For three weeks prior to the study, the participants refrained from
alcohol, caffeine, nicotine, illicit substances and prescription and
non-prescription medications. They were placed in sound-proof suites
free of time clues for three days and nights in the lab on their
traditional sleep schedules to measure their normal sleep structure and
melatonin production.
The participants were then kept on a 20-hour sleep-wake schedule,
simulating a traveler crossing four time zones eastward every day. For
the next three weeks the participants were given either a placebo or
.3milligrams (mg), or 5.0mg of pharmaceutical grade melatonin, thirty
minutes before their sleep episode.
They found that sleep efficiency during the six hour, 40 minute episodes
was significantly higher in the groups that took melatonin during times
when the body was not producing melatonin. Also, the participants taking
5.0mg of melatonin had a sleep efficiency of 83 percent and those taking
0.3mg melatonin had a sleep efficiency of 84 percent.
Both melatonin groups experienced better sleep “efficiency” than the
group taking the placebo, which had a sleep efficiency of 77 percent.
Interestingly, there was no significant difference in sleep efficiency
among all participants during times when melatonin was being produced
naturally in the body, according to the researchers.
Lead author, James K. Wyatt, Ph.D., said “"A landmark feature of this
comprehensive research was the study of 24 successive sleep episodes in
the same participants, including over 1,000 sleep recordings, across a
full range if circadian phases – the body's internal 24-hour timing
system. We were able to definitively show in these healthy young adults
that the use of melatonin as a sleep-aid was only beneficial for
sleeping when the body wasn't already releasing its own supply of
melatonin." Wyatt is acting Co-Director of the Sleep Disorders
Service and Research Center at Rush University Medical Center in
Chicago.
These data leave little doubt about the effectiveness of melatonin in
alleviating sleep disturbances when attempting to sleep at the wrong
time of day, at least under laboratory conditions," continued co-author Derk-Jan Dijk, now Director of the Surrey Sleep Research Centre, Surrey,
England.
Dr. Charles Czeisler, Chief of the Division of Sleep Medicine at Brigham
and Women's Hospital and senior author of the study, concluded
"Melatonin enabled these participants to obtain an extra half hour of
sleep when they attempted to do so during the day, at a time when they
were not producing melatonin themselves. Melatonin did not help these
young adults sleep at night, when their body was already producing
melatonin. These finding have implications for millions of people who
attempt to sleep at a time that is out of synch with the brain's
internal clock."
The results of the placebo
double-blind study was published in the May 1, 2006 issue of the journal
Sleep.
Dan Wilson
Best Syndication
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