Shift workers should not rely on drugs, including caffeine, to help them stay awake or to sleep, researchers said yesterday.
Some drugs may have "quite serious side effects" while studies have found limited benefits, researchers said.
They also pointed to "large gaps" in the research.
The findings were published as the latest Cochrane review.
The largest studies have involved the hormone melatonin. Some nine trials suggest it may extend sleep by 24 minutes for shift-workers – but it did not help them to get to sleep any faster.
Two drugs, modafinil and armodafinil, are often used to aid wakefulness – but studies show they cause headaches and an increase in blood pressure.
Researcher Juha Liira, of the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health in Helsinki, Finland, said: "For lots of people who do shift work, it would be really useful if they could take a pill that would help them go to sleep or stay awake at the right time.
"But from what we have seen in our review, there isn’t good evidence that these drugs can be considered for more than temporary use and some may have quite serious side effects."
The researcher added: "It may well be that studying the effects of these drugs or others drugs in properly designed trials would be seen as unethical because workers should not need drugs to get along with their work.
"So the studies just haven’t been done or if they have, our review has not been able to identify relevant data."
Pharmacological interventions for sleepiness and sleep disturbances caused by shift work. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 12 August 2014, Issue 8. Art. No.: CD009776. DOI: 10.1002/14651858.CD009776.pub2 [abstract]
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