Article: Melatonin for Shift-Work Insomnia.

Melatonin for Shift-Work Insomnia

By Aaron H. Burstein, PharmD

As much as 7% of the american labor force works rotating shifts or exclusively night shifts..sup.1 One difficulty in working such shifts is the transition back to a regular sleep/wake cycle. Melatonin has been advocated as an antioxidant to slow aging, an adjunct to cancer chemotherapy, a contraceptive, and a promoter of sleep, especially for jet lag, another type of shift in sleep schedule.

Pharmacology and Mechanism of Action

Melatonin is an endogenous hormone synthesized within the pineal gland through a series of metabolic conversions. (See Figure 1.) The cascade is ...

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