NCT04505800

Tryptophan Supplementation to Improve Night Shift Workers' Health

Chrononutrition of Using L-tryptophan Supplementation to Alleviate the Impacts of Night Shift Rotation on Circadian Hormones and Health Outcomes

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 30 (actual)
• Sponsor: National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 20 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

This randomized cross-over double-blinded trial aims to investigate the health effect of oral l-tryptophan supplementation on workers who rotate night shift work, and to examine the influences of different frequencies and timings of supplementation on the health effects.

Detailed description

This study aims to investigate the health effect of oral l-tryptophan supplementation on workers who rotate night shift work, and to examine the influences of different frequencies and timings of supplementation on the health effects. Night shift work affects melatonin and cortisol variation, insomnia, mood issues, and metabolic syndrome. Short-term tryptophan supplementation was shown to improve melatonin, sleep quality, and cortisol response to acute stress. Little is known whether a longer term of longer-term tryptophan supplementation would alleviate the health impacts of night shift work. Nevertheless, melatonin and cortisol have their normal circadian patterns. Nothing is known about what temporal structure of tryptophan supplement would maximize its health effects on night shift workers melatonin and cortisol levels. We will conduct a double-blind cross-over randomized controlled trial to examine the benefits of oral tryptophan administration (3g/day, t.i.d.) on night shift workers' health outcomes: melatonin and cortisol levels, sleep quality, moods and work performance. We expect to reveal the health effect of tryptophan supplementation in night shift workers by using sophisticated study design.

Conditions

• Sleep
• Mood
• Burnout
• Melatonin Deficiency
• Cortisol Deficiency

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
DIETARY_SUPPLEMENT	Tryptophan supplement	* Pure L-tryptophan in capsules (500mg/capsule) * 3g tryptophan per day (2 capsules, t.i.d.), at 8AM, 4PM, and 0AM (± 1 hour)
DIETARY_SUPPLEMENT	Maltose	Maltose

Timeline

• Start date: 2019-09-01
• Primary completion: 2020-09-01
• Completion: 2020-12-31
• First posted: 2020-08-10
• Last updated: 2021-03-22

Locations

1 site across 1 country: Taiwan