Do non-benzodiazepine-hypnotics prove a valuable alternative to benzodiazepines for the treatment of insomnia?

Macrostructure of sleep During sleep, 5 to 6 sleepcycles occur during the night, lasting approximately 1,5 hours. Every sleep cycle consists of one REM stage, characterised by rapid eye movements, paradoxical cortical activation and muscular atonia, and four non-REM stages (‘macrostructure’ of sleep). The first three to five hours of the night are considered to be most important and responsible for the restorative function of sleep, since during these hours the largest amount of slow wave sleep (non-REM 3&4) occurs. The sleep in the second part of the night is dominated by superficial REM sleep and sleep stage 2.1