An estimated 1.8 million people in the Netherlands use sleeping pills and of these around 600,000 are addicted to them, according to the results of a new survey by the consumer association, reports the AD newspaper on Friday.

Of the 1,500 patients questioned for the survey, just over half said their doctor had told them about alternatives to medication. Only 10% were given advice on how and when they should stop taking sleeping pills.
This means that doctors are breaking their own guidelines when it comes to prescriptions for sleeping pills, the paper says.