Research

Hormonal

Melatonin administration significantly reduces sleep-onset latency (SOL) in children with DSPD, but this effect is not statistically significant in adults.

Parents of children with DSPD may observe faster sleep onset with melatonin, whereas adults may not experience this specific benefit despite phase shifting.

GoodQualifiesMEDIUM confidence
The reduction in SOL with melatonin was statistically significant in children (by 16.04 min) but insignificant in adults (by 30.28 min).
Ingeborg M. van Geijlswijk et al. · SLEEP · 2010

Why this rating

Meta-analysis data, but heterogeneous results between adults and children.

Source

The Use of Exogenous Melatonin in Delayed Sleep Phase Disorder: A Meta-analysis

Ingeborg M. van Geijlswijk et al. · SLEEP · 2010

DOI 10.1093/sleep/33.12.1605

Meta-analysis · 9 studiesCited 264×
Read the paper
DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

This is one finding among thousands. Every one is graded and traced to its source, so you can see what the evidence actually supports. Browse the research →