Sleepy?
    
Let me ask you a question:  When's the last time you went to bed slept all night and woke up in the morning completely and totally refreshed? Not just feeling 'okay'.  But, you actually had to jump out of bed immediately because you were so full of energy you just had to go do something.

Has That Ever Happened To You?            

If it has it probably hasn't been in a long, long, long time.  Right? Chances are every single morning is a struggle.  The sound of your alarm is nearly earth shattering, followed by several rounds of the snooze button, then a half gallon of coffee and even after that you're still tired!            

If fact, chances are, if you are like most people, you're tired right now. That's a safe bet because, according to the National Sleep Foundation, over 70% of Americans get less than the recommended eight hours of sleep per night.

But did you really need that statistic when all you had to do was look at the massive lines at Starbucks and Dunkin Donuts!             Clearly, society has been self-medicating with caffeine for sleep deprivation for a long time. And the reason why is clear

There Is Simply Not Enough Time To Get Enough Sleep!

Really. Who can work 40 hours a week (or more), take care of their house, raise their kids and do all the others things of everyday life and still have 8 hours left over to snooze? And even on the rare occasion that you have the time, the stresses and strain of your life keeps you wide awake, staring at the ceiling for half the night!       But what if there was a way to not sleep and somehow feel as if you did?

Just imagine how much better you would feel, not to mention how much more you could get done.  Well, that's exactly what researchers are working on.

Scientists May Have Found A Drug That Eliminates Sleepiness            

Here's what's going on: 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 <http://faculty.bri.ucla.edu/institution/personnel?personnel_id=45976> , 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  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 <http://www.jneurosci.org/cgi/content/abstract/27/52/14239> , 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. Dr. Michael Twery, Director of the National Center on Sleep Disorders Research <http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/about/ncsdr/> , said that while research into drugs for sleepiness is "very interesting," he cautioned that the long-term consequences of not sleeping are 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 substancewould need approval from the Food and Drug Administration, which can take more than a decade.

Which is a good thing, as Dr. Michael Twery mentioned: The long-term consequences of not sleeping are not well-known. Maybe but they can't be good.  Research is showing all kinds of health problems caused by lack of sleep.

So the question is Will this drug safely replace sleep or will it end up causing a devastating crash in the end?  Who knows? Only research will tell for sure. (We hope!) But I recommend the natural alternative; proper diet, exercise, chiropractic care, and yes SLEEP!