Letter: For blind people like me, melatonin seems to work

From Tom Reid, London, UK

When it comes to the efficacy – or not – of melatonin for sleep, one group that got no mention is totally blind people(31 December 2022, p 41).

Random trials are hard to come by, as we are such a small group, but I know several blind people who say that melatonin makes a significant difference to sleep.

For years, I had poor sleep, sometimes only 2 or 3 hours per night. This was unrelated to mood, whether life was going well or not, and no behavioural changes made a difference. With melatonin, my sleep has increased by hours, I am able to nod off after waking and have more dreams. If I have tricked myself, long live the placebo.