Research: Don't sleep on it

People in the UK don't seek help for insomnia because they see it as a trivial problem that they should be able to manage themselves, research on patients in Oxford suggests. Yet the rate of insomnia in the UK is 22 per cent – substantially higher than in other parts of Europe. Other reasons were lack of awareness of treatment options and the belief that they are ineffective. The authors recommend awareness programmes to reduce the perception of insomnia as trivial.

External links

• Stinson K et al. Barriers to treatment seeking in primary insomnia in the United Kingdom: a cross-sectional perspective. Sleep 2006;29(12):1643–6.