Efficacy of a fish hydrolysate supplement on sleep quality: A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, crossover clinical trial.

What Was Tested

This randomized controlled trial looks at Copper (Supplement).

Sleep disturbances are widespread in modern societies and linked to a variety of diseases, creating an urgent need for the development of products that help combat sleep difficulties.

One suitable nutritional supplement may be a fish hydrolysate composed of low molecular weight peptides.

Why It Was Studied

The study is registered at ClinicalTrials.gov with the Identifier NCT04983355.

Who Took Part

This two-arm, double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled crossover study investigated the effect of a 4-week fish hydrolysate intervention on sleep in a healthy German population reporting poor sleep quality, assessed with the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI).

How the Study Was Run

In design terms this was a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled and crossover study.

Random assignment meant chance, not the researchers, decided who got Copper (Supplement) and who got the comparison, which limits bias.

Neither the participants nor the staff measuring them knew who was on Copper (Supplement), so expectations could not easily colour the readings.

The comparison arm used a placebo, so changes seen with Copper (Supplement) could be set against what happens without it.

In the crossover set-up each of the participants took both Copper (Supplement) and the comparison in turn, acting as their own control.

Further sleep parameters were measured using an online diary and a wrist wearable device.

Additionally, questionnaires related to stress, anxiety, depression, and well-being were evaluated and salivary cortisol and product satisfaction were assessed.

What Was Measured

Topics PubMed links to this paper include Sleep Quality, Sleep, Sleep Initiation and Maintenance Disorders and Dietary Supplements.

Author keywords: Clinical trial, Fish protein hydrolysate, Integrative medicine, Nutritional supplements and Sleep disturbance.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study of Copper (Supplement).

Its findings take up roughly 4 sentences of the abstract and are left out here on purpose; the source paper is the place to read them.

The publication is from 2024 (Clinical nutrition ESPEN), a journal based in England.

More context: the Copper (Supplement) compound page, all human trials.