Background: Night float rotations are used in residency training programs to reduce residents' sleep deprivation. Night shift work, however, is accompanied by deleterious effects on sleep, mood, and attention.
Objective: To test whether melatonin reduces the deleterious effects of night shift work on sleep, mood, and attention in pediatric residents during night float rotation.
Design/methods: Double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled crossover. Participants took melatonin (3 mg) or a placebo before bedtime in the morning after night shift; completed a sleep diary and an adverse-effects questionnaire daily; and completed the Profile of Mood States and the Conners Continuous Performance Test 3 times in each study week to test mood and attention, respectively.
Setting: A university-affiliated, tertiary-care pediatric hospital.
Participants: Healthy second-year pediatric residents working 2 night float rotations.
Outcome measures: Standardized measures of sleep, mood, and attention.
Results: Twenty-eight residents completed both treatments; 17 completed 1 treatment (10 placebo, 7 melatonin). There was not a statistically significant difference in measures of sleep, mood, and 5 of 6 measures of attention during melatonin and placebo treatment. One measure of attention, the number of omission errors, was significantly lower on melatonin (3.0 +/- 9.6) than on placebo (4.5 +/- 17.5) (z = -2.12, P = .03).
Conclusions: The isolated finding of improvement of 1 single measure of attention in a test situation during melatonin treatment was not sufficiently robust to demonstrate a beneficial effect of melatonin in the dose used. Other strategies need to be considered to help residents in adaptation to night shift work.