Jackson, Melinda L, Butt, Henry, Ball, Michelle et al. · Sleep science (Sao Paulo, Brazil) · 2015 · DOI
This small study tested whether reducing certain bacteria in the gut could improve sleep in people with ME/CFS. Researchers gave 21 participants a short course of antibiotics and measured changes in their gut bacteria and sleep. Seven participants showed significant reduction in a type of bacteria called Streptococcus, and these people did sleep better after treatment. However, most participants' gut bacteria returned to their original state, suggesting the antibiotic effects didn't last.
Since ME/CFS patients commonly experience both severe sleep disturbance and gut dysbiosis, this study explores a potential mechanistic link between these two debilitating symptoms. Understanding whether restoring gut bacterial balance could improve sleep offers a novel therapeutic avenue for a population with limited treatment options. The findings suggest targeted microbiota modulation warrants further investigation as a possible adjunctive treatment.
This study does not establish that gut dysbiosis causes poor sleep in ME/CFS, only that they may be associated in some patients. The open-label design without placebo control cannot rule out placebo effects on subjective outcomes. The short-term antibiotic approach was largely unsustainable, so these findings do not support erythromycin as a practical long-term treatment for most ME/CFS patients.
About the PEM badge: “PEM required” means post-exertional malaise was an explicit required diagnostic criterion for participant inclusion in this study — not that PEM was studied, observed, or discussed. Studies using criteria that do not require PEM (e.g. Fukuda, Oxford) are tagged “PEM not required”. How the atlas works →
The first block is for the primary paper and is the citation you should use in research work. The atlas-snapshot line only applies if you are specifically referring to this atlas’s reading of the paper on the date shown.
Primary citation
Jackson, Melinda L, Butt, Henry, Ball, Michelle, Lewis, Donald P, & Bruck, Dorothy (2015). Sleep quality and the treatment of intestinal microbiota imbalance in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: A pilot study.. Sleep science (Sao Paulo, Brazil). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.slsci.2015.10.001
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-jackson-2015-sleep-quality,
author = {Jackson, Melinda L and Butt, Henry and Ball, Michelle and Lewis, Donald P and Bruck, Dorothy},
title = {Sleep quality and the treatment of intestinal microbiota imbalance in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: A pilot study.},
journal = {Sleep science (Sao Paulo, Brazil)},
year = {2015},
doi = {10.1016/j.slsci.2015.10.001},
note = {PubMed: 26779319},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/jackson-2015-sleep-quality},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-30. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/jackson-2015-sleep-quality
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