The use of melatonin in the treatment of jet lag – clinical review

Mazur Karol, Machaj Dominik, Mazur Dominika, Asztabska Aneta, Płaczek Alicja. The use of melatonin in the treatment of jet lag – clinical review. Journal of Education, Health and Sport. 2020;10(5):175-179. eISSN 2391-8306. DOI http://dx.doi.org/10.12775/JEHS.2020.10.05.018 https://apcz.umk.pl/czasopisma/index.php/JEHS/article/view/JEHS.2020.10.05.018 https://zenodo.org/record/3856458 The journal has had 5 points in Ministry of Science and Higher Education parametric evaluation. § 8. 2) and § 12. 1. 2) 22.02.2019. © The Authors 2020; This article is published with open access at Licensee Open Journal Systems of Nicolaus Copernicus University in Torun, Poland Open Access. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial License which permits any noncommercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author (s) and source are credited. This is an open access article licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non commercial license Share alike. (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) which permits unrestricted, non commercial use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the work is properly cited. The authors declare that there is no conflict of interests regarding the publication of this paper. Received: 05.05.2020. Revised: 10.05.2020. Accepted: 26.05.2020. The use of melatonin in the treatment of jet lag – clinical review Karol Mazur, Dominik Machaj, Dominika Mazur, Aneta Asztabska, Alicja Płaczek Karol Mazur, mazurkarol79@gmail.com, Faculty of Medicine, Medical University of Lublin, Chodźki Street 19, 20-093 Lublin, Poland Dominik Machaj, dominik5a4@tlen.pl, Faculty of Medicine, Medical University of Lublin, Chodźki Street 19, 20-093 Lublin, Poland Dominika Mazur, dominika.hul20@gmail.com, Medical Faculty, University of Rzeszow, Pigonia Street 6, 35-310 Rzeszow, Poland Aneta Asztabska, aneta.asztabska@gmail.com, Medical Faculty, University of Rzeszow, Pigonia Street 6, 35-310 Rzeszow, Poland Alicja Płaczek, alicja60@poczta.onet.pl, Medical Faculty, University of Rzeszow, Pigonia Street 6, 35-310 Rzeszow, Poland Summary: Jet lag is a circadian rhythm disorder, that occurs as a result of air travel across multiple time zones. Jet lag symptoms include: anxiety, constipation, diarrhea, confusion, dehydration, headache, irritability, nausea, indigestion, difficulty concentrating, sweating, coordination problems, dizziness, daytime sleepiness, malaise, and memory loss. Melatonin, is a hormone that regulates the circadian rhythm by acting on MT1 and MT2 melatonin receptors. It is produced by pinealocytes in the pineal gland and released directly into the blood. Main therapeutic application of this medication is re-entraining disturbed circadian rhythms. All the mentioned studies proved that melatonin is effective in the treatment of jet lag. None of the mentioned above trials didn’t report any serious side effects caused by this medication therefore occasional short-term use of melatonin seems to be safe. Most people should start treatment of jet lag with taking 2-3 mg melatonin, and if necessary increase the dose to 5 mg. Melatonin is the most effective in alleviating symptoms of jet lag when it is given at bedtime on the day of the flight and in the next few days after arrival. Further research is needed to find out the optimal dosage of melatonin for treatment of jet lag, timing of its administration, time of initiation and duration of the treatment or possible side effects of this medication. Key words: melatonin, jet lag, circadian rhyth