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Pooled review (meta-analysis)

Pooled review of 69 studies of sleep drugs: melatonin-type ones may help falling asleep

Yue and colleagues · Sleep medicine reviews · 2023

Original title: Efficacy and tolerability of pharmacological treatments for insomnia in adults: A systematic review and network meta-analysis.

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

Points to benefit

Orexin drugs beat melatonin receptor agonists for time to fall asleep, waking and sleep efficiency. Melatonin receptor agonists may help sleep-onset insomnia with good safety. Long-term side effects of all drugs are unclear.

The study at a glance

Type of study
Pooled review (meta-analysis)
Who or what was studied
69 studies, 17,319 people · adults with primary insomnia
What was tested
20 sleep drugs, including melatonin receptor agonists, vs placebo and each other
What it measured
Several kinds of outcomes
Who has a stake
No stake declared
The authors declare no conflicts of interest.
Journal
Sleep medicine reviews, 2023
Source
PubMed record 36701954. This page is based on the abstract only.

How much this study counts

  • ✓Pools the results of 69 studies with 17,319 people.
  • •A pooled review is only as strong as the studies it pools.
  • •Measured several kinds of outcomes.
  • ✓No competing interests declared.
  • •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

This paper is not on the ladder. It is a pooled review (meta-analysis), and reviews and opinion pieces discuss studies that are already counted on the steps below.

↑ Stronger evidence

  1. Trials in people: sleep onset and sleep quality

    8

    2 benefit, 2 mixed, 4 no difference

  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
  • Quoted in “What we found”: Short trials reported few side effects, but reviews say long-term side effects are unclear and long-term studies in children are lacking.
  • Part of the finding “Safety: few side effects reported, long-term unknown”.
  • Open item for a person: Yue 2023 pools melatonin with ramelteon as one drug class; confirm it belongs on this page.

Other reviews on this question

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 reviewer corrected 1 field after reading the abstract. 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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