HK RESEARCHERS SAY AMINO ACIDS GOOD FOR SLEEP QUALITY

Hong Kong researchers say from a meta-analysis that amino acids, melatonin, vitamin D supplementation could significantly improve sleep quality, Tingmin Koe reported for the trade magazine NUTRA ingredients-asia.com.

The supplementation of melatonin, vitamin D, and amino acids such as L-theanine, have shown to significantly improve sleep, said researchers from Hong Kong who conducted a meta-analysis on 15 randomized controlled trials (RCTs).

However, there was high heterogeneity between some of the studies, especially those involving melatonin. Heterogeneity could refer to differences in the study design and interventions, which could affect the analysis outcome.

Researchers at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University searched for RCTs published on databases Ovid Emcare, Ovid Medline that assessed the use of dietary supplements on sleep quality.

The 15 RCTs studied were published between 2010 and 2020.

They found that melatonin, vitamin D, and amino acids L-theanine, have shown significant benefit on subjective sleep quality – as assessed by the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI).

The PSQI consists of seven components, including sleep latency, sleep duration, habitual sleep efficacy, use of medications for sleep, and daytime dysfunction as recalled by the subjects themselves.

The lower the PSQI scores, the better the sleep quality. Five out of the seven RCTs on melatonin showed a significantly lower PSQI for the intervention group.

As for vitamin D, three out of the four RCTs studied also showed a lower PSQI for the intervention group.

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