A top Los Angeles medic has testified that Michael Jackson's sleeping problems dated as far back as 1998, when he was seeking out doctors who could prescribe him the anaesthetic that eventually killed him.

Dr. Christine Quinn, a professor at Los Angeles university UCLA, revealed in court on Wednesday (28Aug13) that the King of Pop summoned her to a Beverly Hills hotel room in 1998 and asked her to give him Propofol.

She told the jury in Jackson's ongoing wrongful death case that she refused his request and urged Jackson to seek medical help for his problems - because it wasn't appropriate to use anaesthesia as a sleep aid.

Dr. Quinn said, "I told him that the sleep you get with anaesthesia is not real sleep, not restful sleep... He told me it's the best sleep that he ever has. He told me he had tried other sleep remedies, that they don't work."

The doctor was testifying for the defense in a lawsuit filed by Jackson's mother Katherine against bosses at AEG Live Llc, the promoters of the singer's ill-fated This Is It comeback concerts.

She accuses the executives of negligently hiring Dr. Conrad Murray, who is currently serving prison time for involuntary manslaughter after he was convicted of administering the fatal dose of Propofol that claimed Jackson's life in 2009.

Wednesday's court proceedings ended early after Jackson's former nurse Sherilyn Lee broke down on the witness stand as she recounted her testimony from the 2011 Murray trial and recalled her former boss asking her issue Propofol two months before his death.

She testified that she told the King of Pop the anaesthetic was too dangerous to use at home.

The judge excused the jury for the day and agreed to revisit Lee's testimony on Thursday (29Aug13).