Does exogenous melatonin improve day sleep or night alertness in emergency physicians working night shifts?
Abstract
Study objective To determine whether exogenous melatonin improves day sleep or night alertness in emergency physicians working night shifts.Methods In a double-blind, placebo-controlled crossover trial, emergency physicians were given 10 mg sublingual melatonin or placebo each morning during one string of nights and the other substance during another string of nights of equal duration. During day-sleep periods, subjective sleep data were recorded. During night shifts, alertness was assessed with the use of the Stanford Sleepiness Scale. Key outcome comparisons were visual analog scale scores for gestalt night alertness and for gestalt day sleep for the entire string of nights.Results We analyzed data from 18 subjects. Melatonin improved gestalt day sleep (P = .3) and gestalt night alertness (P = .03) but in neither case was the improvement statistically significant. Of 13 secondary comparisons, 9 showed a benefit of melatonin over placebo; none showed a benefit of placebo over melatonin.Conclusion Exogenous melatonin may be of modest benefit to emergency physicians working night shifts.
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For shift work, older clinical studies with smaller subject numbers found no difference or modest differences in sleep outcomes compared with placebo.
“Older clinical studies with smaller subject numbers found no difference [286,287] or modest differences [288] in sleep outcomes compared with placebo.”
From Is Melatonin the “Next Vitamin D”?: A Review of Emerging Science, Clinical Uses, Safety, and Dietary Supplements (2022) · cites this paper as [288]
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- Authors
- Jorgensen, K. M., & Witting, M. D.
- Affiliations
- University of Maryland, Baltimore (US)
- ORCID
- Witting, Michael D
- Venue
- Annals of Emergency Medicine
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 1998-06
- Volume
- 31
- Issue
- 6
- Pages
- 699-704
- ISSN
- 0196-0644 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2140487804
- Cited by
- 72
- References
- 25
- Citations by year
- 2025: 1 · 2023: 1 · 2022: 5 · 2021: 3 · 2020: 2 · 2019: 3 · 2018: 2 · 2017: 1 · 2016: 1 · 2015: 1 · 2014: 3 · 2013: 2 · 2012: 2
- FWCI
- 6.60
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Annals of Emergency Medicine (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Sleep and Work-Related Fatigue
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Endocrine and Autonomic Systems › Circadian rhythm and melatonin
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Sleep and related disorders
- Keywords
- exogenous melatonin, night shift work, emergency physicians, sleepiness, shift work disorder, Stanford Sleepiness Scale
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Awareness, Double-Blind Method, Drug Administration Schedule, Emergency Medicine, Female, Humans, Male, Melatonin, Pain Measurement, Sleep, Work Schedule Tolerance, Free Radical Scavengers, Cross-Over Studies
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