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MSM

Health News Archive 293 - Sleep
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Melatonin as Effective as Sleep Medication

The May 2006 issue of the scientific journal Sleep, the publication of Associated Sleep Professionals, features a study on the effect of supplemental melatonin on circadian sleep cycles.

In the double-blind placebo-controlled study, 36 healthy individuals were forced off their normal sleep schedules. The researchers changed the subjects’ sleep cycle by 4 hours each day for 27 days. The individuals on melatonin had significantly improved sleep efficiency and got 30 minutes more sleep per sleep cycle, on average, than the controls. Researchers note that while that may not sound like much, it is approximately the same as individuals on prescription sleep medication, and an extra 30 minutes of sleep is quite noticeable to a sleep-deprived person.

Source: Sleep-Facilitating Effect of Exogenous Melatonin in Healthy Young Men and Women Is Circadian- Phase Dependent, James K. Wyatt, PhD; Derk-Jan Dijk, PhD; Angela Ritz-De Cecco, PhD; Joseph M. Ronda, MS; Charles A. Czeisler, PhD, MD., Division of Sleep Medicine, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital & Division of Sleep Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA. Sleep. 2006 May.