Research

Hormonal

Prolonged-release melatonin (2 mg) significantly reduces sleep latency in elderly patients (aged 65-80) with primary insomnia, with effects sustained over 6 months without tolerance.

If you are over 65 and struggle with falling asleep, a 2mg prolonged-release melatonin tablet taken 1-2 hours before bed, after eating, can help you fall asleep about 19 minutes faster. This benefit lasts for at least 6 months without losing effectiveness. It does not appear to work for younger people with low melatonin levels.

GoodSupportsHIGH confidence
PRM significantly reduced sleep latency compared to the placebo in elderly patients regardless of melatonin levels (-19.1 versus -1.7 min; P = 0.002)... The effects on sleep latency and additional sleep and daytime parameters that improved with PRM were maintained or enhanced over the 6-month period with no signs of tolerance.
Alan Wade et al. · BMC Medicine · 2010

Why this rating

Randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial with a large sample size (n=791) and long duration (6 months), though power was slightly below target for some subgroups.

Source

Nightly treatment of primary insomnia with prolonged release melatonin for 6 months: a randomized placebo controlled trial on age and endogenous melatonin as predictors of efficacy and safety

Alan Wade et al. · BMC Medicine · 2010

DOI 10.1186/1741-7015-8-51

rct · n=791Cited 177×
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DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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