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Randomized trial · measured the question itself

Trial in 13 young people with severe epilepsy: no clear difference in total sleep

Myers and colleagues · Journal of clinical sleep medicine · 2018

Original title: Randomized Controlled Trial of Melatonin for Sleep Disturbance in Dravet Syndrome: The DREAMS Study.

Under review. A person has not yet checked this summary against the paper. It is written from the PubMed abstract. Until a person checks it, search engines are asked not to list this page.

What the study found

No difference

No difference in total sleep or WASO between melatonin and placebo. Of 11 patients with a clear caregiver-reported difference, 8 reported improvement on melatonin (P < .05).

The study at a glance

Type of study
Randomized trial
Who or what was studied
13 people · children and young people with Dravet syndrome (severe epilepsy) and sleep problems
What was tested
Melatonin 6 mg regular-release vs placebo, each person tried both
What it measured
The question itself: sleep, and safety with long-term use
Daily amount
6 mg a day
Who has a stake
No disclosure in PubMed
No disclosure in PubMed.
Journal
Journal of clinical sleep medicine, 2018
Source
PubMed record 30353809. This page is based on the abstract only.

How much this study counts

  • ✓Randomized: people were put into groups by chance, so the groups start out alike.
  • ✓Compared with a placebo, a dummy treatment.
  • –Small: 13 people. Small trials can miss real effects or find chance ones.
  • ✓Measured the question itself: sleep, and safety with long-term use.
  • •The PubMed record has no conflict-of-interest statement.
  • •Summarized from the PubMed abstract only. The full paper may hold details the abstract leaves out.

✓ Strength– Limit• Note

These points come from fixed rules about the type of study, its size and length, what it measured, and who has a stake. Every study on Digestery gets the same rules.

Where this study sits

Each dot is one on-topic paper on this question. Steps near the top answer the question more directly.

↑ Stronger evidence

  1. Trials in people: sleep onset and sleep quality

    8

    2 benefit, 2 mixed, 4 no difference

    ↑ This study is the ringed dot

  2. Trials in people: other measures

    2

    1 benefit, 1 no difference

  3. Trials in people: lab tests or safety

    0

    None among the papers we read.

  4. Population studies

    0

    None among the papers we read.

  5. Blood levels and genes

    0

    None among the papers we read.

↓ Weaker evidence

  • Points to benefit
  • Mixed
  • No difference
  • No direction
  • Points to harm

How it fits with the other research

The short answer to “Does melatonin help you sleep?”

A small effect, clearer in children.

Confidence: low. Based on 20 on-topic papers.

Read the full answer

Of the other 7 papers on the same step: 2 benefit, 2 mixed, 3 no difference. This one found no difference.

Other papers on the same step

See all 20 studies on this question

How this page was made

Label

First read of the abstract
Claude Sonnet
Independent second read
Claude Haiku
Differences settled
The two reads agreed on every checked field. Claude Opus 5.5.
Headline
Claude Sonnet, from the checked study record. A script checked its numbers and wording.
Numbers
Checked against the abstract by a script
“How much this study counts”
Fixed rules, the same for every study
Source check by a person
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