How many times have you stayed awake because travelling across time zones or working at night? Fortunately, there is good news for this problem. A study made by Harvard Medical School in the US and Monash University in Australia revealed that a new drug called tasimelteon, made it easier for people to get to sleep, and helped them stay awake for longer, after their sleeping pattern was disrupted to mimic long distance travel.

The drug “could be a first-line therapy for people burdened with the effects of travel across time zones or working at night,” the study says.

The results were based on two studies, which monitored 450 people, kept awake for five hours longer than normal to replicate crossing into a different time zone and disrupt their sleep patterns, for a week.

Half of them were given tasimelteon to take half an hour before they went to bed, while the other half received a placebo. Patients given the drug were able to fall asleep faster and stay asleep for longer, the findings showed.

The drug works by affecting melatonin receptors, which process a hormone produced at night that regulates the sleep cycle. The drug could be an alternative to more potent medicines such as Sanofi-Aventis SA’s Ambien, Sepracor Inc.’s Lunesta and older drugs known as benzodiazepines that quickly and powerfully induce sleep, while also carrying side effects.

Tasimelteon is produced by Maryland-based Vanda Pharmaceuticals Inc. The company expects the drug to be a success considering the fact that about 20 percent of the workforce or about 19.7 million US workers are early risers who start work between 2.30 a.m. and 7 a.m.

“Most of these people probably experience chronic sleep restriction because they are unable to initiate and maintain sleep when they attempt to sleep in the early or late evening hours. Tasimelteon might alleviate this problem by advancing the sleep-wake cycle, by providing a direct sleep-promoting effect, or both,” Dr. Shantha Rajaratnam of Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston and colleagues wrote in the journal The Lancet.