Melatonin Tablets Won't Help You Sleep
February 13th 2006
Melatonin is not effective for treating sleep problems, finds a review of the evidence, published today. 
Sleep disorders, either due to lifestyle disruption or a health problem (known as secondary sleep disorders) affect around one in five people. They reduce quality of life and can lead to mistakes and potentially dangerous accidents.
One suggested treatment is melatonin - a natural hormone involved in controlling the body clock. As melatonin is becoming increasingly popular, Dr Nina Buscemi and colleagues at the University of Alberta, Canada examined the research evidence.
They analysed 15 randomised controlled trials of melatonin and sleep disorders, with a total of 524 participants. Six studies looked at sleep disorders caused by health problems such as a nervous system disorder, and 9 due to sleep restriction, such as shift work.
Although the results for ’sleep onset latency’ (time taken to fall asleep) favoured melatonin tablets over placebo, the effect was not significant. Melatonin had no significant benefit on other measures of sleep quality.
However, in 17 trials of 651 participants melatonin was found to be safe with short term use, but further studies are needed to confirm its long term safety. Findings are published online by the British Medical Journal today (10 February).
The authors write: "There is no evidence that melatonin is effective in treating secondary sleep disorders or sleep disorders accompanying sleep restriction, such as jet lag and shift work."
The team did not examine the effects on daytime sleepiness caused by jet lag, for which melatonin has shown a benefit in previous studies.
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