The Cellar - Snorting a brain chemical could replace sleep

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Snorting a brain chemical could replace sleep

From Wired:

Quote:

In what sounds like a dream for millions of tired coffee drinkers, Darpa-funded scientists might have found a drug that will eliminate sleepiness.

A nasal spray containing a naturally occurring brain hormone called orexin A reversed the effects of sleep deprivation in monkeys, allowing them to perform like well-rested monkeys on cognitive tests. ....

The treatment is "a totally new route for increasing arousal, and the new study shows it to be relatively benign," said Jerome Siegel, a professor of psychiatry at UCLA and a co-author of the paper. "It reduces sleepiness without causing edginess."

<snip>

The monkeys were deprived of sleep for 30 to 36 hours and then given either orexin A or a saline placebo before taking standard cognitive tests. The monkeys given orexin A in a nasal spray scored about the same as alert monkeys, while the saline-control group was severely impaired.

How bad is it that the first thing that popped in my head after reading this was Goldblum's "You did it. You crazy son-of-a-bitch, you did it" line from Jurassic Park?

Seems to me, there is an awful lot about how and why sleep affects the brain, we should learn, before widespread use of this stuff.

Can it be any worse than the stuff we, uh er those other people snorted years ago?

Yes, because it's endorsed.

Quote:

the new study shows it to be relatively benign

Quote:

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce (Post 419775)

Seems to me, there is an awful lot about how and why sleep affects the brain, we should learn, before widespread use of this stuff.

That's what the soldiers are for, dummy.

Oh yeah, silly me. I was thinking of free people.

Darpa-funded scientists might have found a drug that will eliminate sleepiness.

Yeah, it does look like they found the new torture pill.