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Serious respiratory depression has been described in COPD patients receiving hypnotics during acute exacerbations. There are few studies quantifying the effects of hypnotics on oxygenation during sleep in patients with stable hypoxemic COPD. In this study, the effects of single therapeutic doses of nitrazepam and flunitrazepam on SaO2, apneas during sleep and other sleep variables were measured in 14 COPD patients. All patients used theophylline. Sleep-induced decrease in mean SaO2was 1.3 percent after placebo, 1.4 percent after nitrazepam and 1.9 percent after flunitrazepam (no significant differences). Sleep apneas were not more common or longer after nitrazepam or flunitrazepam, but sleep quality seemed to improve. It is concluded that oxygenation during sleep in these nonobese patients with stable hypoxemic nonhypercapnic COPD, all on maintenance theophylline therapy, was affected very little by single therapeutic doses of nitrazepam or flunitrazepam.