Melatonin shortened sleep onset in children with eczema
A trial review found faster sleep initiation, but no statistically significant improvement in total sleep duration or overall eczema severity.
Based on the published abstract. The full paper may contain additional methods, results and limitations.
The 30-second takeaway
The pooled trials favored melatonin for falling asleep sooner, but found no statistically significant improvement in total sleep time or overall eczema severity scores. Improvement on a separate severity measure did not exceed the review's threshold for a clinically meaningful change. The practical importance of these results remains uncertain.
This abstract-based summary cannot resolve how the eczema severity measures differed. The abstract also omits participant numbers and treatment lengths, limiting interpretation of the pooled results.
What researchers found
Time to fall asleep
Melatonin versus placebo; standardized mean difference scales the gap between groups to the spread of sleep-onset times. Negative values mean faster sleep onset with melatonin. Assessment times are not reported.
Separate sleep and skin outcomes
Falling asleep sooner and sleeping longer are separate outcomes. Sleep duration and IgE levels showed no statistically significant improvement. The severity findings also distinguish signs rated by clinicians from the overall eczema score.
Safety remains incompletely established
The trials reported no adverse events, but that does not establish long-term safety. The authors call for longer studies, and the abstract does not describe treatment lengths or how adverse events were monitored.
The original publication
Effectiveness of melatonin supplementation for improving sleep quality and disease severity in children with atopic dermatitis: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
Alghamdi F, Alzahrani DY, Alharthy RF et al.
Front Med (Lausanne) · 2025
- PubMed ID
- 41647028
- Record checked
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