Help is on the way for insomnia.

Behavioral changes and a frequently prescribed medication can help elderly people overcome insomnia, the most common sleep disorder, a U.S.-Canadian study finds.

For 8 weeks, researchers tracked the sleeping patterns of 72 people, average age 65, who suffered from insomnia but not from other medical or psychological disorders. Seventeen of the participants took a sleeping pill called temazepam an hour before bedtime, 18 used techniques that promote better sleep, 19 did both, and 18 received an inert pill. All participants recorded sleep information in diaries at breakfast.

The training required participants to limit time in bed to periods of sleep or sex, to awaken at a set time every morning, and to get up within 15 minutes if unable to fall asleep. Daytime naps of 1 hour were permitted, but only before 3 p.m.

Because a key problem in the elderly is the inability to return to sleep after waking in the night, researchers focused on time awake after having fallen asleep. Participants who received both training and medication reported nearly a two-thirds reduction in such time awake. Those receiving only the training saw a decline of slightly more than half, while people getting only medication had a reduction of slightly less than half. The placebo had little effect, researchers report in the March 17 JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION.

During the 3 nights before and after the trial, each participant was monitored while sleeping in a laboratory. These findings supported the diary information. Reports filed 3, 12, and 24 months after the end of the test showed that volunteers receiving sleep-training techniques had the least insomnia.

To alleviate sleep anxiety, the participants getting training were also counseled about sleep misconceptions. For example, they were told that there is no need for a person to sleep 8 hours, says study coauthor Charles M. Morin of Laval University in Sainte-Foy, Quebec.

Awakening daily at a set time can be difficult for people with insomnia, but it serves a purpose, Morin says. "We have internal clocks that synchronize our sleeping cycle," he explains. A full-time job often enforces the cycle for working adults.