Melatonin and Autism Ranking:

Aims and Claims

Aims

Melatonin is normally prescribed to help people who experience significant sleep problems which have lasted more than a month and which have not responded to other forms of treatment. It is also sometimes prescribed for other people (such as shift workers) or for other conditions (such as jet lag).

Common sleep problems include 

• Late sleep onset time: falling asleep late at night
• Long sleep onset latency: taking a long time to fall asleep
• Short sleep duration:  sleeping for a  reduced amount of time
• Night awakenings: waking up in the middle of the night

The exact mechanism by which melatonin helps to reduce sleep problems is unclear.  Most researchers (such as Tordjman et al, 2013) have suggested that melatonin works by regulating basic regular physiological rhythms such as circadian rhythms (which govern the body clock).  However, some researchers (such as Doyen et al, 2011) have suggested that melatonin may work in other ways. For example, they suggest that “… melatonin may act non-specifically as a hypnotic agent [tranquilliser] to promote sleep… or … may promote sleep by decreasing core body temperature”. 

Some researchers (such as Guenole et al, 2011) suggest that reducing sleep problems may help reduce other problems. 

“Sleep problems in children with ASD also dramatically alter the sleep of their parents and are associated with family stress, possibly amplifying ASD symptoms and interfering with treatment. Conversely, it is reported that successful management of sleep may improve daytime global functioning in children with ASD.”

Claims 

There have been various claims made for the use of melatonin as an intervention for autistic people. For example, 

• Galli-Carminati et al (2009) claimed that “Melatonin administered in the evening dramatically improved the sleep-wake pattern in all patients. Melatonin appears to be effective in reducing sleep onset latency [the time taken to fall asleep] and is probably effective in improving nocturnal awakenings and total sleep time in adults with autism.”
• Malow et al (2012) claimed that the use of melatonin “showed improvement in sleep, behavior, and parenting stress”.
• Wronjan et al (2009) claimed that “…night sleep duration was longer on melatonin … by 21 minutes, mean sleep-onset latency (the time taken to fall asleep) was shorter by 28 minutes, and sleep-onset time was earlier by 42 minutes.

Updated

16 Jun 2022

Last Review

01 Nov 2017

Next Review

01 Apr 2024