nomagicpill

Over the last few months we[1] have been doing a sleep experiment inspired by our suspicion that orexin is an exciting target for sleep need reduction. We mildly deprived ourselves of sleep (5-5.5 hours, relative to 7-7.5 hours normally) and took either a placebo or orexin intranasally. We tracked our sleep the night before and after taking a dose in the morning and completed various tests of mental acuity during the day. The results from our initial experiment are exclusively null results that don’t cross standard thresholds for statistical significance. Not that this was particularly surprising, we expected a ~60% chance of this happening. We’re considering next steps, and need your feedback! For now, there are a few things to cover in the results. Trial Design We performed a self-blinded randomized controlled trial with blocking, each participant took either the placebo (2.5 mL of sterile water) or the orexin (100 μg of orexin-A dissolved in 2.5 mL of sterile water). Here’s the procedure, repeated for every block: 1. Prepare two nasal atomizers, one with saline solution and one with orexin+saline solution 2. Night to the first day: Sleep 5-5.5 hours. 3. First day: 4. 1. At a consistent time of day, randomly select one and administer. 2. Take mental acuity tests. Once mid-day, once in the evening. 3. Track sleep, heartrate, etc. using a Fitbit Inspire 3. 5. Night to the second day: Sleep normally. 6. Night to the third day: Sleep 5-5.5 hours. 7. Third day: Repeat 3.1-3.3, using the remaining dose/placebo you prepared. 8. Night to the fourth day and fifth day: Sleep normally. 9. Fifth day: Record baseline sleep measurements and mental tests Each person had a substantial amount of leeway in how they structured their day. On sleep deprived days, I personally preferred to get up early while No Magic Pill and niplav preferred to stay up late and get up at the usual time. We each took doses at a consistent time, but the time differed betw