Objectives: Over the last century, studies have shown that sleep provides numerous benefits and improves quality of life. However, modern life often subjects inhabitants of large cities to chronic lack of sleep due to either social or financial reasons. Simultaneously, sleep loss is frequently associated with the use of illicit drugs to obtain stimulant and pleasurable effects. This review presents a general overview of global production of preclinical studies on drugs of abuse and sleep. Methods: To carry out this survey, specific keywords were searched in the Web of Science database. The drugs selected for this review were based on the most abused drugs described by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNO-DC) and the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA). Results: The results show an increase in studies examining these drugs and sleep. Gamma-hydroxybutyrate (GHB) had the highest percentage of preclinical sleep studies than the other drugs due to its sleep-inducing properties. On the other hand, no preclinical sleep studies were found for other drugs such as ayahuasca, psilocybin, desomorphine, and benzodifuranyls. Conclusion: The results indicate a growing number of publications examining sleep-inducing drugs in preclinical sleep research and also revealed a great expansion in the study with drugs of abuse.