New jet lag drug has been successfully tested
You have been staring at the ceiling of your darkened hotel room for an hour and half but despite willing your eyelids to droop you are still wide awake. You glance at the clock. It is 4.10am. The sleepless nights and blurry days of jet lag will be familiar to anyone who has travelled across time zones for a holiday or business trip. But a new drug that has been successfully tested in human volunteers may offer hope for future travellers and shift-workers. In two clinical trials the drug tasimelteon, which helps to shift the natural ebb and flow of the body's sleep hormone, melatonin, increased the time volunteers spent asleep, helped them to get to sleep quicker and reduced the amount of time they spent awake during the night.The research team did not test how well their subjects performed the day after taking the drug - something that would...
Read the whole article on The Guardian - Science
More from The Guardian - Science
Related
- Melatonin, a hormone segregated by human body, regulates sleep better than somniferousThu, 5 Nov 2009, 12:38:48 EST
- Melatonin is an effective treatment for sleep problems in children with autismWed, 15 Apr 2009, 0:42:58 EDT
- 1 sleepless night increases dopamine in the human brainTue, 19 Aug 2008, 17:35:47 EDT
- A heat sensor for body-clock synchronizationThu, 29 Oct 2009, 16:38:39 EDT
- Study shows how shift workers can improve job performance and implement a realistic sleep scheduleMon, 1 Dec 2008, 7:15:09 EST