The pep pills that let you sleep just 2 hours

[DesertFox]

Victoria Bone
Mirror.co.uk
16 Feb 06


NEW drugs to let us manage on only two hours sleep a day are being developed, scientists revealed yesterday.

The "24-hour lifestyle" pills promise sleep that is deeper and more refreshing than the real thing and would even make it possible to stay awake for several days at a stretch.

There will also be pills to deliver what feels like eight hours of sleep in half that time, New Scientist magazine reports.

Russell Foster, a biologist at Imperial College London, said: "The more we understand about the body's 24-hour clock the more we will be able to override it.

"In 10 to 20 years we'll be able to pharmacologically turn sleep off."

More (http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/tm_objectid=16708327&method=full&siteid=94762&headline=the-pep-pills-that-let-you-sleep-just---2-hours--name_page.html)

[TechnoPrincess]

Just because something CAN be done doesn't mean it SHOULD be done. Just like other "miracle" pills, there have got to be downsides.

From the article:Tests on 11 monkeys showed they were doing better after 36 hours of continual wakefulness than undrugged monkeys after normal sleep.

Okay, so how about we watch them do this over the next to years and see if that is true, rather that ONE study on 11 monkeys?!

Also from article: CX717 will be put through its paces later this year when the Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) based in Arlington, Virginia, will push 48 volunteers to their limit on the drug. DARPA neuroscientist Amy Kruse said: "We want to know what we can do to bring them back up to the level they would be at if they had a good night's sleep."

So, after testing it on a whopping 11 monkeys, we are now going to test it on an astounding 48 humans? Does anyone else see a slight problem with this? It seems that someone is rushing to get this idea "mainstreamed" and this drug out there.

Maybe it's having taken two medications that have now been pulled off the market, but I want MORE testing on medications, not less. It seems that drug companies and the FDA are pushing medications through faster and faster and then we find out about the horrible side effects.

So the monkeys can do this for what, a mnth, year, two years? What about 5? Do we know that there are no downsides, or just none that we have found yet?

[DesertFox]

Yeah, they need to wait 100 years before approving any new drugs. That way all possible -- and several impossible -- side effects can be investigated. They can see the effects on the subsequent generation, and the generation after that, and after that, and after that. They can chart whether the drug affects girls differently from boys, 10-year-olds from 12-year-olds, left-handers from right-handers, ugly from good looking.

All kinds of benefits would accrue to waiting. And waiting. And waiting.

[UnkHiram]

Can we test it on Democrats?

[nene]

I want my sleep. The dreams kick the heck out of any movie.

[Peachdiane]

I need my 6-8 hours! Sorry but just 2 wouldn't cut it...

[Wolfcounsel]

"In 10 to 20 years we'll be able to pharmacologically turn sleep off." --Russellito El Payasohttp://freeconservatives.com/smilies/spank.gif, from the link posted by DesertFox




I hope in far less time than that we'll be able to turn clowns off by snapping our fingers.

[UnkHiram]

anyone remember the song "White Rabbit" by Jefferson Airplane (There I go again, showing my age)