Support by Medication

Sleep medication in the Netherlands is prescribed by doctors to support better functioning during day time. Most of the time it is a last resort. Sleep medication shortens the time to fall asleep by 15-20 minutes and lengthens the total sleeping time by 30-50 minutes. The proven effect for short term is maximal two weeks.

Long term use of sleep medication is however unwanted, due to side effects and reduced effectivity on long term. In addition, when using sleep medication for long term, there can occur withdrawal effects when you taper off the medication. Tapering off medication is therefore in the Sleep Treatment Centre carefully supervised. Support by medication is something we only do after consulting different sleep experts. We prefer to treat without medication.