Studies indicate that a significant proportion of people
with insomnia use non-prescription remedies to manage
sleep difficulties. In an analysis of the United 2002
National Health Interview Survey Data, 4.5% of the sample
of respondents with sleep problems reported using
some form of complementary and alternative medicine
(CAM) treatment over the preceding 12 months [8].
This percentage represented more than 1.6 million
adults with sleep problems in the U.S. population.
Morin and colleagues [9] found that 15% of more than
2,000 community-dwelling adults reported using at least
one herbal/dietary product for sleep problems in the
past year, compared to 11% who reported using a sleep
prescription. Yet, rigorous clinical studies assessing the
efficacy and safety of CAM therapies for chronic insomnia
are largely lacking