Melatonin Versus Drugs for Insomnia in the Hospital

About 36% of people who are hospitalized experience insomnia even when they have no prior history of insomnia. It can be caused by patient care interventions, noise and medications, and it may have a number of negative impacts. Several different drugs are frequently prescribed. But could safe, natural, inexpensive and effective melatonin work just as well.

This study included 158 hospitalized non-ICU patients who were experiencing insomnia in the hospital even though they did not have a history of insomnia. They were treated either with the drug trazadone or with the natural supplement melatonin. Interestingly, melatonin levels have been shown to be significantly diminished in critically ill patients.

The most common dose of melatonin was 6mg at bedtime. The second most common dose was 3mg.

Although there was no statistical difference between the two treatments, perhaps because of the small sample size, the surprising finding was that, while 34.6% of the trazadone group required an additional sleeping aid to be prescribed, only 19.7% of the melatonin group did.

This study suggests that melatonin “may have a more favorable treatment outcome than trazodone” and adds to the body of evidence recommending melatonin for sleep problems.

Hosp Pharm. 2023 Apr;58(2):165–170.

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