Introduction: Insomnia is a disease of high global prevalence, multifactorial, with a high risk of transformation in a chronic disease due to improper management: inappropriate medical treatment (not taking into account the etiology of insomnia, the necessary dosages, the timetable and duration of administration) and the disregard of non-pharmacological treatments. Materials and methods: An analysis of the latest scientific sources has been carried out using the PubMed search engines, "HINARI" and Google Academic with the help of keywords: hypnotics, adverse effects, sleep architecture. Results: The hypnotics of various groups (benzodiazepines, antihistamines, non-benzodiazepines, antidepressants) have common adverse effects of addiction, tolerance and chronic insomnia. The use of hypnotics in case of apnea is useless because respiratory pauses do not disappear, which keeps the patient in a superficial sleep and only treatment with CPAP would solve the problem. Insomnia resulting from circadian rhythm disorders requires treatment to correct the day-night regimen, and insomnia caused by anxiety and depression can be improved by treating these disorders. Conclusions: Prolonged use of hypnotics leads to the installation of tolerance and addiction. Insomnia is improved for a short period of time, but prolonged use leads to development of chronic insomnia. For the correct treatment of insomnia it is necessary a complex etiological approach. Acknowledgements: Rakovskaya Tatiana