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Many of us experience difficulty falling or staying asleep when switching back and forth between night shifts or flying across time zones to meetings. Researchers evaluated the effectiveness of a novel melatonin agonist, tasimelteon (VEC-162), for treating transient insomnia in manufacturer-funded phase II and phase III randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, parallel-group trials.
In the phase II trial, 38 volunteers (age range, 18–50) were randomized to receive placebo or 10, 20, 50, or 100 mg of tasimelteon. Participants were monitored by polysomnography for 6 nights: 3 at baseline, with placebo taken 30 minutes before bedtime, and 3 after induction of transient insomnia by a 5-hour advancement of the sleep–wake schedule, with the a…