Your recent review of sleep research [A. Mack, The Scientist, Oct. 28, 1996, page 13] fails to mention the public interest in melatonin as a sleep inducer. Melatonin has been an over-the-counter "dietary additive" since its escape from Food and Drug Administration (FDA) control for more than one year, with an estimated 15 million to 20 million people having tried it and a significant number using it on a regular basis to induce sleep.
The sleep-induction activity of melatonin has been elegantly ascertained by A.J. Lewy's group at the Oregon Health Science Center in Portland and by Richard Wurtman's group at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, as well as in other laboratories where it has been reviewed in popular texts by our group and by Russell Reiter of the University of Texas, San Antonio (W. Pierpaoli, W. Regelson, C. Colman, Melatonin's Miracle, New York, Simon &...
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