Yaron Dagan, M.D., Ph.D., is the director of the Institute for Fatigue and Sleep Medicine at Chaim Sheba Medical Center in Israel, and has worked with over 600 patients who have sleep/ wake schedule disorders.
Dr Dagan reports that most of these patients have been treated successfully with melatonin.
"We found melatonin to be a very good treatment for these patients. In Israel, [melatonin] is a pharmaceutical substance that needs a physician's prescription and is prepared in pharmacies. The usual dosage...is 5 mg taken daily at a fixed time [usually 10 p.m. to 11 p.m.]. Melatonin treatment is well established in our treatment protocol," he said. "It has to be emphasized, however, that this treatment is only effective for biological rhythm disorders [sleep/wake schedule disturbances and jet lag], but it is not a miracle sleeping pill for psychophysiological insomnia."
Dagan added that he has not confronted any major side effect.
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