A small study suggests that taking melatonin supplements might help night shift workers repair damage to their DNA. This damage happens because working at night affects the body’s natural rhythm, reducing the amount of melatonin it produces.
The study, published in Occupational & Environmental Medicine, found that melatonin supplements may boost the body’s ability to fix this damage, but more research is needed.
Why Night Shift Work Can Be Harmful
The human body follows a natural cycle called the circadian rhythm, which helps control sleep, wakefulness, and other functions. Melatonin is a hormone that the body produces at night to help regulate this cycle. It plays a key role in repairing cells and protecting against damage caused by normal biological processes.
However, night shift workers often don’t produce enough melatonin because they are exposed to artificial light when their bodies should be resting in darkness. This can make it harder for their bodies to fix damaged DNA, increasing the risk of health problems, including some types of cancer.
What the Study Did
Researchers wanted to see if taking melatonin as a supplement could help night shift workers repair their DNA. They conducted a four-week study with 40 night shift workers.
Participants were divided into two groups:
- One group took a 3 mg melatonin pill every day, an hour before sleeping.
- The other group took a placebo (a fake pill with no active ingredients).
All the participants worked at least two night shifts per week, with each shift lasting at least seven hours. They had been working these shifts for at least six months, had no sleep disorders, and were generally healthy.
To measure how well their bodies repaired DNA, researchers collected urine samples from each person twice—before and after the four-week trial. The researchers looked for a marker in the urine called 8-OHdG, which shows how much DNA repair is happening. They also tracked how long participants slept using activity monitors.
What the Study Found
The results showed that night shift workers who took melatonin had 80% higher levels of 8-OHdG in their urine during their daytime sleep. This suggests that their bodies were repairing more DNA damage compared to those who took the placebo.
However, the levels of 8-OHdG did not increase during the night shifts. This means that the benefits of melatonin may only happen while workers are sleeping during the day, not while they are awake and working at night.
What This Means
This study is small, and most of the participants worked in healthcare, so the results may not apply to all night shift workers. Also, the researchers did not track how much natural light the workers were exposed to, which can also affect melatonin levels.
Even so, the findings support the idea that melatonin could help reduce some of the health risks associated with night shift work. Since long-term night shift workers may be at a higher risk for certain cancers, improving DNA repair could be important for their health.
The researchers suggest that larger studies should be done to test different doses of melatonin and see how safe and effective it is over long periods. If future research confirms these benefits, melatonin supplements could become a useful way to help night shift workers protect their health.
For now, night shift workers concerned about their health may want to discuss melatonin supplements with their doctor to see if they are a good option.
The research findings can be found in Occupational and Environmental Medicine.
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