 |
Researchers are also exploring the possibility that healthy people could take the pill in order to stay awake, and mentally alert, for days at a time.
The Sleep Disorders Center at Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke's Medical Center in Chicago is doing a study to see if it can help those with Shift Work Sleep Disorder, which often hits those on the 10 p.m. to 8 a.m graveyard shift.
|
"However, none of us wants to suggest that this drug will replace sleep yet, and we are careful to say that at all times." Sleep research took a big step forward three years ago, when scientists discovered a new family of neurotransmitters called orexins. Studies showed that a deficiency of orexin causes narcolepsy.
|
Not for Everyone
Though sleep experts acknowledge the drug's effectiveness for narcoleptics, they raise alarms about using it for the average, healthy person who simply wants to do more and sleep less.
Joyce A Walsleben, director of the Sleep Disorder Center at the New York University School of Medicine, said that overall, modafinil is good at keeping people awake without side effects.
"Well, one looks at the risks of sleepy people driving and working and clearly they can be a danger to themselves and others, so improving that is a service," she said.
|
Somehow, the drug modafinil makes up for the missing orexin, though scientists are not clear on how it does so. In a recent study led by Dr. Charles Czeisler, a professor at Harvard, and Dr. David Dinges, a sleep deprivation researcher at the University of Pennsylvania, 16 healthy people were placed in a lab where some were given modafinil and the rest took a placebo.
Staying Sharp in Sleep Lab
First, participants had to stay awake for 28 hours to mimic the sleep-deprived state of shift workers, those who alternately work day and night shifts.
|
|
P
H
A
R
M
A
C
Y
|
