The pathophysiology of insomnia is still not well understood. There are many models of sleep that are used to explain insomnia; however, the “hyperarousal” model is commonly used to explain insomnia based on the theory that difficulty sleeping and staying asleep is a result of heightened physiological, cognitive, or emotional arousal (4). However, the exact molecular mechanism behind insomnia remains inconclusive.
As a whole, there are various drug treatments for insomnia that target different neurotransmitter systems to promote sleep and inhibit wakefulness. Many of these drugs act in a similar manner by changing the binding of a ligand to a specific receptor involved in sleep either by acting on the receptor or interacting with neurotransmitters. It is important to note that insomnia as a whole is a multifaceted disorder that is still not yet understood, which is why many of the current approved drug treatments for insomnia still do not have well-established mechanisms of action.
Very well done! As the introduction of the answer section, this give me a good sense on what is coming next. Without reading the upcoming sections of the answer section, the combination of both paragraph gives a sense that it would dive deeper into talking about relation between receptors and hyperarousal model.
The only suggestion that I would give is to provide a figure for the structure of benzodiazepines. This class of drugs was mentioned multiple times.
This page does a great job of providing a general answer. I have 2 small suggestions:
1)Merge “However, the exact molecular mechanism behind insomnia remains inconclusive” with the first sentence. Right now, the 1st paragraph is sandwiched by the pathophysiology is unknown and the mechanism behind it is unknown. It might read better after merging the 2.
2) Though the explanation is great, I think a figure would make this page even better. A figure I think would fit here would be one that shows the hyperarousal model (or an example of it).
I thought this page was a good overview of the coming pages. It was clear and concise and used direct language. Perhaps defining what a ligand is for the lay reader would be a good addition and maybe some talk about the brain regions involved in the hyperarousal model as well. Good job!