Trial reportThe Journal of physiology2004
Melatonin advances the circadian timing of EEG sleep and directly facilitates sleep without altering its duration in extended sleep opportunities in humans.
Trial report in The Journal of physiology, 2004. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 49 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
49 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 159 citations in OpenAlex.
- Exploring the Effects of Problematic Internet Use on Adolescent Sleep: A Systematic Review.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2021Pooled it
- The effectiveness of melatonin for promoting healthy sleep: a rapid evidence assessment of the literature.Nutrition journal · 2014Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Poorer sleep quality predicts melatonin response in patients with traumatic brain injury: findings from a randomized controlled trial.Journal of clinical sleep medicine : JCSM : official publication of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine · 2021Trial
- Sleepiness, sleep deprivation, quality of life, mental symptoms and perception of academic environment in medical students.BMC medical education · 2021Trial
- Efficacy of melatonin with behavioural sleep-wake scheduling for delayed sleep-wake phase disorder: A double-blind, randomised clinical trial.PLoS medicine · 2018Trial
- Efficacy of melatonin for sleep disturbance following traumatic brain injury: a randomised controlled trial.BMC medicine · 2018Trial
- Trial
- Melatonin does not influence sleep deprivation electroencephalogram recordings in children.European journal of pediatrics · 2012Trial
- Use of transdermal melatonin delivery to improve sleep maintenance during daytime.Clinical pharmacology and therapeutics · 2009Trial
- Human data at odds and in confirmation of the two-process model of sleep regulation-a perspective.Npj biological timing and sleep · 2026Review
- Anxiety severity moderates the relation between pineal parenchymal volume and objective sleep problems in peri-adolescent youth.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Phenotypic similarity of adverse drug reactions and disease phenotypes is a bridge to mechanistic discovery.npj drug discovery · 2025Article
- Impact of Varying Sleep Pressure on Daytime Sleep Propensity in Healthy Young and Older Adults.Clocks & sleep · 2025Article
- Blue Light and Digital Screens Revisited: A New Look at Blue Light from the Vision Quality, Circadian Rhythm and Cognitive Functions Perspective.Journal of biomedical physics & engineering · 2024Review
- Melatonin's role in the timing of sleep onset is conserved in nocturnal mice.Npj biological timing and sleep · 2024Article
- Melatonin as a Chronobiotic with Sleep-promoting Properties.Current neuropharmacology · 2023Review
- The interplay between macronutrients and sleep: focus on circadian and homeostatic processes.Frontiers in nutrition · 2023Review
- Human circadian rhythm studies: Practical guidelines for inclusion/exclusion criteria and protocol.Neurobiology of sleep and circadian rhythms · 2022Review
- Treatment of Circadian Rhythm Sleep-Wake Disorders.Current neuropharmacology · 2022Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The rhythm of plasma melatonin originating from the pineal gland and driven by the circadian pacemaker located in the suprachiasmatic nucleus is closely associated with the circadian (approximately 24 h) variation in sleep propensity and sleep spindle activity in humans. We investigated the contribution of melatonin to variation in sleep propensity, structure, duration and EEG activity in a protocol in which sleep was scheduled to begin during the biological day, i.e. when endogenous melatonin concentrations are low. The two 14 day trials were conducted in an environmental scheduling facility. Each trial included two circadian phase assessments, baseline sleep and nine 16 h sleep opportunities (16.00-08.00 h) in near darkness. Eight healthy male volunteers (24.4 +/- 4.4 years) without sleep complaints were recruited, and melatonin (1.5 mg) or placebo was administered at the start of the first eight 16 h sleep opportunities. During melatonin treatment, sleep in the first 8 h of the 16 h sleep opportunities was increased by 2 h. Sleep per 16 h was not significantly different and approached asymptotic values of 8.7 h in both conditions. The percentage of rapid eye movement (REM) sleep was not affected by melatonin, but the percentage of stage 2 sleep and sleep spindle activity increased, and the percentage of stage 3 sleep decreased. During the washout night, the melatonin-induced advance in sleep timing persisted, but was smaller than on the preceding treatment night and was consistent with the advance in the endogenous melatonin rhythm. These data demonstrate robust, direct sleep-facilitating and circadian effects of melatonin without concomitant changes in sleep duration, and support the use of melatonin in the treatment of sleep disorders in which the circadian melatonin rhythm is delayed relative to desired sleep time.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.