Frequently asked questions

No. The Sleep Pattern Assessment™ is a structured screening tool, not a diagnosis, and it does not replace medical advice. Built by physicians, it works through how your sleep actually behaves — how long it takes you to fall asleep, whether you wake repeatedly or too early, how your body clock is timed, and how your days are affected — and identifies which insomnia pattern your sleep most likely fits. From there it routes you to the right next step: targeted non-prescription sleep support, prescription medication with a telephonic clinician consultation, or, where your answers raise a safety concern, a recommendation to seek in-person medical review. Safety routing always takes priority over any product suggestion. The assessment is free, takes around ten minutes, and shows your result immediately. A formal diagnosis can only be made by a clinician who has assessed you directly.

Adults aged 18 and over, resident in South Africa — Slumbr works online across all nine provinces, so you do not need to live near a major centre. Slumbr is not currently appropriate if you are pregnant or breastfeeding, have untreated severe depression or psychosis, have a current substance use disorder, or have untreated sleep apnoea. These exclusions exist for safety reasons: each of those situations changes what sleep care is appropriate, and some need in-person assessment first. The Sleep Pattern Assessment screens for all of them deliberately and will route you to a medical-review recommendation rather than a product where any of them apply. If you are under 18, the assessment will direct you to seek care with a doctor in person, since Slumbr's pathway — including its products — is designed for adults only.

No. Slumbr's Schedule 0 sleep-support products (the non-prescription range) can be purchased directly from the store, once-off or on subscription, without seeing a doctor first. Where prescription medication is being considered, a telephonic clinician consultation is included with your first prescription order. That said, products are not the right first step for everyone: if your sleep difficulty is severe or has persisted for months, if you snore loudly with pauses in breathing, or if sleepiness affects your safety during the day, medical review is the better route. The free Sleep Pattern Assessment tells you which situation applies — it is never required to access the public range, but it will flag when medical review is recommended for your specific pattern. Whatever the starting point, cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) remains the evidence-based first-line approach for chronic insomnia, and our clinicians can discuss or signpost it.

When you place your first prescription order, a Slumbr clinician phones you before anything is dispatched. The call covers your sleep history and pattern, your medical and medication background, a depression screen and screening for alarm symptoms such as sleep apnoea, and confirms whether the medicine is right for you. If it is not, we say so and do not dispatch.

Once you have had that call you can reorder without another consultation, within the six-month review window that South African law sets for repeat prescriptions. Slumbr no longer offers scheduled video consultations or follow-up appointments.

By telephone. There is no appointment to book and no physical visit: after you place your first prescription order, a Slumbr clinician calls you on the number on your order, goes through your history, and confirms the medicine is right for you — only then is it dispatched. You take the call from wherever you are in South Africa. If anything discussed needs an in-person examination or an overnight sleep study, the clinician refers you to the appropriate service and explains why.

Yes — prescription medication may be dispensed after a telephonic consultation with a Slumbr clinician, where it is clinically appropriate for your pattern. The consultation is included with your first prescription order, you need a Slumbr account to place it, and nothing is dispatched without that call. During the call the clinician takes a full history first — your sleep pattern, medical background, current medicines, and screening for conditions such as sleep apnoea that change what is safe — before any prescribing decision. Once approved, your medicine is dispatched to your door in discreet packaging. Repeats are capped: after six months of repeat dispensing, South African law requires a fresh consultation before treatment continues. Each prescription is an individual clinical decision per patient — and for chronic insomnia, medication sits alongside, never instead of, the behavioural foundation of care (CBT-I).

Yes. With a telephonic clinician consultation on your first prescription order, a Slumbr clinician can approve prescription sleep medication where clinically appropriate — alongside behavioural strategies (CBT-I) and targeted non-prescription support, never as an automatic outcome. On public pages we name medicines by drug class rather than brand; the specific medicine, dose and duration are agreed with your doctor during the consultation, based on your pattern, history and safety screening. Slumbr's formulary is deliberately narrow and evidence-led: modern classes with cleaner safety profiles are preferred, older dependence-forming options are not used as first-line, and short-course agents are prescribed as short courses only. Where medication is not the right answer — which is often — your physician will say so plainly and structure the plan around CBT-I and targeted support instead. The starting point either way is the same: a consultation that looks at your whole picture first.

Insomnia can be assessed and managed online by a specialist physician — Slumbr does this across all nine South African provinces, by telephonic clinician consultation, with nationwide delivery for anything that needs to reach you. For most insomnia care, online works well: the assessment is history- and conversation-based, plans are written, and follow-ups fit around work and family rather than travel. In-person services are mainly needed for overnight sleep studies (for example, where sleep apnoea is suspected) or where a physical examination is required — Slumbr refers you for those when they are clinically indicated, with an explanation of what the study is for and what happens afterwards. If you are unsure which you need, start with the free Sleep Pattern Assessment: it screens for the situations that need in-person care and routes you accordingly.

The full pathway, all online and physician-led. Care starts with the free Sleep Pattern Assessment, which identifies your insomnia pattern and the right level of care for it. From there the pathway includes evidence-based behavioural guidance — cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) is the first-line treatment for chronic insomnia — targeted non-prescription sleep support matched to your pattern, and prescription sleep medication where clinically appropriate, with a telephonic clinician consultation included in your first prescription order. Follow-up care, prescription reviews, and referral for in-person services such as sleep studies are part of the same pathway, so you are not left to coordinate your own care between providers. See our full guide to comprehensive insomnia care in South Africa.

We name medicines by drug class rather than brand on public pages — the specific molecule is agreed with your doctor during the consultation. The broad classes we work with are:

• Dual orexin receptor antagonists (DORAs) — preferred class for the hyperarousal pattern
• Compounded low-dose H1-selective agent — Slumbr's flagship for sleep-maintenance insomnia
• Prolonged-release melatonin — first-line for adults 55 and over
• Short-course Z-drugs — short courses of less than 2–4 weeks, never on subscription, for breaking a defined crisis pattern

The full picture is on the relevant treatments pages. We are explicit about what we will not prescribe — high-dose benzodiazepines as first-line, off-label quetiapine for primary insomnia, and any combination not supported by the evidence.

We have put the key trade-offs side by side: CBT-I vs sleep medication, non-prescription vs prescription support, and online vs in-person care. See the full treatment comparisons.

Yes — Slumbr's Schedule 0 sleep-support products and most prescription medicines can be purchased on a monthly subscription at a lower per-month price than once-off. Subscriptions can be paused, skipped, or cancelled at any time from your account.

For prescription medicines, the subscription auto-renews monthly up to a maximum of 6 cycles, after which the SA Medicines Act 22A(6) requires a fresh consultation to continue. We build that legal cap into the subscription itself, so you are reminded automatically when it is time to re-consult.

Short-course Z-drugs are not eligible for subscription by design — they are dispensed as short courses of less than 2–4 weeks, and any repeat is a deliberate clinical decision.

Same product, two purchase options. Subscribe & save is roughly 15% cheaper per unit and auto-renews monthly until you cancel (or, for prescription items, until the 6-cycle cap). Once-off is a single delivery with no recurring contract; the per-unit price is higher because there is no auto-renew commitment.

Health data — your Sleep Pattern Assessment™ answers, intake form, consultation notes — is treated as special personal information under POPIA. We store only what is consented to, encrypted at rest and in transit, on infrastructure located in or compliant with POPIA's transfer rules. We do not share your health data with third parties for marketing. Your contact email (where you opt in to it) is used only for the Slumbr clinical newsletter and can be unsubscribed in one click.

Deliveries are couriered nationwide within South Africa. Packaging carries no medication names on the outside; the return address is "Slumbr Sleep Clinic." Typical delivery is 2–3 working days to the Johannesburg metro, 3–5 working days elsewhere. Free shipping on orders over R750.

Slumbr is an online clinic, so we work across all nine South African provinces — by telephonic clinician consultation and nationwide delivery. Choose your area to see how online sleep care works near you:

By province: Gauteng · Western Cape · KwaZulu-Natal · Eastern Cape · Free State · Limpopo · Mpumalanga · North West · Northern Cape

By city: Johannesburg · Cape Town · Durban · Pretoria · Gqeberha (Port Elizabeth)

No. Slumbr does not provide emergency care. If you are in crisis or experiencing thoughts of self-harm, please contact SADAG on 0800 567 567 (24/7) or your nearest emergency department. For severe chest pain, breathlessness, neurological symptoms, or any acute medical emergency, contact emergency services or go to an emergency unit immediately.