Pain and Rehabilitation Centre, and Department of Health, Medicine and Caring Sciences, Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden.
Philos Ethics Humanit Med. 2021 Oct 2;16(1):10. doi: 10.1186/s13010-021-00109-7.
The safety of sleeping pills has increased dramatically during the last 100 years, from barbiturates to bensodiazepines to modern day so-called Z-drugs.
The circumstances of prescribing sleeping pills in the early 20 century are illustrated by summarizing the main storyline of a novel by Swedish writer Vilhelm Moberg. This is followed by a thought experiment and a theoretical discussion.
In his 1937 novel Sömnlös (Swedish for sleepless) Vilhelm Moberg portrayed existential and relational distress in relation to insomnia. In a thought experiment, past progresses in sleeping pills safety are projected into the future. Thereby, it is claimed that important issues in the area of philosophy of medicine come to the fore. This leads to a theoretical discussion about broader questions concerning the role of the physician, the goals of medicine (as described by Lennart Nordenfelt), the concept of pharmaceuticalisation (as described notably by sociologist of sleep Simon J. Williams and co-workers), and health enhancement (c.f. Carl Elliott and the alleged wish to be better than well).
Insomnia is a prism through which important philosophical and sociological questions related to the practice of medicine can be asked.
在过去的 100 年里，安眠药的安全性得到了极大的提高，从巴比妥类药物到苯二氮䓬类药物再到现代所谓的 Z 类药物。
通过总结瑞典作家Vilhelm Moberg 的一部小说的主要故事情节，说明了 20 世纪初开处安眠药的情况。随后进行了一个思想实验和理论讨论。
在他 1937 年的小说《失眠》中，Vilhelm Moberg 描绘了与失眠有关的存在主义和人际关系困扰。在一个思想实验中，过去在安眠药安全性方面的进展被投射到未来。由此，据称医学哲学领域的重要问题开始浮现。这导致了关于更广泛问题的理论讨论，涉及医生的角色、医学的目标（如 Lennart Nordenfelt 所描述的）、药物化的概念（如睡眠社会学家 Simon J. Williams 及其同事所描述的）以及健康增强（例如 Carl Elliott 和据称希望比健康更好）。
失眠是一个棱镜，可以通过它来提出与医学实践相关的重要哲学和社会学问题。
