Cardinali Daniel P, Brusco Luis I, Pérez Lloret Santiago, Furio Analía M
Departament of Physiology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Neuro Endocrinol Lett. 2002 Apr;23 Suppl 1:9-13.
In elderly insomniacs, melatonin treatment decreased sleep latency and increased sleep efficiency. This is particularly marked in Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients. Melatonin is effective to reduce significantly benzodiazepine use. In addition, melatonin administration synchronizes the sleep-wake cycle in blind people and in individuals suffering from delayed sleep phase syndrome or jet lag. Urinary levels of 6-sulphatoxymelatonin decrease with age and in chronic diseases like AD or coronary heart disease. The effect of melatonin on sleep is probably the consequence of increasing sleep propensity (by inducing a fall in body temperature) and of a synchronizing effect on the circadian clock (chronobiotic effect).
在老年失眠患者中，褪黑素治疗可缩短睡眠潜伏期并提高睡眠效率。这在阿尔茨海默病（AD）患者中尤为明显。褪黑素能有效显著减少苯二氮䓬类药物的使用。此外，褪黑素给药可使盲人以及患有睡眠时相延迟综合征或时差反应的个体的睡眠-觉醒周期同步。6-硫酸氧褪黑素的尿水平会随着年龄增长以及在AD或冠心病等慢性疾病中降低。褪黑素对睡眠的影响可能是增加睡眠倾向（通过诱导体温下降）以及对生物钟的同步作用（时间生物学效应）的结果。
