Objective  To understand the use of hypnotic drugs and its influencing factors in patients with chronic insomnia and to provide references for the standard diagnosis and treatment of insomnia.

  Methods  Based on preliminary assessment with The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders Fifth Edition (DSM-5), we randomly selected 2 371 chronic insomnia patients seeking medical service at 5 sleep disorder clinics of Hangzhou City Sleep Disorder Diagnosis and Treatment Center from January 2016 to May 2017; then we conducted an internet-based self-administered questionnaire survey using Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) and the Generalized Anxiety Disorder 7-Item (GAD-7) among the patients. Unconditional multivariate logistic regression model was used to analyze influencing factors of hypnotic drug use.

  Results  Of all the patients, 1 512 (63.77%) and 859 (36.23%) were female and male, with the average age of 40.17 ± 11.78 and 38.76 ± 11.55 years, respectively. About a half of the patients (45.63%) reported hypnotic drug use, of them, 42.05%, 21.35%, and 19.22% reporting medication with benzodiazepines, non-benzodiazepines, and hypnotic antidepressants. The reported hypnotic drug use differed significantly by gender, age, education, duration of the disease, and severity of insomnia (P < 0.05 for all). More female patients reported hypnotic drug use than the male patients (P < 0.05) and the patients at elder age, with lower education, with longer duration or higher severity of insomnia reported higher ratios of hypnotic drug use (P < 0.05 for all). Multivariate analysis demonstrated that age, duration of disease and severity of insomnia were main influencing factors of hypnotic drug use among the patients (all P > 0.05).

  Conclusion  The prevalence of hypnotic drug use is higher among the chronic insomnia patients of female gender, at elder age, with lower education, having longer duration and higher severity of insomnia.