New Globialism Society demands end to sleep! = Pill ah comin'

http://news.scotsman.com/health.cfm?id=241212006


Thursday, 16th February 2006
Health

Thu 16 Feb 2006



Lifestyle pills that promise to end the need for sleep
IAN JOHNSTON
SCIENCE CORRESPONDENT
A NEW class of drugs that promise to "cure" the need for sleep are
being developed to help people cope with the 24/7 society.
It is claimed that the range of lifestyle pills will abolish the need
for sleep for days at a time by creating a form of sleep that offers
the benefits of a good night's rest in a fraction of the time.

The research, reported in the New Scientist magazine today, is partly
being driven by the United States military's quest for a "metabolically
dominant soldier" who can fight on when the enemy falls asleep, and
partly to help nightshift workers and others who are struggling with
over-tiredness.
Researchers are hoping to build on the success of the drug Modafinil, a
stimulant launched seven years ago that allows people to wake up
refreshed after just four hours of sleep.
Unlike caffeine or amphetamines it appears not to leave people with the
jitters, euphoria and eventual "crash", and does not require a "sleep
debt" to be repaid. Sales have climbed from £14.2 million in 1999 to
£330 million in 2005. A new drug, called CX717, is being tested by
Cortex Pharmaceuticals in California. the drug appears to help people
maintain normal alertness, despite extended sleep deprivation.
Tests on 11 rhesus monkeys showed that they were performing better
after 36 hours of continual wakefulness than monkeys that had not been
drugged were after normal sleep.
Professor Russell Foster, a molecular neuroscientist and sleep expert
at Imperial College London, said: "What is exciting is we are beginning
really now to understand the basic mechanisms under-lying sleep. It is
very complicated - there are lots of different parts of the brain
involved.
"But if we genuinely understand the mechanisms of sleep, we could
attempt to mimic that with a drug. I have no doubt, at some level,
we'll be able to mimic sleep, but we are a long way off."
However, he cautioned that sleep was vital for the brain to function
properly. "In a society increasingly dependant on creativity, we know
sleep is crucial. We know that the ability to see new pathways and
generate new ideas is critically dependant on a good night's sleep,"
Prof Foster said.
He said that Modafinil had originally been developed as a treatment for
narcolepsy, but was now being used as a stimulant. "It's probably
mimicking part of the arousal system of the brain," he said. "I'd be
very careful about long-term use. It is now being pushed as a cure for
sleep and it really isn't. It is one way to override the need for
sleep, short-term. You can become dependant on these drugs for normal
cognitive function."
But Prof Foster said he doubted such concerns would stand in the way of
new drugs coming on to the market.
"I'm a pragmatist. I don't think we are going to be able to change the
24/7 society," he said. "The more we understand about the body's
24-hour clock, the more we will be able to override it.
"In ten to 20 years, we'll be able to pharmacologically turn sleep off.
Mimicking sleep will take longer, but I can see it happening."
He said it was easy to tell if someone was getting enough sleep. "If
you are woken up in the morning by an alarm clock, the answer is no.
You should wake up normally," he said.
CX717 will be tested later this year by the US Defence Advanced
Research Projects Agency based in Arlington, Virginia, which will push
48 volunteers to their limit on the drug.
But the prospect of a world where people are awake almost every hour of
every day is alarming experts.
Neil Stanley, head of sleep research at the Human Psychopharmacology
Research Unit at the University of Surrey, said: "I think that would be
the most hideous thing to happen to society."
This article: http://news.scotsman.com/health.cfm?id=241212006
Last updated: 16-Feb-06 01:53 GMT

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