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veggie

Registered: 07/25/04
Posts: 17,504
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Snorting a Brain Chemical Could Replace Sleep
#7806973 - 12/28/07 09:54 AM (16 years, 1 month ago) |
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Snorting a Brain Chemical Could Replace Sleep December 28, 2007 - Wired
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 discovery's first application will probably be in treatment of the severe sleep disorder narcolepsy.
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."
Orexin A is a promising candidate to become a "sleep replacement" drug. For decades, stimulants have been used to combat sleepiness, but they can be addictive and often have side effects, including raising blood pressure or causing mood swings. The military, for example, administers amphetamines to pilots flying long distances, and has funded research into new drugs like the stimulant modafinil (.pdf) and orexin A in an effort to help troops stay awake with the fewest side effects.
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.
The study, published in the Dec. 26 edition of The Journal of Neuroscience, found orexin A not only restored monkeys' cognitive abilities but made their brains look "awake" in PET scans.
Siegel said that orexin A is unique in that it only had an impact on sleepy monkeys, not alert ones, and that it is "specific in reversing the effects of sleepiness" without other impacts on the brain.
Such a product could be widely desired by the more than 70 percent of Americans who the National Sleep Foundation estimates get less than the generally recommended eight hours of sleep per night (.pdf).
The research follows the discovery by Siegel that the absence of orexin A appears to cause narcolepsy. That finding pointed to a major role for the peptide's absence in causing sleepiness. It stood to reason that if the deficit of orexin A makes people sleepy, adding it back into the brain would reduce the effects, said Siegel.
"What we've been doing so far is increasing arousal without dealing with the underlying problem," he said. "If the underlying deficit is a loss of orexin, and it clearly is, then the best treatment would be orexin."
Dr. Michael Twery, director of the National Center on Sleep Disorders Research, said that while research into drugs for sleepiness is "very interesting," he cautioned that the long-term consequences of not sleeping were not well-known.
Both Twery and Siegel noted that it is unclear whether or not treating the brain chemistry behind sleepiness would alleviate the other problems associated with sleep deprivation.
"New research indicates that not getting enough sleep is associated with increased risk of cardiovascular disease and metabolic disorders," said Twery.
Still, Siegel said that Americans already recognize that sleepiness is a problem and have long treated it with a variety of stimulants.
"We have to realize that we are already living in a society where we are already self-medicating with caffeine," he said.
He also said that modafinil, which is marketed as Provigil by Cephalon and Alertec in Canada, has become widely used by healthy individuals for managing sleepiness.
"We have these other precedents, and it's not clear that you can't use orexin A temporarily to reduce sleep," said Siegel. "On the other hand, you'd have to be a fool to advocate taking this and reducing sleep as much as possible."
Sleep advocates probably won't have to worry about orexin A reaching drugstore shelves for many years. Any commercial treatment using the substance would need approval from the Food and Drug Administration, which can take more than a decade.
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SCleROTiUM_LICK
ResearchedFiction Writer


Registered: 11/08/06
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Re: Snorting a Brain Chemical Could Replace Sleep [Re: veggie]
#7806994 - 12/28/07 10:04 AM (16 years, 1 month ago) |
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Great. Now they can cut our wages in half and expect us to work 2-3 times longer each day.
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Dave Bowman
Albert Hoffmans Apprentice




Registered: 08/30/07
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Re: Snorting a Brain Chemical Could Replace Sleep [Re: SCleROTiUM_LICK]
#7807057 - 12/28/07 10:33 AM (16 years, 1 month ago) |
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Quote:
SCleROTiUM_LICK said: Great. Now they can cut our wages in half and expect us to work 2-3 times longer each day.
Fuck that.
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highdroponics
Professional Deadhead



Registered: 11/14/06
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Re: Snorting a Brain Chemical Could Replace Sleep [Re: SCleROTiUM_LICK]
#7807209 - 12/28/07 11:47 AM (16 years, 1 month ago) |
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Quote:
SCleROTiUM_LICK said: Great. Now they can cut our wages in half and expect us to work 2-3 times longer each day.
that probably will be what they will expect of us soon enough.
-------------------- Dr says to stop trying to treat the side-effects of big government and focus on the core issues. End the Federal Reserve/audit the gold reserves at Fort Knox, abolish the IRS, end all wars and occupancies, stop the building of an empire that will inevitably fail, and cut all unconstitutional federal programs. Put the power back in the peoples' hands by ending this nanny-state.
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Ego Death
Justadropofwaterinanendlesssea


Registered: 04/27/03
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Re: Snorting a Brain Chemical Could Replace Sleep [Re: highdroponics]
#7807281 - 12/28/07 12:29 PM (16 years, 1 month ago) |
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I am a robot...
That drugs bound to have some bad side effects though.
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moon_glue
Orwell's Post9/11 Era



Registered: 01/20/07
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Re: Snorting a Brain Chemical Could Replace Sleep [Re: Ego Death]
#7807323 - 12/28/07 12:49 PM (16 years, 1 month ago) |
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LOLOL this is a horrible discovery for a world thats embraced coffee so openly. it's also another drug they are selling you that your body provides for you free of charge.
people are gonna look 60 at age 20 if we give up our right to sleep
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Grylls



Registered: 10/15/07
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Re: Snorting a Brain Chemical Could Replace Sleep [Re: Ego Death]
#7807359 - 12/28/07 01:02 PM (16 years, 1 month ago) |
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I don't even want to start about how bad this could be for our mental health.
But, I'll mention some points anyway.
There is something going on more when we sleep than just the chemical recovery of our body. We dream FOR A REASON. To put it very simple, our dreams are subconscious expressions in the form of symbols. These symbols contain our very thoughts that are either subconscious concerns, fears and beliefs, or our everyday concerns or events. When interpreted correctly, these symbols unlock the meaning to a lot of our personal issues, or subconscious 'stuff' that may not be apparent or suppressed in our waking state consciousness.
I doubt this chemical sleep will ever work. If so, it will further envelop the modern, materialistic consumer in physical/mental malfunction, opening up a whole new niche in which pharmacologists can develop drugs for.
We already know of one condition that can be a result of modern a lifestyle that is replete with processed, animal based diets and lack of sleep and relaxtion. It has no specific cause, but once you evaluate the patient and their lifestyle, it is only obvious why they are having this particular condition. Its name is fibromyalgia.
I don't think this is moving forward in technology at all, but rather a degeneration of it. There are some things you just cannot develop, invent or improve.
-------------------- Alone in the clouds all blue. Lying on an eiderdown. You can't see me, but I can you.
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fapjack
Title



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Re: Snorting a Brain Chemical Could Replace Sleep [Re: Grylls]
#7807503 - 12/28/07 01:58 PM (16 years, 1 month ago) |
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I for one wouldn't mind taking this chemical to help stay up entire weekends while partying. I like sleeping too much to use it reguarly though.
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Cracka_X
Spiritual Dirt Worshipper




Registered: 01/25/03
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Loc: Swamp
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Re: Snorting a Brain Chemical Could Replace Sleep [Re: veggie]
#7807591 - 12/28/07 02:42 PM (16 years, 1 month ago) |
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interesting
-------------------- The best way to live is to be like water For water benefits all things and goes against none of them It provides for all people and even cleanses those places a man is loath to go In this way it is just like Tao ~Daodejing
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syntheticTHC
mind detergent


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Re: Snorting a Brain Chemical Could Replace Sleep [Re: Grylls]
#7807617 - 12/28/07 02:53 PM (16 years, 1 month ago) |
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You study Jung much?
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Grylls



Registered: 10/15/07
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Re: Snorting a Brain Chemical Could Replace Sleep [Re: syntheticTHC]
#7808738 - 12/28/07 09:44 PM (16 years, 1 month ago) |
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Me?
-------------------- Alone in the clouds all blue. Lying on an eiderdown. You can't see me, but I can you.
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Genesis
Dr.

Registered: 12/18/07
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Re: Snorting a Brain Chemical Could Replace Sleep [Re: Grylls]
#7809392 - 12/29/07 12:36 AM (16 years, 1 month ago) |
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This sounds fantastic! I am going to keep an eye out for this bessa. Hopefully it will be put on the market in the next ten years. Gen
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chubbycharley
the chubbiest ofthe charleys


Registered: 04/02/04
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Re: Snorting a Brain Chemical Could Replace Sleep [Re: Grylls]
#7809557 - 12/29/07 01:55 AM (16 years, 1 month ago) |
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Quote:
Grylls said: We dream FOR A REASON. To put it very simple, our dreams are subconscious expressions in the form of symbols. These symbols contain our very thoughts that are either subconscious concerns, fears and beliefs, or our everyday concerns or events. When interpreted correctly, these symbols unlock the meaning to a lot of our personal issues, or subconscious 'stuff' that may not be apparent or suppressed in our waking state consciousness.
if we need our dreams to tell us what we're thinking than how do you account for lucid dreaming? i think when we spend our time in a barely conscious state (what is commonly referred to as our waking state but is only the 3rd of 7 states of consciousness according to some Hindu texts, i believe the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali is one) then the thoughts we are barely aware of surface as symbols in our dreams.
when our time is spent in a more aware state of consciousness, one where thoughts don't just happen but are actively observed and refined, eventually devoid of all modern dysfunction that is presently considered normal, our dreams become the only feasible method of time travel, of space exploration, of inter dimensional communication and commerce. i think the reason we dream is to lucidly control our experience and explore the unknown.
with that out of the way, from what this article is saying, if the drug truly reduces all of the effects of sleep deprivation, then why not? but what are the chances there will be no side effects?
-------------------- if i'm just a stoned stoner, sayin some stoned ass shit, please correct me
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anarchOi
Ellenalien is fat.



Registered: 08/06/07
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Re: Snorting a Brain Chemical Could Replace Sleep [Re: chubbycharley]
#7810362 - 12/29/07 11:52 AM (16 years, 1 month ago) |
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i bet orexin A gets you high
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enlightened seed
Utopia is a state of mind



Registered: 05/04/07
Posts: 2,117
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Re: Snorting a Brain Chemical Could Replace Sleep [Re: anarchOi]
#7824755 - 01/02/08 06:31 PM (16 years, 30 days ago) |
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http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2007/12/sleep_deprivation?mbid=yhp before we know it "they'll" be pushing their new dope upon the masses...  & thanks to a monopoly on airwaves, it'll be a success!
Edited by enlightened seed (01/02/08 06:40 PM)
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