How does sleeping tablets work?

How does sleeping tablets work?

Chris Idzikowski (Director of the Edinburgh Sleep Centre) gives expert video advice on: What lifestyle choices can affect sleep?; Can certain foods make you drowsy?; Can alcohol make you sleepy? and more...

It's interesting with sleeping pills, we didn't really know how they worked up until roughly about ten years ago when we just started to get some idea. When the first barbiturate was synthesized at the turn of the twentieth century it just worked. It was noted in animals that it caused sleepiness and the whole class was developed to promote sleep. They work partly by mimicking what the output is of the sleep promoting system, that's that group. But there are also the sedating antihistamines, which can be bought over the counter. Those in fact, again were developed originally as antihistamines but the made people sleepy during the day. Now we realize that in fact that particular group acts by blocking wakefulness so sleep can cut in. So there are different mechanisms of action.