep broken too, so persistent insomnia is sometimes a signal to look at what sits underneath it.
How insomnia is treated
Good sleep habits come first: a fixed wake time, a cool dark room, and winding down without screens. Where extra help is needed, melatonin can nudge a shifted body clock back into rhythm and is often used for jet lag and age-related sleep changes. Short-acting sleep aids such as eszopiclone and zaleplon are used for shorter stretches to break a cycle of bad nights. You can see the full range under sleeping pills. Treatment works best alongside the habit changes, not instead of them.
When to see a doctor
See a doctor if insomnia drags on for weeks, if you fall asleep uncontrollably during the day, or if low mood or anxiety is driving the sleeplessness. Loud snoring with gasping or pauses in breathing can point to sleep apnoea, which needs its own assessment.
This page is educational and does not replace advice from a doctor or pharmacist who knows your health history.
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