‘It’s Pure Bliss’: Pharmaceutical pleasures in later-life use of sleeping medication

• Shows pleasure sustains long-term use of prescribed hypnotics in later life. • Identifies end-oriented and non-end-oriented pharmaceutical pleasures. • Introduces the concept of quiet, domesticated pleasures. • Combines episodic interviews with solicited medication diaries. • Guides international deprescribing by addressing affective attachments. While research on prescribed sleeping medications has largely focused on risks and regulation, this paper examines a less explored dimension: the pleasures of long-term use. Drawing on qualitative interviews and diaries with 38 UK users aged 65+, it examines not only pharmacological effects but also the emotional, sensory, and symbolic dimensions of use, showing how pharmaceutical effects are enacted through embodied routines, expectations and everyday practices. Rather than incidental to therapeutic intent, pleasure is shown to be central to the enduring appeal and embeddedness of sleeping medication use among older adults. Drawing on social constructivist and phenomenological perspectives, the analysis foregrounds participants’ descriptions of comfort, stillness, warmth, and control, showing how these sensations are sustained through nightly routines and rhythms, forming what we term quiet, domesticated pharmaceutical pleasures. The paper makes three key contributions: first, it positions pleasure as a central sustaining dimension of the long-term use of sleeping medication; second, it distinguishes between end-oriented pleasures (the achievement of sleep) and non-end-oriented pleasures- experienced during bedtime and the lead-up to sleep- which are embedded in ritual and anticipation; and third, it advances a sociological account that reconceptualizes pleasure as relational, embodied, and symbolically mediated, rather than reducible to pharmacological effects. In doing so, the paper advances a broader understanding of pharmaceutical life and how pleasure operates within licit, long-term, and emotionally meaningful drug use.