(Archive) Beter slapen

Supporting better sleepquality

Last year, pharmacy assistant Aaltine Bakker met designer/innovator Klaas Jan Bolt at a Health Hub Utrecht inspiration session. Aaltine: “Every day, I see a lot of people at the counter asking for sleeping pills. Handing them over is almost an automated process. I told Klaas Jan that I was so eager to give these people extra information. We went on an adventure together..”

That adventure translated into a medicine-like box of Benzomoe, a nod to the muscle relaxant benzodiazepine in Dutch (Am So Tired). The box, which Bakker hands out with the sleeping medication, contains an invitation to discuss the use of sleeping pills with the pharmacy.

About 10 percent gets in touch and is motivated to stop or to reduce the dosis. Right now, 6 other pharmacists hand out Benzomoe.

Bolt then noticed that there was hardly any contact between different professionals who work with sleep and brought them together in the Sleep Coalition. Bolt: “By sharing knowledge and especially data, there is a lot to gain.” An example of this is the custom production of tapering medication with a 3D printer.