Melatonin may be a safe and effective treatment for sleep disorders in adults with autism.

Sleep problems are common during the childhood of people with autism and often persist as the children age into adults. Some research suggests that these sleep problems are the result of people with autism not having enough melatonin in their body. This retrospective study describes the use of melatonin (3-9 mg each evening) to treat sleep problems in six adults with autism. The authors found that melatonin helped to both induce and maintain sleep. The authors did not observe any side effects in their patients.