A high percentage of subjects diagnosed with alcohol use disorder (AUD) suffer from sleeping difficulties. Lack of sleep could lead AUD patients to relapse or, sometimes, to suicide. Most of the currently prescribed medications to treat this complex problem retain a high risk of side effects and/or dependence. Therefore, the aim of the current clinical trial is to investigate the possibility of the use of a safer treatment, such as the natural health product melatonin, to treat alcohol-related sleeping problems. Sixty treatment-seeking AUD subjects were assigned to melatonin (5 mg) or placebo for 4 weeks of treatment. Change in sleeping quality which is the primary outcome of the study was assessed using the Pittsburgh sleep quality index (PSQI) scale. Linear mixed models were used to statistically analyze the difference in scores before and after 4 weeks of treatment. There was a reduction in the global PSQI score in both groups with no significant drug effect between groups. In conclusion, the use of melatonin (5 mg)/day didn’t differ from placebo in decreasing sleeping problems in a sample of AUD subjects after 4 weeks of treatment. However, higher doses are worth exploring in future research.

高百分比的被诊断患有饮酒障碍（AUD）的受试者患有睡眠困难。睡眠不足可能会导致AUD患者复发或有时导致自杀。目前大多数用于治疗该复杂问题的处方药都具有很高的副作用和/或依赖性风险。因此，当前临床试验的目的是研究使用更安全的治疗方法（例如天然保健品褪黑激素）治疗与酒精有关的睡眠问题的可能性。将60名寻求治疗的AUD受试者分配为褪黑激素（5 mg）或安慰剂治疗4周。使用匹兹堡睡眠质量指数（PSQI）量表评估睡眠质量的变化，这是研究的主要结果。使用线性混合模型来统计分析治疗4周之前和之后的得分差异。两组的总体PSQI得分均降低，组间无明显药物作用。总之，在治疗4周后，AUD受试者的样本中褪黑激素（5 mg）/天的使用与安慰剂在减少睡眠问题方面没有差异。但是，更高的剂量值得在未来的研究中探索。