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Efficacy of melatonin for chronic insomnia: Systematic reviews and meta-analyses.
Umbrella-style synthesis of 24 placebo-controlled RCTs in chronic insomnia: melatonin improved sleep onset latency and total sleep time in children/adolescents with non-comorbid insomnia but did not significantly improve sleep onset latency, total sleep time, or sleep efficiency in adults; comorbid-insomnia analyses favoured melatonin on sleep latency across ages but adult data were sparse.
Design
- Systematic reviews + meta-analyses; search through Nov 2020
- Corpus: 24 RCTs of chronic insomnia vs placebo (4 with comorbid insomnia)
- Outcomes: SOL, TST, sleep efficiency, sleep quality, QoL
Age-stratified conclusions (abstract)
- Non-comorbid insomnia: significant SOL and TST benefits with melatonin in children/adolescents only
- Adults (non-comorbid): no significant pooled improvements in SOL, TST, or sleep efficiency
- Comorbid insomnia: SOL improved in all age groups, but only one adult comorbid trial—authors call for more adult studies
Publication
Choi K, Suh HS. Sleep Med Rev. 2022 Dec;66:101679. PMID 36179487.
Outcomes
- Non-comorbid chronic insomnia: melatonin significantly improved sleep onset latency and total sleep time vs placebo in children/adolescents but not in adults per abstract synthesis of 24 RCTs.
- Comorbid insomnia: melatonin significantly improved sleep onset latency across age groups in pooled models, but adult evidence was very limited (one adult study) per abstract.