Ref (type)	Population	Outcome, Interventions	Results and statistical analysis	Effect size	Favours
Adverse effects
Systematic review	830 people aged 60 years or over with insomnia	Adverse effects with any sedative	Significance not assessed
Systematic review	712 people aged 60 years or over with insomnia 10 RCTs in this analysis	Cognitive adverse effects with benzodiazepines, zopiclone, zaleplon, or zolpidem with placebo Absolute results not reported	OR 4.78 95% CI 1.47 to 15.47 P <0.01	Moderate effect size	placebo
Systematic review	1016 people aged 60 years or over with insomnia 13 RCTs in this analysis	Psychomotor adverse effects with benzodiazepines, zopiclone, zaleplon, or zolpidem with placebo Absolute results not reported	OR 2.25 95% CI 0.93 to 5.41 P = 0.07		Not significant
Systematic review	829 people aged 60 years or over with insomnia 7 RCTs in this analysis	Subjective morning or daytime fatigue with benzodiazepines, zopiclone, zaleplon, or zolpidem with placebo Absolute results not reported	OR 3.82 95% CI 1.88 to 7.80 P <0.001	Moderate effect size	placebo
Systematic review	829 people aged 60 years or over with insomnia 7 RCTs in this analysis	Impairment on performance tasks the morning after treatment with benzodiazepines, zopiclone, zaleplon, or zolpidem with placebo Absolute results not reported	Mean difference: 0.14 95% CI 0.11 to 0.16 Reported as significant P value not reported	Effect size not calculated	placebo
RCT Crossover design 3-armed trial	25 people aged 70 to 89 years with primary insomnia; 20 people completed at least 1 treatment arm	Total number of adverse events 14 days 90 with temazepam 15 mg for 14 nights 90 with placebo	P value not reported Reported as not significant		Not significant