Effects of hypnotic and sleep-inducing drugs on objective assessments of human psychomotor performance and subjective appraisals of sleep and early morning behaviour.

1 An acute dose comparison against placebo of the effects of nitrazepam 5 mg and temazepam 15 and 30 mg on measures of arousal and performance and on subjective assessment of sleep was carried out in 20 subjects with a history of using night-time medication for insomnia. 2 Amylobarbitone (100 mg) was included as an active control and each drug was given in hard gelatin capsules. Subjects reported improved sleep with nitrazepam 5 mg and temazepam 30 mg, but there was evidence of impaired performance the next day with temazepam 30 mg. 3 The effect of temazepam 20 mg prepared in the Scherer formulation was compared against placebo in a further ten subjects. The subjects reported improved sleep without evidence of impaired performance the next day.