MINNEAPOLIS, Minn., June 12 -- Despite disappointing performance in clinical trials, anti-insomnia drugs that improve short-wave sleep may still have a role in helping people get a good night's rest, a sleep specialist predicted here.

"We haven't heard the last of short-wave sleep," said James Walsh, Ph.D., of St. John's Mercy and St. Luke's Hospital, St. Louis, during an industry-sponsored satellite symposium held in conjunction with the Associated Professional Sleep Societies meeting.

The combination of drugs that increase short-wave sleep, such as tiagabine and gaboxadol, plus cognitive behavioral therapy and perhaps benzodiazepines, might be able to produce the results that help patients sleep, he said.

Dr. Walsh, one of four speakers who discussed treatments to improve sleep in insomnia patients, noted that studies with both the anticonvulsant tiagabine (Gabitril) and the experimental drug gaboxodol proved they could improve short-wave sleep, but failed to provide major relief to patients.