USE OF MELATONIN IN
CHILDREN WITH SLEEP DISORDERS
Ayyash H F1,2, Wyer E2, Cartwright J3, Morton R3,
Preece P M2
1 MMedSci in
Child Health, University of Leeds, UK
2 Department of
Paediatrics, Chesterfield and North Derbyshire Royal Hospital, Chesterfield,
Derbyshire, UK
3 Department of
Paediatrics, Ronnie Mackeith Centre, Derbyshire Children’s Hospital, Derby,
UK
Objective: To study the
effectiveness of melatonin in children with neurological disorder and sleep
disturbance.
Methods: Forty five children
(36 male and 9 female) aged 1 to 16 years were evaluated. Synthetic melatonin 2.5 to 10mg was
given 30 minutes before the desired sleep time. Evaluation was based on parental description of sleep
pattern and on completion of sleep charts/diaries.
T paired
test was used to analyse the efficacy of melatonin by comparing the total
sleep time and time to sleep onset before and after treatment.
Results: Thirty seven
children had delayed settling, 36 frequent awakening and 14 children had an
early morning awakening.
Further analysis found 10, 28 and 7 children to have single, double
or triple sleep disorder respectively. There was an improvement in the total sleep time and
time to sleep onset. Two
thirds of patients had good to excellent response to treatment.
Conclusion: Our results showed
that melatonin is effective in the treatment of children with sleep
disorders and it could be used as an alternative drug treatment.