Effects of delta sleep-inducing peptide on sleep of chronic insomniac patients. A double-blind study

What Was Tested

The paper reports a study of DSIP (delta sleep-inducing peptide), published as a randomized controlled trial.

Measures for sleep structure, objective (polysomnography) and subjective sleep quality and for subjective tiredness were assessed.

Why It Was Studied

Subjects slept for 5 consecutive nights in the laboratory.

Night 1 was used for adaptation, night 2 for baseline measurements.

Who Took Part

According to the abstract, 16 patients were involved.

PubMed indexes the participants as adults, middle-aged adults and older adults, both men and women.

How the Study Was Run

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

Because people in this DSIP (delta sleep-inducing peptide) study were split into groups at random, differences between the groups are less likely to reflect who happened to join each one.

Blinding on both sides kept the patients and researchers unaware of who received DSIP (delta sleep-inducing peptide).

The comparison arm used a placebo, so changes seen with DSIP (delta sleep-inducing peptide) could be set against what happens without it.

Groups ran in parallel: each of the patients stayed in one arm throughout.

What Was Measured

Night 1 was used for adaptation, night 2 for baseline measurements.

PubMed files the paper under topics including Arousal, Cerebral Cortex, Delta Sleep-Inducing Peptide, Electroencephalography, Polysomnography, Reaction Time and Sleep Initiation and Maintenance Disorders.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study of DSIP (delta sleep-inducing peptide) in 16 patients.

With fewer than 40 people, it is a small study, so it is better read as an early signal for further research than as a settled answer.

The publication is from 1992 (Neuropsychobiology), a journal based in Switzerland.

More context: the DSIP (delta sleep-inducing peptide) compound page, all human trials.