A pilot study, presented at the annual meeting of the European Committee for Treatment and Research in Multiple Sclerosis (ECTRIMS), suggested that melatonin could improve sleep time and sleep efficiency in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) who were also having sleep disturbance.

Though the study had only 30 patients, the results suggest that melatonin could help MS patients with sleep issues, stated Wan-Yu Hsu, PhD, who presented the study. The double-blind, placebo-controlled, crossover study included participants with a Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) score of 5 or more, or an Insomnia Severity Index (ISI) score more than 14 at baseline. Other assessments done at baseline included patient-reported outcomes for sleep disturbances, sleep quality, daytime sleepiness, walking ability, fatigue, and mood. Half of the study subjects were given melatonin for the first 2 weeks and were then switched to placebo. The other half initially received placebo and switched to melatonin at the beginning of the third week. During weeks 2 and 4, the subjects wore an actigraph watch, and the patient-reported outcome measures were repeated at the end of weeks 2 and 4. Melatonin led to an improvement in average sleep time (6.96 vs. 6.67 hours). Sleep efficiency was also slightly improved (84.7% vs. 83.2%); however, it was not statistically significant (P = .07). Improvements in ISI (–3.5 vs. –2.4; P = .07), change in PSQI component 1 (–0.03 vs. 0.0; P = .07), and change in the NeuroQoL-Fatigue score (–4.7 vs. –2.4; P = .06) were the other trends toward statistical significance… (Medscape)