OTC sleeping drug sales ‘experience boom’

Increasing numbers of Britons are facing insomnia, leading to a boom in over-the-counter (OTC) sales of sleep-aiding drugs, it has been reported.

According to the Guardian, insomnia affects five per cent of the population at any specific time and ten per cent of all people suffer from the problem at some point.

Kevin Morgan, an insomnia expert at Loughborough University, told the newspaper older people, women and those suffering from anxiety are most at risk of the problem.

It noted that Boots’ over-the-counter sale of OTC sleeping drugs increased by 18 per cent last year, while 4,000 people phoned an insomnia helpline.

Kathleen McGrath, medical director of the Medical Advisory Service, told the newspaper: “You probably have a generation that is quite sleep disturbed. I think we are looking at a time bomb.”

According to the Sleep Council just one in ten Britons claim to consistently sleep well.

It reports that a lack of sleep is one of the most common health complaints affecting people in the 21st century.